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Oregon St. starts a spring break mid-week series tonight against San Jose St. from the Mt. West Conference tonight at 5:35 PM PDT at Goss Stadium, The Beavers and Spartans will wrap up the 2 game series tomorrow night at the same time and place.
The 24th ranked Beavers (18-5, 4-2 in the Pac-12) come into the middle portion of their 8 game spring break home stand having swept Washington St. last weekend, behind strong pitching performances in all 3 games, topped by Drew Rasmussen's perfect game Saturday afternoon.
The Spartans (7-16, 1-8 in the Mt. West) are seeing their season go in the opposite direction, having lost 6 in a row, including getting swept at Fresno St. in their conference series last weekend.
The Bulldogs, a team Beaver fans will recall Oregon St. sweeping in a 4 game series a couple weekends ago, took 6-4, 9-2, and 6-3 wins.
This week's series will be the 22nd & 23rd in the series that dates back to 1953, and San Jose St. holds the lead, having won 11, while Oregon St. has won 9, including the last 3, and there has been 1 tie. All 21 previous games were in San Jose, but the teams haven't met since 1999.
The mid-week games won't be televised, but the Oregon St. internet stream will be skipping along.
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Neither team announced a pitcher in advance. Head coach Pat Casey ultimately decided to have freshman RHP Sam Tweedt (3-0, 2.87 ERA in 7 appearances) make his 3rd in week start, and his first not against Portland.
San Jose St. opted to go with senior RHP Kalei Contrades (2-3, 2.83 ERA in 6 starts), the only Spartan pitcher with every appearance this season as a starter.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com