Beaves Sweep Aside Bulldogs

Oregon St. completed a weekend sweep of Fresno St. Sunday afternoon, but it wasn't as easy as the double header sweep Saturday was. Instead, it was another 2-1 win, as was Friday night's Beaver victory over the Bulldogs.

Fresno St. went with Garrett Mundell, who is one of their best arms, though they use him in an unconventional way, often in relief on Friday night, as happened against Oregon St., and then as their Sunday starter. It worked pretty well, as Mundell worked into the 6th inning, and gave up just 5 of the 6 hits the Beavers managed on the sunny afternoon. No one from Oregon St. had more than one hit.

With KJ Harrison and Gabe Clark dueling to be the Beavers' biggest bats, that was enough though.

Oregon St. jumped out to the early lead in the bottom of the 1st, when Harrison, who won Friday night's game with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning, followed up a walk to Trevor Morrison with a RBI double down the right field line.

Clark came through with what would prove to be the game winning hit, a 2 out (after Morrison and Harrison had both struck out) solo home run to left that appeared to be headed for Lebanon, according to Jay Reese's high view from the press box.

The stories of the game were Oregon St. pitching and defense though.

Sophomore Jake Thompson got the start, but faced only 3 batters before Oregon St. head coach Pat Casey, with the trainer in tow, came out to get Thompson, inserting Trent Shelton in his place.

With 2 runners on, Shelton got out of the inning with an unconventional fly out to right, throw back to second double play.

It would be the first of 4 inning ending double plays that the Beavers would turn over the course of the game, including the game ender.

Shelton would be the first of a half dozen Beaver relievers, and was followed by Keven Flemer, who eventually got the win to improve to 1-1, though he got a lot of backup.

The Bulldogs got their only run in the 5th, when Kenny Corey led off with a single that ended Flemer's afternoon, in favor of Clay Bauer.

An error on a pickoff attempt opened the door for a sacrifice fly and an bunt to make it 2-1.

It was the 6th inning that really provided the pitching suspense though.

After Taylor Ward led off with a walk, his 3rd of the game, Oregon St. pitching coach pulled Bauer for freshman Ryan Mets. Mets threw 1 pitch, and got foul ball pop-out, one of a pair of great grabs catcher Logan Ice recorded on the afternoon.

So Yeski pulled Mets, for Scotland Church. His 3rd pitch produced a single, which brought Yeski out yet again.

This time, it was Luke Heimlich that took over, and needed only 1 pitch to induce another of those inning ending double plays.

After that, Heimlich really tightened the leash on the Bulldogs' collars, allowing only 2 base runners the rest of the day, 1 on an error. After a pair of strikeouts to end the 8th, Heimlich did allow a leadoff single to start the 9th, but got his first save of the season after the double play to put the Beavers' 9th win in a row, and 5th 1 run win of the season, in the books.

Oregon St. stepped up to 13-3 for the season, and will host Portland on Tuesday night, when they will go looking for Casey's 900th coaching win.

Fresno St. slipped to 7-9 for the season.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com