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Oregon St. (23-11, 6-6) hosts Arizona (23-11, 8-7) this weekend at Goss Stadium, with tonight's kickoff contest at 5:35 PM.
It's a huge weekend in the Pac-12 race for both the Beavers and 'Cats. Arizona sits in 5th place 1/2 game ahead of Oregon St. in the conference standings, and their overall records are dead-even. The outcome could be a differentiating factor come NCAA Tournament selection time.
Both the Beavers and 'Cats are also coming off disappointing rivalry weekend road series losses where those hated "other teams" from down/up the road took 2 of the 3 games.
Oregon St. blew a chance to get the Civil War series off to a pro-Beaver start last Friday night, making a wide variety of mistakes on their way to Oregon walking off with a walk off walk off 3-2 win, squandering a spectacular performance by Andrew Moore in the process.
The Beavers bounced back to take a 4-2 win Saturday, but then blew a 6 run lead on Sunday, as the Ducks used a pair of 3 run home runs to score 7 unanswered runs and pull out the series winning 10-9 victory.
The Territorial Cup was contested Saturday through Monday for television reasons, and Arizona St. took both the weekend games, by 5-4 and 13-7 margins, which extended Arizona's losing streak to 5 games, after suffering a sweep by USC the weekend before.
The 'Cats came back for a solid 7-2 win over the Sun Devils Monday night, pulling away with a big 6 run 9th inning, keyed by the second of 2 home runs by Bobby Dalbec (who also pitched the first 4 1/3 innings), which kept them above the mid-line in the conference standings, and also keep the Sun Devils a game behind conference leading UCLA, which provided some satisfaction and brightened their outlook heading into this weekend.
There's no tv this week, so only the skippy OSU skip stream is available. Lots of fans will be on hand, with all 3 games nearing sellout status.
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Oregon St. will as usual roll in a series opener with junior RHP Andrew Moore (3-1, 1.46 ERA), and Arizona will counter with junior RHP Cody Hamlin (4-1, 4.50 ERA).
Moore went 7 1/3+ innings Friday night in Eugene, allowing only 1 run and 2 hits, with 7 strikeouts. But with his pitch count at 121, he was pulled after issuing a walk. Luke Heimlich got out of the inning, but he and Mitch Hickey couldn't close the game out in the 9th.
Hamlin went an out plus a double into the 6th inning Saturday night in Phoenix, allowing 4 runs on 9 hits, with no walks, but only 2 strikeouts.
Moore will also be looking to make amends for the worst outing of his career, which came last year in Tucson, when he went only 3 innings in an 11-2 loss, in which the 'Cats clobbered him for 10 hits and 6 runs, putting the Beavers away early.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com