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19th ranked Oregon St. will be searching for a win today at 1 PM at Stanford that would result in their first series sweep since taking 3 in a row from Washington St. back in March.
Sweeps are a scarce commodity in the Pac-12, especially on the road, but if there ever was a golden opportunity for one, this is it. The Beavers, who have now won 10 in a row against Stanford, have swept the Cardinal, currently in last place in conference, 3 years in a row, and also the last 3 times they have traveled to Sunken Diamond.
After Friday night's 5-2 win, the Beavers held off a Cardinal rally last night for a 7-5 win that moved them past California, who lost the first game of their series against USC 11-3 across the bay yesterday, and into a tie with the Trojans and Arizona St. for second place in the Pac-12, but still 3 1/2 games behind UCLA, who shut out Arizona for the second night in a row last night, this time 6-0. It's really 4 games, because the Bruins have the tie-breaker, though the advent of a tie is extremely remote.
But Oregon St. now 35-14-1, and 16-9-1 in the Pac-12, is still in the hunt to potentially host an NCAA Regional, and a win today would be extremely important in that effort, not because a win against Stanford, now 22-30, and 7-19 in conference would be that impressive, but because a slip up would be a very costly loss the Beavers would have no chance to make up.
The Pac-12 Network will again have the tv coverage, as they have for all off the series.
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Oregon St. will start freshman RHP Travis Eckert (5-0, 3.55 ERA). Eckert never got close to a win last Sunday, even though he went 8 2/3 innings, allowing only 4 hits, and 2 runs, a 2 run home run that amounted to the only runs Utah wound up scoring. The reason of course was the game went 15 innings, and at the no new inning after 4 hours time limit, was still a 2-2 tie.
Since today's game in on the Pac-12 network, no such time limit will be imposed this time.
Stanford will counter with sophomore LHP Chris Castellanos (2-2, 3.20 ERA). Castellanos also had a disappointing outcome last Sunday, one not indicative of how well he pitched, taking his second loss of the season despite allowing only 6 hits, and just 1 run, in 6 innings. But he got no run support in the Cardinal's 2-0 loss to USC.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com