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18th ranked Oregon St. (38-15-1, 19-9-1) and 25th ranked California (33-19, 17-12) close out the regular season this afternoon at 3 PM at Goss Stadium. The Beavers will be looking to sweep the Bears for the 4th year in a row, after backing up Friday night's 4-0 win with another shutout yesterday, this one by a 9-0 count.
Coupled with USC's 7-4 win over Arizona St., Oregon St. locked up second place in the Pac-12, and hopefully an NCAA Regional hosting assignment for next week. Word could come during this afternoon's game, as the 8 National Seeds and the other 8 hosts will be announced this afternoon, with the other 48 teams to get into the NCAA post-season, and the seedings, to follow tomorrow morning at 9 AM.
In any event, the Beavers will be in the field, and so will the Bears, as will the Trojans and Sun Devils.
California will be looking to at least get on the scoreboard, and also try to avoid a 4th consecutive sweep by Oregon St. The Beavers have already taken their 6th series in a row from the Bears at Goss. Cal has hit only .157 so far in the series.
The Beavers have now won 12 in a row against the Bears, tieing their team record for longest winning streak against a conference opponent, which was set during the late '70s & early 80's against Washington.
Oregon St. will reach 20 conference wins for the 3rd year in a row if they can complete the sweep.
The Pac-12 network will be on hand for the coverage.
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Oregon St. coach Pat Casey announced the lineup above, but come time to exchange lineup cards, he changed his mind, starting Scotland Church in place of Kyle Nobach.
Oregon St. will start junior RHP Travis Eckert (6-0, 3.64 ERA) Eckert will be looking to complete an unbeaten campaign, at least the regular season portion.
He'll have plenty of help if he needs it, as the entire Beaver bullpen is available and well rested, after Andrew Moore and Drew Rasmussen both threw complete games at the Bears the last 2 evenings.
California will counter with freshman LHP Matt Ladrech (6-4, 2.67 ERA). The Bears have won the final game of their last 4 series with Ladrech making the start, but he hasn't lasted long of late, or figured in a decision since he got the win in California's 8-3 victory at Arizona 4 weeks ago.
He didn't get through the 2nd inning against Arizona St. and has come up an out short of getting through the 5th inning in his last 2 outings, at Campbell and against USC.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com