@ Oregon State 5 – Portand 4
@ Stanford 9 – Long Beach State 3
@ Santa Clara 7 – Washington State
Media Releases
(CORVALLIS, OR) – Joey Wong’s single with one out in the bottom of the 13th scored John Tommasini from third, giving the Oregon State baseball team a 5-4 victory over in-state rival Portland in a marathon four-hour game Monday night at Goss Stadium.
Wong was 1-for-7 on the day but got one when it counted most. He took an 0-1 pitch from Portland reliever Matthew Lange and pulled it through the right side, enabling Tommasini to come in with the winning run. Tommasini had singled to center to start the inning, and moved to second when Ryan Ortiz singled the left side. Garrett Nash moved the runners over on a sacrifice bunt, setting up Wong’s game-winner.
Blake Keitzman picked up the win after working the final inning. He improved to 1-3 this season.
Keitzman was one of seven pitchers for the Beavers on the night, who started Tanner Robles. He lasted three innings before giving way to Taylor Starr, Greg Peavey, Mark Grbavac, Josh Keller and Kevin Rhoderick before Keiztman. Rhoderick, normally the team’s closer, worked the longest, going 3 1/3 innings, where he needed just 30 pitches to record five strikeouts.
The Beavers (14-8 overall) scored first on a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the second. Nash hit a grand slam off Portland starter Brennan Thorpe, scoring Daniel Robertson, John Wallace and Erik Ammon.
The Pilots (14-14) came back with two runs in the top of the fifth. Riley Hendricks hit a double scoring Rocky Gale. C.J. Cullen then scored to end the inning when OSU recorded a double play, but the runner was able to score before the final out at third. The Pilots picked up another two runs in the top of the sixth, tying the game, 4-4.
The Beavers nearly rallied multiple times in the final innings, with Oregon State recording six of its 12 hits in extra frames. The Pilots, meanwhile, were subdued completely during extra innings, managing no off Rhoderick and Keitzman.
Lange took the loss for Portland, dropping to 3-4 on the year. He threw 1 1/3 innings, striking out one and walking one before Wong’s final hit.
The Beavers next take the field against California Friday at 2:30p.m. Catch the game live by tuning into the Beaver Sports Network, visiting Beaver Nation Online (www.osubeavers.com) or Yahoo! Sports.
OSU Notes: Rhoderick pitched a career high 3 1/3 innings … Garrett Nash hit his first home run of the season with a grand slam … The Beavers entered the day ranked 23rd according to Rivals.com … The 13-inning affair was nowhere near to the OSU or Pac-10 record … The Beavers and Huskies hold the conference record with a 20-inning game in 1972.
(Stanford, CA) – No. 13 Stanford (13-7) celebrated a four-spot move in the latest Baseball America poll with a 9-3 victory over No. 10 Long Beach State (17-8) in a non-conference game at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond on Monday. Sean Ratliff (2-4, HR, 3 RBI) provided the big blow on offense with a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning to break open a scoreless game and also extended his season-high hit streak to 10 games.
Five Stanford pitchers limited the 49ers to three runs despite allowing the visitors to outhit the Cardinal, 13-12. Long Beach State left 11 runners on base.
“The big hit today was obviously Ratliff’s homer, and then we really swung the bat well from that point on,” said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess, who won his 1298th career game to move within two victories of 1300 for his career and the No. 10 spot on the all-time win list for NCAA Division I coaches.
“It’s good for us to a win a game like this against a team the caliber of Long Beach State,” added Ratliff. “They are in the Top 10 in the country right now.”
Cord Phelps (2-3, 2B, RBI) continued his torrid hitting to extend his hit streak to a new season-high seven games and was one of four Stanford players along with Ratliff, Randy Molina (2-4, RBI) and Jason Castro (2-5, 2B, RBI) to pick up two hits each.
Austin Yount (1.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER) was in the ballgame as the pitcher when the Cardinal scored four times in the fourth and was credited with the victory. David Stringer (2.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO), Tom Stilson (1.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 SO) and Alex Pracher (1.1 IP, 2 H, 3 SO) also followed Yount in relief of starter Max Fearnow (3.0 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 1 SO).
Stanford’s four-run fourth began when Long Beach State shortstop Danny Espinosa dropped a hard line drive hit by Castro for an error. Molina followed with a single down the left field line and moved to second on a throwing error by 49er leftfielder TJ Mittelstaedt trying to throw Castro out at third base. Ratliff then connected on his long homer over the fence just to the right of the centerfield batters’ eye. Long Beach State starter and losing pitcher Brett Lorin (3.0 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB) followed by walking Yount before he was removed in favor of Adam Wilk (1.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO), who was the first of six Long Beach State relievers. Wilk struck out Zach Jones for the first out of the inning before back-to-back singles from Toby Gerhart and Jake Schlander netted the Cardinal a fourth run in the inning. Wilk then walked Phelps to load the bases before Brendan Domaracki hit into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Long Beach State got run back off Yount in the fifth when Devin Lohman led off with a single, moved to second base two batters later on a Travis Howell single and scored when Jonathan Jones doubled him home to end Yount’s outing. Stringer came on with runners on second and third base, a run already in and only one out but struck out pinch-hitter Ted Lemasters and Espinosa to get out of the inning without any further damage.
Stanford came back with two runs in its half of the fifth to increase its margin to 6-1. Castro opened the inning with a double and moved to third two batters’ later when Ratliff lined a laser off the glove of Long Beach State first baseman Shane Peterson to end Wilk’s outing. David Brown (0.2 IP, 1 H) came in and was greeted by Yount with an RBI single before Jones just beat out a potential inning-ending double play ball for an RBI fielders’ choice to score Ratliff.
Long Beach State pulled back to within 6-2 when Jason Corder launched a long solo homer with one out in the sixth but Stanford kept the momentum in its favor and pulled away with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Gerhart started the mess when he was hit by a pitch and then scored two batters’ later on an RBI double from Phelps. Brendan Domaracki became the second Cardinal hitter to be plucked by Dustin Rasco (0.1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 SO) inning before Rasco was replaced by Jason Markovitz (0.2 IP, 2 H), who allowed back-to-back RBI singles to Castro and Molina before Ratliff hit a line drive to Corder in right field that turned into a double play when Castro was caught leaving early from third base while trying to tag and score.
Pinch-hitter Rylan Sandoval accounted for the final run of the game when he blasted a solo homer with one out in the eighth off Stilson.
Jones (2-3, 2B, RBI), Lohman (2-3), Corder (2-5, HR, RBI) and Peterson (2-5) had two hits each for Long Beach State.
Stanford will host Hawaii in a non-conference game at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond on Tuesday (6 pm, PT) before top-ranked Arizona State visits for a three-game series this Friday-Sunday (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT) to end an eight-game Stanford homestand.
(SANTA CLARA, CA) – The Santa Clara baseball team compiled a six run rally in the seventh inning to defeat Washington State, 7-5, Monday afternoon. With the win, the Broncos improved to 15-9 on the season and have won four of their last five games.
Starting pitcher Matt Wickswat (1-0) earned the win for the Broncos, while redshirt sophomore Mark Willinsky registered his first save of the season. In seven innings of work, Wickswat struck out a season-high nine Cougar batters.
Offensively for Santa Clara, Ryan Conan, Gabe Alcantar and David Abraham drove in two runs each, while Evan LeBlanc scored two runs for the Broncos.
After five scoreless innings in which the Broncos were limited to just three hits, Conan’s single to through the right side scored LeBlanc to put Santa Clara on the scoreboard 5-1. The Cougars earned four of their runs in the first innings and added their fifth run in their half of the sixth.
SCU then produced a six-run bottom of the seventh inning to knot the score and take a two-run lead.
The Broncos half of the inning started with a Brady Fuerst walk. Fuerst then score on a Conan single to center field. Santa Clara trailed 5-2. Alcantar then launched a two RBI single up the middle to bring home LeBlanc and Long. LeBlanc got one base after being hit by a pitch, while Long singled through the right side. The Broncos trailed 5-4.
The tying run for SCU came on Geoff Klein double down the left field line that allowed Conan to score. Abraham, who earned his first start at second base, then hit a two-run double to right field to bring home Klein and Alcantar to give Santa Clara the 7-5 win.
Willinsky, who came in the eighth inning, tossed 2.0 innings allowing just two hits and striking out four Cougars to register the save.
The Broncos return to action on Wednesday, April 2 against the Tigers of Pacific. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Stephen Schott Stadium.
