No. 10 Stanford Holds Off Beavers, 6-4

With the loss, Oregon State dropped to 16-11 on the year and 4-4 in Pacific-10 Conference games.

Joey Wong Photo courtesy: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS, Ore. - The Oregon State baseball team threatened in the ninth inning but fell short, 6-4, to No. 10 Stanford Saturday afternoon in front of a season-high 2,778 fans at Goss Field at Coleman Field.

Jason Ogata singled to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth with one out, bringing catcher Ryan Ortiz to the plate. Ortiz hit a deep fly ball to right center that nearly found the fence but was caught by right fielder Jeff Whitlow. Whitlow was able to get Ogata at first before the baserunner could tag, allowing Stanford to pull out the comeback win.

With the loss, Oregon State dropped to 16-11 on the year and 4-4 in Pacific-10 Conference games. Stanford, meanwhile, is 16-11-1 overall and 5-3 in the Pac-10.

Joey Wong had a strong offensive day for the second game in a row, going 2-for-5. Jordan Lennerton, meanwhile, continued to hit the ball well, going 2-for-4 with one RBI a day after collecting three runs batted in on a home run and two hits. Lennerton is 5-for-9 so far in the series against the Cardinal with four RBI.

Tanner Robles went six full innings in his third career start, limiting Stanford to five hits and three runs while striking out four. He did not figure in the decision.

Greg Peavey, Josh Osich, and Kevin Rhoderick all came in relief for the Beavers, with each allowing one hit and one run. Osich’s hit allowed, however, started off the ninth and became the winning run. Osich dropped to 0-1 this season.

Stanford starting pitcher Erik Davis pitched a complete game for the second game in a row, allowing four runs on eight hits. He also struck out nine and walked two to improve to 5-1 this season.

Chris Hopkins led off for the Beavers (16-11 Overall, 4-4 Pacific 10 Conference) in the bottom of the first and advanced to third on a single by Joey Wong. Ogata drove in the first run of the game with a fielder’s choice to third, scoring Hopkins from third. The Beavers added one run in the second to build on the lead, going up 2-0.

Stanford answered back with two runs in the fifth off Robles, but watched as Oregon State took the lead again in the bottom half of the inning when Wong scored on a fielder’s choice.

Stanford, though, added a run in the sixth to tie it again, then took the lead in the seventh when Cord Phelps homered for the second time in the series. The shot, his sixth of the season, came off Peavey and cleared the right field fence.

The Beavers threatened to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth after three consecutive one-out hits by Drew George, Jordan Lennerton and Daniel Robertson. Davis did get a pitch in the dirt, allowing George to score on a wild pitch and even the score, 4-4.

The Cardinal, however, took the look for good in the ninth with two runs off Osich and Rhoderick.

The series concludes tomorrow with a first pitch time of 1 p.m. and can be heard on the Beaver Sports Network, Beaver Nation Online (www.osubeavers.com) and Yahoo! Sports.

OSU Notes: The game was broadcast live on XM Radio’s Pac-10 Game of the Week ... OSU will also appear on XM Radio, channel 193, April 18 at Arizona State and April 26 at home against Arizona ... Drew George, Daniel Robertson, and John Wallace all extended their hitting streaks to three games.

Source: OSU Athletics

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports