Second Straight Comeback Victory Gives Beavers Series Victory Over No. 3 Arizona State

Oregon State next travels to Portland to face the Pilots at Joe Etzel Field on Tuesday.

Salem-News.com Sports

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State scored nine unanswered runs to come from behind for the second consecutive game and secure a 10-5 victory over No. 3 Arizona State on Sunday afternoon at Goss Stadium. The win gave the Beavers a series victory over the Pac-10’s first-place team.

“This was a good comeback win and needed against a top-10 team,” Oregon State head coach Pat Casey said. “We scored seven runs over the last offensive innings and I give my team credit for staying in the game. The bullpen held Arizona State and we battled for the win.”

After tying the game in the seventh inning, Oregon State (27-12, 11-7 Pacific-10 Conference) put its first six hitters on base in the bottom of the eighth. Stefen Romero led the inning off with a single to right-center and Jared Norris followed with a five-pitch walk. Adalberto Santos then stepped to the plate and showed bunt on the first pitch he saw from Sun Devils’ (33-11, 16-5 Pacific-10 Conference) reliever Matt Newman, but pulled back and hit a line drive past charging first baseman Riccio Torrez and into right field to drive in Romero from second and put the Beavers ahead for good.

Santos came through with singles in his final two at-bats for his second consecutive 2-for-4 day and his ninth multi-hit effort of the season. The designated hitter had four hits in 10 at-bats and drove in three runs over the weekend.

Joey Wong reached base in four of his five plate appearances, going 2-for-3 and driving in runs with singles in his last two at-bats.

Kevin Rhoderick came on with two outs in the seventh and pitched the final 2 1/3 innings for the Beavers, striking out four while keeping the Sun Devils off of the bases, to improve to 3-1 on the year.

Rhoderick was part of a Beavers bullpen that allowed just one run in 6 1/3 innings of work in the game.

Koa Kahalehoe doubled off of the top of the left field wall in his first at-bat of the day in the third inning. He was driven in by a sacrifice fly off the bat of John Tommasini to score the Beavers first run of the game.

Ryan Ortiz doubled for the 16th time this season in the fourth inning and came around to score the Beavers’ second run of the game on a Norris groundout.

Tommasini also contributed in the fifth inning after being hit by a pitch from Sun Devils’ starter Jordan Swagerty. The sophomore stole second to put himself in scoring position and scored on a single up the middle off the bat of John Wallace to cut the Arizona State lead to 5-3.

Trailing 5-3 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, Santos got the Beavers’ rally started with a single back up the middle. Kahalehoe followed with a ground ball to shortstop Drew Maggi, but second baseman Zack MacPhee was unable to handle the throw, and Santos advanced to third, putting runners on the corners for pinch hitter Rob Folsom. The junior proceeded to hit a sharp ground ball to Maggi, who was unable to field the ball cleanly and allowed Santos to score and Folsom to reach base safely. Three batters later, Wong delivered a single to right-center to score Tommasini from second and tie the game at five.

Newman took the loss for Arizona State after allowing four runs (three earned) on three hits and one walk in just one inning of work. He dropped to 1-1. Swagerty went six innings to start the game for the Sun Devils and allowed four runs on five hits, three of the runs were earned. Riccio Torrez went 2-for-5 and scored two runs for Arizona State. Carlos Ramirez and Kole Calhoun also had multi-hit games for the Sun Devils.

Oregon State next travels to Portland to face the Pilots at Joe Etzel Field on Tuesday. The game starts at 3 p.m. PT and can be heard live on the Beaver Sports Network and Beaver Nation Online (osubeavers.com) with Mike Parker calling all the action.

Oregon State Notes: Jared Norris collected his 24th RBI of the season in the game … After not pitching more than one inning in his first 14 appearances of the season, Kevin Rhoderick has gone over that mark in both of his last two outings … Eight of the 10 OSU hitters to come to the plate had a hit in the game … With the win, Oregon State improved to 14-3 at Goss Stadium this season … After collecting 10 hits to the Sun Devils’ 7, the Beavers are now 20-3 when out-hitting their opponents … Despite his going just 2 2/3 innings on Sunday, Oregon State is now 8-2 when Jorge Reyes gets the start on the mound.

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