Beavers Batter Portland, 11-4
April 25, 2000 | Baseball
April 25, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Drew Hedges had four hits and Mark Newell pitched his fifth win of the season as Oregon State beat Portland 11-4 in non-league baseball Tuesday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. The Beavers (24-19 overall, 5-7 Pacific-10) have won seven of their last nine games going into a home series against Pacific-10 foe Washington this Friday through Sunday.
Against Portland (19-20, 8-12 West Coast), Chris Biles added three hits and Andy Jarvis two hits and three RBIs for the Beavers. Brian Barden had a pair of hits to push his hitting streak to 13 games and turned in a spectacular diving, backhanded stop at third base.
"Mark Newell pitched well and we played great defense," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "Our infield stepped up and made some great plays. Offensively, we've been going pretty good lately. There were a couple of situations where we could have really opened this game up but we chased a couple of pitches, and that's something we don't want to have come back and haunt us later."
Newell, a senior righthander, went seven innings and gave up three runs (three earned) on six hits and two walks, striking out four. It matched his longest outing of the year, which had been a seven-inning complete-game shutout of Ohio State on March 18.
"Hopefully, that gets Mark back on track and is a confidence-booster for him," Casey said. "He was really aggressive. He made a couple of bad pitches and they hurt him, but he kept the ball down for the most part."
Newell blanked Portland until the top of the fifth inning, when he gave up a solo homer to Jeff Trevarthen, he also gave up a solo homer to Cory Lunde in the top of the seventh. The Pilots got a third homer, also with the bases empty, from Steve Jackson off OSU reliever Stephen Copeland in the eighth.
By then, Oregon State was in control of the game. The Beavers had gotten a run-scoring single from Jarvis in the first inning, then scored seven runs in the second inning with Jarvis contributing a two-run double and Barden and Hedges run-scoring singles.
Hedges finished the day 4-for-6, upping his batting average to .413 for the season. In his last 15 games, the senior outfielder is batting .444 (24-for-54) with four homers, four doubles and 15 RBIs.
"It's just one of those things," Hedges said. "You get in a groove, you get the pitch you want and you hit it hard. It's been a lot of luck, too - I've had some hits drop in, and that's just putting the ball in play."
Hedges started the week in fifth place in the Pac-10 batting race with teammates Joe Gerber fourth and Barden sixth, and after Tuesday's 16-hit outburst the Beavers are batting .327 as a team this season.
"It's just everything coming together," Hedges said. "Our pitching has been outstanding lately, our infield has done a great job, our freshmen are stepping up and our hitting has been outstanding. Everybody is seeing the ball and hitting it hard, and we're feeding off each other. It's a good feeling in the clubhouse right now.
"We understand our roles. Now, if one guy doesn't get the job done, he knows the guy behind him will pick him up and that's why we're being more successful right now."
Gerber went 0-for-1 to end the senior outfielder's hitting streak at 10 games, but Gerber walked three times and contributed a sacrifice fly. It was Gerber's 60th RBI of the spring, leaving him just two short of tying the school's single-season record.
For Portland, Nathan Hare was 2-for-3 and Trevarthen was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.
OREGON STATE 11, PORTLAND 4
Portland 000 011 110 - 4 8 1 Oregon State 171 002 00x - 11 16 0Wood, Ballweber (3), Corra (7) and G. Hare. Newell, Copeland (8), Hays (9) and Biles. WP-Newell (5-4). LP-Wood (1-2). 2B-Barden (OSU), Jarvis (OSU), Biles (OSU). HR-Lunde (UP), Jackson (UP), Trevarthen (UP).
HITS: Portland 8 (Lunde 1x4, Allen 1x4, Jackson 2x3, N. Hare 2x3, Trevarthen 2x4), Oregon State 16 (Hedges 4x6, Barden 2x5, Jarvis 2x3, Biles 3x5, Carter 1x3, Gott 1x1, Gordon 1x4, Stark 2x3). RUNS BATTED IN: Portland 4 (Lunde 1, Jackson 1, Trevarthen 2), Oregon State 10 (Hedges 1, Hudson 1, Gerber 1, Barden 1, Jarvis 3, Biles 1, Carter 1, Gordon 1).
