Beavers Pull Out Wild Win
April 30, 2000 | Baseball
April 30, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to edge Washington 11-10 in a wild Pacific-10 baseball game Sunday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. The Beavers (26-20 overall, 7-8 Pacific-10) won their conference series for the third straight week and have now won nine of their last 12 games to move into contention for an NCAA tournament berth.
OSU now awaits fourth-ranked Stanford for next weekend's series at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. The teams will meet Friday at 3 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. to wrap up the Beavers' home schedule.
In front of a crowd of 1,026 on Sunday, Joe Gerber continued his march through OSU's record books. The senior first baseman doubled and homered to drive in two runs, tying the single-season record of 62 RBIs set by Jim Wilson in 1982 and matched by Rob Colley in 1998. Gerber's homer was a solo shot in the seventh inning that bounced out of the glove of UW centerfielder Matt Hollod.
Washington (20-23, 4-11) had taken the lead with four runs in the top of the ninth, including Jay Garthwaite's two-out, three-run homer off Mark Newell. The Beavers came back in the bottom of the inning to load the bases with one out for pinch-hitter Tim Dryden, his ground ball was bobbled by Husky first baseman Ed Erickson to allow one run to score, then Erickson threw the ball away trying to get Dryden at first base to plate the game-winner.
"We just stayed with it," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "After giving up four runs in the top of the ninth inning, we could have just rolled over. It was big-time character-check time, at this point of the season, you just have to find a way to win."
With the victory, Oregon State moved into a tie for fifth place with California in the Pac-10 and OSU has matched its conference win total from all of last season. The Beavers beat Washington four times in their five meetings this season, marking the first time OSU has taken the season series from the Huskies since 1991.
It didn't come easily, and it didn't come in a routine manner. OSU had to rally from deficits of 3-0 and 5-2 in the early innings before finally getting Sunday's win.
Oregon State clawed its way to a 9-6 lead going into the final inning, though, and Newell had retired six straight hitters in relief of starter James Atwood. Hollod homered to left to start the inning and make it 9-7, with one out, Tila Reynolds walked, and then with two out, Todd Linden singled to right.
That brought up Garthwaite, the Pacific-10 Player of the Week last week. He drove Newell's one-ball, no-strike pitch far over the back wall in leftfield to put the Huskies up 10-9.
"When that guy hit the home run, the air came out a little bit," said OSU rigthfielder Josh Carter, who was 3-for-4 and drove in three runs. "But we're not the type of team to keel over and die. We knew we could do it."
Brian Barden started the bottom of the ninth by rolling a single into leftfield against Washington reliever Brian Barton, then Gerber flied out. Curtis Davis followed with another groundball single to left and Chris Biles was called on to run for Davis, Carter then lined a single to right that was hit too hard to score Barden from second.
OSU sent pinch-hitter Dryden to the plate, and he took a called strike before hitting a grounder toward Erickson at first. Erickson bobbled the ball, leaving him no chance for a double play, he then threw at the feet of Barton covering first base and when the ball skipped past, Biles scored from second to wrap up the game.
"It's a great feeling," Carter said. "There's no other like it to come back in the bottom of the ninth to win. This is huge for us. It was just a great win."
Even if Erickson had fielded Dryden's grounder and started a double play, the game would have continued. Washington catcher Jefferson Thiel had been called for interfering with Dryden's swing, that gives the team batting the choice of taking the resulting play (Dryden's grounder) or the interference call, and the interference call would have forced home the tying run and left the bases loaded with one out for the next hitter, Zach Gordon.
Newell received his second pitching win of the week, having also beaten Portland in a non-league game he started on Tuesday. Atwood had thrown the first six innings for the Beavers, allowing six runs (four earned) on seven hits and two walks while striking out five.
OREGON STATE 11, WASHINGTON 10
Washington 212 100 004 - 10 10 3 Oregon State 023 110 112 - 11 12 2Grant, Vanderplow (3), McCoy (8), Barton (8) and Thiel. Atwood, Newell (7) and Ingram. WP-Newell (6-4). LP-Barton (0-1).
HITS: Washington 10 (Reynolds 1x2, Linden 3x5, Garthwaite 1x5, Done 1x5, Thiel 2x4, Hollod 2x4), Oregon State 12 (Ingram 1x5, Stark 1x4, Barden 1x4, Gerber 2x4, Davis 2x4, Carter 3x4, Gordon 2x3). RUNS BATTED IN: Washington 10 (Erickson 1, Linden 2, Garthwaite 3, Davidson 1, Thiel 1, Hollod 2), Oregon State 12 (Stark 1, Gerber 2, Carter 3, Dryden 1, Gordon 2).
April 30, 2000 at Corvallis, Ore. (Goss Stadium at Coleman Field)Washington 10 (20-23,4-11 PAC-10) Oregon State 11 (26-20,7-8 PAC-10)
Name (Pos) AB R H BI BB K PO A Name (Pos) AB R H BI BB K PO A ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ Rittenhouse 2b....4 1 0 0 1 1 1 4 Ingram c..........5 0 1 0 0 0 6 3 Reynolds ss.......2 3 1 0 2 0 2 0 Stark cf..........4 1 1 1 1 0 2 0 Erickson 1b.......5 0 0 1 0 1 7 1 Barden 3b.........4 2 1 0 1 0 1 3 Linden lf.........5 2 3 2 0 0 5 0 Gerber 1b.........4 3 2 2 1 0 13 0 Garthwaite dh.....5 2 1 3 0 3 0 0 Davis dh..........4 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 Done 3b...........5 1 1 0 0 2 2 3 Biles pr.........0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Davidson rf.......2 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 Carter rf.........4 1 3 3 1 0 1 0 Thiel c...........4 0 2 1 0 1 2 1 Gott lf...........1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hollod cf.........4 1 2 2 0 0 3 1 Hedges ph/lf......3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Grant p...........0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Coleman lf........0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Vanderplow p.....0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 Dryden ph........1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 McCoy p..........0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gordon 2b........3 2 2 2 1 0 3 2 Barton p.........0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hudson ss.........3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Atwood p..........0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Newell p.........0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals..........36 10 10 10 3 9 25 10 Totals......... 36 11 12 9 6 1 27 12
Score by innings: R H E ---------------------------------------------- Washington 212 100 004 - 10 10 3 Oregon State 023 110 112 - 11 12 2 ----------------------------------------------
Note: 1 out, 2 runner(s) LOB when the game ended.
E - Rittenhouse, Erickson 2, Stark, Barden. DP - Washington 1, Oregon St. 1. LOB - Washington 5, Oregon St. 7. 2B - Stark, Gerber, Carter. HR - Garthwaite, Hollod, Gerber. CS - Davis. SH - Hudson. SF - Davidson.
Washington IP H R ER BB SO AB BF Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO AB BF ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Grant...........2.0 4 5 4 4 0 11 15 Atwood..........6.0 7 6 4 2 5 24 29 Vanderplow......5.0 3 3 3 2 0 15 18 Newell..........3.0 3 4 4 1 4 12 13 McCoy...........0.2 2 1 1 0 1 4 4 Barton..........0.2 3 2 1 0 0 6 6
Win - Newell 6-4. Loss - Barton 0-1. Save - None. WP - McCoy, Barton, Atwood 3. BK - Vanderplow, McCoy. HBP - by Atwood (Davidson), by Atwood (Reynolds). Umpires - Home:Roarke Kominek 1st:Dwayne Finley 3rd:Gus Rodriguez Start: 1:06 pm Time: 2:54 Attendance: 1026
Game Notes: Joe Gerber ties OSU school record for RBIs in a season, 62 (Set by Jim Wilson, 1982, tied by Rob Colley, 1998) Grant faced 5 batters in the 3rd.
