Beavers Top No. 3 Stanford
May 06, 2000 | Baseball
May 6, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Scott Nicholson pitched a five-hitter and Zach Gordon homered twice for Oregon State as the Beavers beat third-ranked Stanford 5-2 in Pacific-10 baseball Saturday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. OSU (27-21 overall, 8-9 Pacific-10) won for the 10th time in its last 14 games in front of a season-high crowd of 1,311 and a national cable television audience.
The Beavers and the Cardinal (36-12, 14-6) wrap up their series Sunday at 1 p.m. Oregon State will be going for its fourth straight Pac-10 series win, rebounding for Saturday's victory after losing 10-6 on Friday.
"It's a big win," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "It's big because we beat Stanford, and they're a very good club. But it's also big because we didn't play very well Friday when we had an opportunity to win that game. Our guys came back today and found a way to win, and that's not an easy thing to do against a club like Stanford."
OSU's win on Saturday marked the second time this season the Beavers had beaten a top-five team, having also won at fourth-ranked Arizona State on April 8. The last time OSU beat a team ranked as high as third in the nation came at No. 3 Southern California in 1998, the last time OSU won at home against a team ranked as high came in a doubleheader split with a second-ranked USC team in 1967.
It was also Oregon State's first win over Stanford since 1971, ending a 13-game losing streak against the Cardinal.
Nicholson walked seven and struck out two in throwing his fourth complete game of the year. He pitched despite having a fever hovering just over 100 degrees.
"I had a little temperature last night," Nicholson said. "I think I have the flu, strep throat or something. I'm not sure what it is. I'm not really thinking too much about my throat right now."
The junior lefthander, who also pitched a complete game in OSU's win at Arizona State, changed speeds effectively and allowed just single runs in the second and ninth innings. The only times the Cardinal advanced a baserunner as far as third came in their scoring innings.
"Definitely, that's the biggest game I've pitched, playing the No. 3 team in the country," Nicholson said. "I knew I was going to have to throw one of my better games today to have any chance for us to win. We swung it early, got a couple of runs, and I was able to do my job - work both sides of the plate and keep them off-balance."
OSU fell behind 1-0 in the top of the second inning when Nicholson allowed a walk, a wild pitch and a run-scoring single by Arik Van Zandt. The Beavers responded immediately, with a pair of freshmen doing the damage.
Brian Barden led off the bottom of the inning with a single down the leftfield line against Cardinal righthander Justin Wayne, a likely first-round draft pick next month. Andy Jarvis then went after Wayne's no-ball, one-strike pitch and drove it well over the right-field fence for his fourth homer of the year and a 2-1 OSU lead.
Wayne took the loss, falling to 10-3 on the season. Entering the game with a 2.96 earned run average, Wayne gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits and two walks, striking out nine in his seven innings of work.
The rest of OSU's scoring came from Gordon, a junior second baseman. He blasted a two-run homer to left in the bottom of the fourth inning, then added a solo homer to left in the bottom of the eighth.
It was Gordon's fourth multi-homer game of the season and gave him a team-high 11 home runs for the spring, tying him for eighth place on OSU's all-time list of season leaders. The outburst came one day after he had gone 0-for-3 and committed an error that led to a four-run inning for Stanford.
"I just tried to start a double play before I had the ball," Gordon said of Friday's error. "As a rule of thumb, you shouldn't do that ... but you come out and every day is a new day - what you did yesterday is ancient history. But it always feels good to do well."
After committing four errors Friday, the Beavers played errorless defense behind Nicholson on Saturday.
"We played well, we didn't make any physical mistakes and we were mentally into the game," Gordon said. "I got two good pitches to hit, and luckily I hit them ... we knew Scotty was hurting. We wanted to get him a lead. He pitched well."
Nicholson's effort was a key in advancing Oregon State's drive toward the NCAA tournament.
"Nicholson was outstanding," Casey said. "He's been sharper, but he just competed and kept us there every inning, and we scratched enough runs to win. It gives us life for what we're doing and it gives our guys some confidence for the rest of the way."
OREGON STATE 5, NO. 3 STANFORD 2
Stanford 010 000 001 - 2 5 1 Oregon State 020 200 01x - 5 10 0Wayne, Drew (8), McCally (8) and Alvarado. Nicholson and Ingram. WP-Nicholson (7-6). LP-Wayne (10-3). 2B-Thompson (SU), Borchard (SU). HR-Jarvis (OSU), Gordon 2 (OSU).
HITS: Stanford 5 (Thompson 1x3, Borchard 2x4, Topham 1x4, Van Zandt 1x4), Oregon State 10 (Hedges 1x3, Hudson 2x5, Barden 2x4, Jarvis 1x4, Carter 1x4, Gordon 2x4, Stark 1x2). RUNS BATTED IN: Stanford 2 (Bruntlett 1, Van Zandt 1), Oregon State 5 (Jarvis 2, Barden 3).
May 6, 2000 at Corvallis, Ore. (Goss Stadium at Coleman Field)Stanford 2 (36-12,14-6 Pac-10) Oregon State 5 (27-21,8-9 PAC-10)
Name (Pos) AB R H BI BB K PO A Name (Pos) AB R H BI BB K PO A --------------------------------- --------------------------------- Thompson 1b....3 0 1 0 2 0 8 0 Hedges lf......3 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 Bruntlett ss...4 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 Coleman ph/lf.0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Muth cf........4 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 Hudson ss......5 0 2 0 0 0 0 4 Gall 3b........4 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Gerber 1b......4 0 0 0 1 4 9 0 Borchard rf....4 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 Barden 3b......4 1 2 0 0 1 0 1 O'Riordan 2b...2 1 0 0 2 0 2 0 Jarvis dh......4 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 Topham lf......4 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Carter rf......4 0 1 0 0 1 5 0 Van Zandt dh...4 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 Ingram c.......4 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 Alvarado c.....3 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 Gordon 2b......4 2 2 3 0 1 2 2 Garko ph......0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Stark cf.......2 0 1 0 1 1 6 0 VanMeetren pr.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nicholson p....0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Wayne p........0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Drew p........0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 McCally p.....0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals....... 32 2 5 2 7 2 24 6 Totals....... 34 5 10 5 3 10 27 7
Score by innings: R H E ---------------------------------------------- Stanford 010 000 001 - 2 5 1 Oregon State 020 200 01 - 5 10 0 ----------------------------------------------
E - Bruntlett. LOB - Stanford 10, Oregon St. 11. 2B - Thompson, Borchard. HR - Jarvis, Gordon 2. SH - Barden. SF - Coleman.
Stanford IP H R ER BB SO AB BF Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO AB BF ------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- Wayne........7.0 9 5 4 2 9 31 35 Nicholson.....9.0 5 2 2 7 2 32 39 Drew.........0.2 1 0 0 1 0 2 4 McCally......0.1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
Win - Nicholson 7-6. Loss - Wayne 10-3. Save - None. WP - Wayne 2, Nicholson. HBP - by Wayne (Stark). Umpires - Home:Bob Murrietta 1st:Darrel Mason 3rd:Larry Randall Start: 1:07 pm Time: 2:55 Attendance: 1311 Wayne faced 1 batter in the 8th.
