Oregon State Completes Sweep

March 18, 2001

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Stephen Copeland drove in two runs with a pair of singles and earned the save on the mound as Oregon State beat Minnesota 6-5 in non-league baseball Sunday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. The Beavers (16-9 overall, 0-0 Pacific-10) have won five straight and eight of their last nine going into Pacific-10 play.

OSU begins its conference schedule next weekend, hosting fourth-ranked Arizona State on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, all three games begin at 1 p.m.

With its three-game sweep of defending Big Ten champ Minnesota (9-10, 0-0 Big Ten), OSU moved to seven games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 1998 season.

"It's nice to get a sweep against a good club," said OSU head coach Pat Casey, whose team is 7-3 in one-run games this season. "We played some good baseball, and we pitched pretty well. There were a few things we didn't do well ... we didn't hit the baseball, and some of that was due to their pitching. But we were able to get the hits when we needed them."

For the series, OSU batted .228 as a team but hit .333 with runners in scoring position.

In the series finale against the Golden Gophers, the Beavers got just seven hits but bunched five of them during a five-run fifth inning. The inning included a run-scoring double by Chris Biles, run-scoring singles by Will Hudson and Copeland, a squeeze bunt by Eric Stark and a sacrifice fly by Josh Carter, Brian Barden also had a single that extended his hitting streak to 13 games.

Copeland, making his first start of the season at second base, added a run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth inning. The sophomore then earned his fifth save of the season by pitching the ninth inning, that ties him for second on OSU's all-time single-season list with Jim Grove (1982).

"It's nice to get in there and pitch - that's my role right now," said Copeland, who batted .318 as a freshman but had just one at-bat this season before Sunday. "I'm excited about the opportunity to close games. That's why you play - to go in there against good hitters and try to get them out."

Copeland found out after batting practice Sunday that he'd be playing second.

"I was glad I got a chance to play, and I hope I get another one," Copeland said. "Or I hope Zach (Gordon, OSU's starter) gets healthy or Kerisi (Reynolds, OSU's backup) gets things figured out, and I know he will. He's working hard at it."

Copeland started a tough double play to get Oregon State out of Minnesota's three-run third inning against starter Thad Johnson. In the fifth, with the hit-and-run play on, Copeland nudged a pitch from Gopher starter C.J. Woodrow through the hole that opened on the right side to drive in one run and send the tying run to third.

"I like the hit-and-run," Copeland said. "It comes easy to me. I just pushed the ball that way, and it worked out for the team ... I go out and hit in practice, so it's not that different for me."

For the second straight day, OSU got some big defensive plays at catcher and this time it was again Bryan Ingram's turn after backup Paul Richie's efforts in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader.

In the eighth inning, Minnesota scored twice to close within 6-5 and had runners at first and second when Luke Appert singled through the right side. Rightfielder Carter made a perfect throw, Ingram blocked the plate and made the tag on Chris Guetzlaff trying to score from second to preserve the lead. In the ninth, with a runner at first and none out, Ingram pounced on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Scott Welch and gunned the ball to second, where shortstop Hudson's stretch at the bag helped retire Josh Holthaus and keep the tying run from moving into scoring position.

Johnson pitched six innings to earn the win for OSU, allowing three runs (one earned) on three hits and four walks while striking out five. Johnson improved to 3-2 this season with a 4.08 earned run average.

Jake Postlewait and Craig Hays then provided key relief stints leading up to Copeland's save. Postlewait fanned three hitters in 1 1/3 innings, including two with a runner at third base to close out the seventh inning. In the eighth, with the tying run at third, Hays caught Jack Hannahan - a.371 hitter this season - looking at a curve to end the threat.

"It was a strange to bring in a freshman and take out a senior," Casey said of sending Postlewait to the mound for Johnson. "But we said, `Let's go see what Jake has,' and he showed some courage ... and Craig has been pitching well for us lately. He came in back-to-back days, and today he saw one of the best hitters (Hannahan) that we're going to see all season, and he got him out."

Oregon State's five-game winning streak is the Beavers' longest since they took seven straight from Feb. 26-March 11, 2000. OSU has won six straight at home, its longest streak at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field since taking the last three home games of 1999 and the first three of 2000.

OREGON STATE 6, MINNESOTA 5

Minnesota	003 000 020 - 5 9 2
Oregon State	000 051 00x - 6 7 2

Woodrow, Cole and Beaulieu, Holthaus (8). Johnson, Postlewait (7), Wilkins (8), Hays (8), Copeland (9) and Ingram. WP-Johnson (3-2). LP-Woodrow (2-3). SV-Copeland (5). 2B-Kennedy (UM), Biles (OSU).

HITS: Minnesota 9 (Steidl 1x3, Appert 1x4, Holthaus 2x3, Welch 1x5, Roach 1x3, Kennedy 1x5, Howard 1x3, Haring 1x1), Oregon State 7 (Biles 1x4, Barden 1x4, Ingram 2x3, Hudson 1x3, Copeland 2x3). RUNS BATTED IN: Minnesota 4 (Steidl 1, Appert 1, Haring 2), Oregon State 6 (Stark 1, Biles 1, Carter 1, Hudson 1, Copeland 2).

Minnesota 5 (9-10) Oregon State 6 (16-9) AB R H RBI AB R H RBI Steidl cf 3 1 1 1 Stark cf 3 1 0 1 Appert 2b 4 0 1 1 Biles lf 4 0 1 1 Hannahan 3b 5 0 0 0 Carter rf 3 0 0 1 Holthaus 1b/c 3 0 2 0 Jarvis 1b 3 0 0 0 Welch ss 5 0 1 0 McBride dh 4 0 0 0 Roach dh 3 0 1 0 Gordon 2b 0 0 0 0 Pattee pr/dh 1 1 0 0 Barden 3b 4 1 1 0 Kennedy rf 5 1 1 0 Ingram c 3 1 2 0 Howard lf 3 1 1 0 Hudson ss 3 2 1 1 Beaulieu c 2 1 0 0 Copeland 2b/p 3 1 2 2 Haring ph 1 0 1 2 Johnson p 0 0 0 0 Guetzlaff pr 0 0 0 0 Postlewait p 0 0 0 0 LaRue 1b 0 0 0 0 Wilkins p 0 0 0 0 Woodrow p 0 0 0 0 Hays p 0 0 0 0 Cole p 0 0 0 0 Totals...... 35 5 9 4 Totals...... 30 6 7 6

Score by innings: R H E ---------------------------------------------- Minnesota 003 000 020 - 5 9 2 Oregon State 000 051 00 - 6 7 2 ----------------------------------------------

E - Holthaus, Woodrow, Jarvis 2. DP - Oregon St. 1. LOB - Minnesota 11, Oregon St. 3. 2B - Kennedy, Biles. SH - Steidl, Stark. SF - Carter. SB - Howard 2, Ingram.

IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF Fly Gnd Minnesota Woodrow L 2-3 6.0 7 6 5 0 4 0 0 1 0 24 27 7 6 Cole 2.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 6 1 5 Oregon State Johnson W 3-2 6.0 3 3 1 4 5 0 0 2 0 21 28 5 7 Postlewait 1.1 2 2 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 6 7 0 1 Wilkins 0.0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 Hays 0.2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 Copeland S,5 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 1 2

HBP - by Johnson (Beaulieu), by Johnson (Roach), by Woodrow (Jarvis).

Strikeouts - Hannahan, Holthaus, Welch 2, Roach, Kennedy 2, Howard, Beaulieu, Stark, Biles, Ingram, Hudson. Walks - Steidl, Appert, Holthaus 2, Howard.

Umpires - Home:Randy Knuths 1st:Dave Perez 3rd:Kendall Snyder Start: 10:59 AM Time: 2:33 Attendance: 252 Johnson faced 1 batter in the 7th. Wilkins faced 2 batters in the 8th.

Related Videos