Lissman Homers Twice As Beavers Take 5-4 Victory
April 09, 2004 | Baseball
April 9, 2004
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Mike Lissman homered twice to drive in four runs as Oregon State beat second-ranked Stanford 5-4 in Pacific-10 baseball Friday evening at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. Ben Rowe struck out John Mayberry Jr. to end the game with the tying run at third base, saving the win for starter Jake Postlewait.
OSU (19-10 overall, 4-4 Pacific-10) and Stanford (24-4, 3-2) will conclude their series Saturday at 12 noon; the game can be heard on KEJO-AM (1240) and www.osubeavers.com. The start time has been moved up from previously-announced schedules to accommodate Stanford's travel plans.
On Friday, a crowd of 1,607 saw Stanford rally in the late innings for the second straight day. But OSU, which had a late three-run lead turn into an 11-8 loss on Thursday, got clutch pitching out of the bullpen from Rowe and Kevin Gunderson to earn the win.
"It was a great effort by all of us," said Rowe, who came into the game and got Mayberry swinging at a slider with the fans on their feet. "The crowd got into it and it was fantastic - 1,500, 1,600 people, a big situation like that. I was just happy I could come out and do my job like that."
It was the senior righthander's first career save. Rowe had spent the last 2 1/2 seasons in OSU's starting rotation until a series of bad outings resulted in a move to the bullpen at the start of the Pac-10 schedule two weeks ago.
"I'm proud of the guy," Postlewait said. "He could have gone both ways. He's the kind of guy who's either up or down - their hasn't been much gray area. When he's up, he's as good as he gets, and today he was up."
It was Rowe's third straight strong appearance against Stanford. He'd beaten the Cardinal two years ago in the first-ever night game at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field, and he threw a complete game in a 5-2 loss at Stanford last season.
Postlewait earned a win over a top-five team for the second straight season; last year, he pitched a complete-game win in a 6-1 win over third-ranked Arizona State. On Friday, the senior lefty went 7 1/3 innings and gave up four runs on nine hits and one walk while striking out five as he improved his record to 7-1 this season.
"Posty threw well today," Lissman said. "You've got to give all the credit to our bullpen, they threw well. It was a total team effort; we all came together, and that's what you have to have to beat these guys."
Lissman provided the runs those pitchers needed after OSU gave up a first-inning run, both coming off Stanford starter Blake Holler.
In the bottom of the second, Aaron Mathews led off with a triple just inside first base; with one out, Lissman poked a one-ball, one-strike pitch over the fence in right-centerfield. In the bottom of the fourth, Paul Richie led off with a single and again Lissman drove a one-ball, one-strike pitch out of the park, this time into the fir trees beyond the centerfield fence.
"I just tried to stay with the plan the coaches tell us," said Lissman, who hadn't homered since he had home runs in back-to-back games on Feb. 27-28 against California-Riverside and Sacramento State. "I just tried to find the barrel, keep my hands inside the baseball and hit the ball well."
OSU added its final run later in the fourth inning when Chris Campos singled with two out and was eventually balked home by Cardinal reliever Matt Manship.
Campos, playing rightfield in place of Jacoby Ellsbury, was 3-for-3 and walked twice in the leadoff spot; he and Lissman were the only Beavers with more than one hit. Ellsbury, who was hurt when he crashed into the right-centerfield fence diving for a ball on Thursday evening, is unlikely to play for the next week or so but has no major injuries.
Down 5-2 going into the eighth inning, Stanford closed the gap to 5-4 on Jed Lowrie's two-run homer to right-centerrfield. Gunderson entered the game with one out and a runner at first base and sandwiched two walks around a strikeout to load the bases with two down, then got Chris Manaker to hit into an inning-ending fielder's choice.
In the ninth, Gunderson surrendered a leadoff double to Ryan Seawell, then got a pair of outs before walking Lowrie. Up came Mayberry, who had homered twice on Thursday; on came Rowe, and four pitches later the Beavers had evened the series.
"It's a huge momentum-booster," Postlewait said of the win. "Our team was top-notch early in the season; we lacked a little in the middle, but our team has the tools. We can hit, we can play defense and we can definitely pitch. This helps out a lot, beating a good team at home in front of a good crowd."
Mathews' triple was the seventh of his career, tying him for ninth place on OSU's all-time list of career leaders. It was also his fourth triple of the season, tying him for eighth place on the Beavers' all-time single-season list.
OREGON STATE 4, NO. 2 STANFORD 4
Stanford 100 010 020 - 4 10 1
Oregon State 020 300 00x - 5 9 1
Holler, Manship (4) and Lucy. Postlewait, Gunderson (8), Rowe (9) and Richie.
W-Postlewait (7-1). L-Holler (4-3). Sv-Rowe (1). 2B-Fuld (SU), Seawell (SU). 3B-Mathews (OSU).
HR-Lowrie (SU), Hall (SU), Lissman 2 (OSU).
HITS: Stanford 10 (Fuld 2x5, Lowrie 1x4, Mayberry 1x5, Putnam 1x3, Lucy 1x4,
Hall 2x3, Seawell 2x4), Oregon State (Campos 3x3, Mathews 1x4, Richie 1x4, Lissman 2x4, Kunda
1x4, Schroeder 1x3). RUNS BATTED IN: Stanford 4 (Lowrie 3, Hall 1), Oregon State 4 (Lissman 4).
Stanford 4 (24-5,3-2 PAC-10) Oregon State 5 (19-10,4-4 PAC-10)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Sam Fuld cf................ 5 1 2 0 Chris Campos rf............ 3 1 3 0
Jonny Ash 3b............... 4 1 0 0 Tyler Graham lf............ 3 0 0 0
Jed Lowrie 2b.............. 4 1 1 3 Shea McFeely 3b............ 3 0 0 0
John Mayberry Jr. 1b....... 5 0 1 0 Andy Jenkins 1b............ 3 0 0 0
Danny Putnam lf............ 3 0 1 0 Aaron Mathews cf........... 4 1 1 0
Donny Lucy c............... 4 0 1 0 Paul Richie c.............. 4 1 1 0
Brian Hall rf.............. 3 1 2 1 Mike Lissman dh............ 4 2 2 4
Chris Minaker ss........... 4 0 0 0 Chris Kunda 2b............. 4 0 1 0
Ryan Seawell dh............ 4 0 2 0 Chad Schroeder ss.......... 3 0 1 0
Jim Rapoport pr........... 0 0 0 0 Tony Calderon ss/ph....... 1 0 0 0
Blake Holler p............. 0 0 0 0 Jake Postlewait p.......... 0 0 0 0
Matt Manship p............ 0 0 0 0 Kevin Gunderson p......... 0 0 0 0
Ben Rowe p................ 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 36 4 10 4 Totals..................... 32 5 9 4
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Stanford............ 100 010 020 - 4 10 1
Oregon State........ 020 300 00X - 5 9 1
-------------------------------------------
E - Holler; McFeely. DP - Oregon St. 2. LOB - Stanford 9; Oregon St. 9. 2B - Fuld;
Seawell. 3B - Mathews. HR - Lowrie; Hall; Lissman 2. HBP - McFeely. SH - Graham;
Jenkins. SB - Putnam.
Stanford IP H R ER BB SO
------------------------------------------------
Blake Holler L,3-2........ 3.2 7 5 5 1 2
Matt Manship .............. 4.1 2 0 0 2 4
Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO
------------------------------------------------
Jake Postlewait W,7-1..... 7.1 9 4 4 1 5
Kevin Gunderson ........... 1.1 1 0 0 3 1
Ben Rowe S,1.............. 0.1 0 0 0 0 1
WP - Holler; Manship. HBP - by Manship (McFeely). BK - Manship. PB - Lucy; Richie.
Umpires - HP: John De Luca 1B: Terry Mann 3B: Ron Ridd
Start: 5:01 pm Time: 2:56 Attendance: 1607
