Oregon State Falls To Tulane In First Round Of CWS
June 18, 2005 | Baseball
June 18, 2005
OMAHA, Neb. - For six innings, Oregon State looked ready to knock off the No. 1 team in the country in the first round of the College World Series on Saturday.
But Tulane's Scott Madden delivered a two-out, two-run pinch-hit double in the seventh inning, sending the Green Wave to a 3-1 victory over Oregon State and spoiling the Beavers' first CWS appearance since 1952.
OSU drops into the losers' bracket and will play either Texas or Baylor on Monday at 1 p.m. CT (11 a.m. PT). The game will be televised by ESPN.
Shut out for six innings by Jonah Nickerson and trailing 1-0, Tulane broke through for its 56th victory.
Winning pitcher Micah Owings started the rally with a leadoff single in the seventh.
The Beavers then nearly turned a double play on Mark Hamilton's bunt to third, getting a hard-sliding Owings at second, but the relay to first wasn't in time. Oregon State questioned the play, asking if there was interference on Owings' slide, but it was denied after the umpires huddled.
"I haven't seen the replay so I can't tell you if it affected the game," OSU Coach Pat Casey said. "If there was contact and they called interference, then we would have gotten out of the inning with no runs. If there was contact, it was a big part of the game but there are a lot of things that affect the game."
Owings indicated afterward that he had unintentionally touched OSU's fielder.
"The only thing I was thinking about doing was going in hard," he said. "You're taught to go in sliding with your hands up. I wasn't intentionally trying to grab him because I'm not that type of player. I don't like to be thought of as a dirty player."
After a fly out, Brian Bogusevic singled to put runners at first and second.
Madden, who was a freshman on the Green Wave's 2001 CWS team and a starter as a catcher, then drove a 2-2 pitch to right center to put the Green Wave ahead.
Owings (12-4) allowed just four hits and a run in seven innings, throwing 123 pitches before being replaced by Daniel Latham in the eighth. Latham pitched the eighth and ninth for his 13th save.
"I thought (Owings) had good command of his fastball," OSU's Andy Jenkins said. "We did not see too much of his junk. He came right at us."
Nickerson (9-2) gave up seven hits and two runs in seven innings.
"I thought I had a good fastball and was changing my speeds good," Nickerson said. "I thought I was keeping them off balance most of the game. The ball in the gap, I think I didn't get it in enough. I left it a little too much in the middle."
Tulane's Nathan Southard hit a solo homer off reliever Eddie Kunz leading off the bottom of the eighth for a two-run cushion. The drive to left extended Southard's hitting streak to 21 games.
With only 39 homers all season, the Beavers (46-11) were able to manufacture runs on their way to Omaha and they did it again in the first inning.
Jacoby Ellsbury, a first-round pick of the Boston Red Sox, singled leading off and made it to third on Darwin Barney's double into the right field corner. Ellsbury then scored on Andy Jenkins' RBI grounder to second.
The Beavers loaded the bases in the sixth and were ready to build on the 1-0 lead when Cole Gillespie sent a line drive to the gap in right center.
But right fielder Bogusevic, a first-round pick of the Astros, saved at least two runs with a fully extended catch just as he was ready to hit the ground.
"Obviously, we're disappointed, but it's a double-elimination tournament and we only have one loss," Ellsbury said. "We're not ready to go home yet."
OREGON STATE NOTES
Saturday's crowd of 20,345 is believed to be the largest ever for an Oregon State baseball game. There are no records as to what would be the second highest.
Cole Gillespie extended his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games.
Jacoby Ellsbury has scored 56 runs this season, tying him for second on OSU's single-season list with ... Jacoby Ellsbury (2003) and Jacoby Ellsbury (2004). The record is held by Jason Stranberg, who had 67 runs in 1997.
Andy Jenkins moved into sole possession of sixth place on the OSU single-season RBI list with his 56th of the year.
(From AP and SID reports)
