McFeely's Home Run Lifts Beavers To 4-3 Victory Over Buckeyes
June 03, 2005 | Baseball
June 3, 2005
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Some players go through life never experiencing the thrill of hitting a walk-off home run.
As of Friday evening, Shea McFeely isn't one of them.
In perhaps the biggest game of his baseball life, the Oregon State third baseman accomplished the feat on the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth inning, sending the second-ranked Beavers to a 4-3 win over Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA Corvallis Regional at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.
The win in front of a sellout crowd of 2,612 fans sends Oregon State (42-9 overall) into the winners' bracket game against St. John's (40-16) on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. The Red Storm beat Virginia 5-3 in Friday's first game; Virginia (41-19) and Ohio State (39-19) play Saturday at 1:05 p.m.
With Friday evening's score tied 3-3, McFeely launched his game-winning homer over the left-centerfield fence off Buckeye reliever Rory Meister.
That capped an Oregon State comeback that saw the Beavers tie the game with Cole Gillespie's two-out single in the bottom of the eighth. "Like I said before, our guys won't quit," Oregon State head coach Pat Casey said. "That's very important."
McFeely annihilated the first pitch he saw - and the first pitch of the game by Meister - for his fifth home run of the season.
"During warm-ups, he was throwing a lot of fastballs," McFeely said. "It looked like he was throwing pretty straight and over the top. That's what out scouting report said on him.
"I just went up there and he threw a first pitch fastball up and in."
Much of the game was a back-and-forth pitchers duel, as Oregon State's Dallas Buck and Ohio State starter Mike Madsen surrendered three runs each. Both starters pitched scoreless first innings, but the Beavers struck in the second.
After a leadoff, infield single by Andy Jenkins, catcher Mitch Canham worked the count to 2-0. Sitting dead red fastball, Canham belted the next pitch well over the right-centerfield fence making the score 2-0.
"The guy (Madsen) was behind in the count," said Canham, whose seventh homer of the season took over the Beavers' team lead in that department. "I was looking for something I could handle and relax and not try and hit too much of it. I found the sweet part of the bat, I guess."
Feeling the swing of the momentum, Buck continued to pitch well as he held the Buckeyes scoreless through three innings. The Buckeyes were able to plate a run in the fourth as Wes Schirtzinger drove an single past a sliding Andy Jenkins to make the score 2-1.
"It's very obvious that both pitchers are each team's ace and there's a reason why," Ohio State coach Bob Todd said. "I thought it was very evident today."
After he faced the minimum amount of hitters in the fifth, Buck surrendered singles runs in both the sixth and seventh innings, with the run in the seventh unearned. With OSU trailing 3-2, Buck ran into more trouble in the eighth.
Buck walked Matt Angle on four pitches to start the inning, then hit Mike Rabin and the next hitter, Steve Caravati, sacrificed them to second and third.
Needing a critical out, OSU called upon closer Kevin Gunderson. Gunderson battled Ronnie Bourquin before fanning him on a full-count slider for the second out. OSU then intentionally walked Jason Zoeller, setting the table for pinch hitter Adam Schneider.
Gunderson fell behind in the count before getting Schneider to rip a chopper back to the mound that Gunderson was able to field cleanly and throw him out.
On the day, Buck yielded three runs (two earned) while striking out five. Buck only gave up four hits, but walked five and hit two.
"I thought Dallas was good," Casey said. "I thought he let some of the things get to him a bit."
"It was really clutch with Gundy coming in and punching the lefthander (Bourquin) out and then getting the final out. That got the crowd in it. We find ways down here to win somehow."
Needing a run for the tie, OSU went to work in the bottom half of the eighth inning. Jacoby Ellsbury lined a double off the center field fence before being moved to third on a Tyler Graham sacrifice. Darwin Barney struck out, but Andy Jenkins was hit and Mitch Canham was walked to load the bases for Gillespie.
Gillespie didn't take on a two-ball, no-strike pitch; he rather lined a single to right to score Ellsbury to tie the game at 3-3 but Jenkins was thrown out trying to score from second on the play.
Gunderson worked a scoreless ninth to give the Beavers one last at-bat before the game would go to extra innings. Ohio State opted to bring in reliever Ray Meister for Madsen, and McFeely drove the first pitch out of the park to end the game.
Oregon State was playing in its first NCAA Regional since 1986 and it was the Beavers' first home postseason appearance since 1963. The win extended the Beavers' school records for wins in a season (42) and home wins in a season (22). With the victory, the Beavers also avoided losing back-to-back games for just the second time this season.
Canham and Jenkins were both 2-for-3 for the Beavers and Ellsbury was 2-for-4. It was Ellsbury's 25th multi-hit game of the year and Jenkins' 21st. Graham had his career-best hitting streak end at 11 games.
NO. 2 OREGON STATE 4, OHIO STATE 3
Ohio State 000 101 100 - 3 4 0 Oregon State 020 000 000 - 4 9 2Madsen, Meisgter (9) and Fryer. Buck, Gunderson (8) and Canham. WP-Gunderson (6-2). LP-Meister (8-2). 2B-Caravati (OhSt), Ellsbury (OrSt). HR-Canham (OrSt), McFeely (OrSt).
HITS: Ohio State 4 (Caravati 1x3, Schirtzinger 2x3, Fryer 1x3), Oregon State 9 (Ellsbury 2x4, Jenkins 2x3, Canham 2x3, Gillespie 1x4, McFeely 1x4, Lissman 1x3). RUNS BATTED IN: Ohio State 3 (Bourquin 1, Schirtzinger 1, Farinacci 1), Oregon State 4 (Canham 2, Gillespie 1, McFeely 1).
Ohio State 3 (39-19) Oregon State 4 (42-9)Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- Matt Angle rf.............. 2 0 0 0 Jacoby Ellsbury cf......... 4 1 2 0 Mike Rabin cf.............. 1 2 0 0 Tyler Graham lf............ 3 0 0 0 Steve Caravati lf.......... 3 0 1 0 Darwin Barney ss........... 3 0 0 0 Ronnie Bourquin 3b......... 4 0 0 1 Andy Jenkins 1b............ 3 1 2 0 Jason Zoeller 2b........... 2 0 0 0 Mitch Canham c............. 3 1 2 2 Wes Schirtzinger dh........ 3 1 2 1 Cole Gillespie rf.......... 4 0 1 1 Adam Schneider ph......... 1 0 0 0 Shea McFeely 3b............ 4 1 1 1 Jedidiah Stephen ss........ 3 0 0 0 Jonah Nickerson dh......... 0 0 0 0 Paul Farinacci 1b.......... 4 0 0 1 Mike Lissman ph/dh........ 3 0 1 0 Eric Fryer c............... 3 0 1 0 Ryan Gipson 2b............. 3 0 0 0 Mike Madsen p.............. 0 0 0 0 Chris Kunda 2b............ 0 0 0 0 Rory Meister p............ 0 0 0 0 Dallas Buck p.............. 0 0 0 0 Kevin Gunderson p......... 0 0 0 0 Totals..................... 26 3 4 3 Totals..................... 30 4 9 4
Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Ohio State.......... 000 101 100 - 3 4 0 Oregon State........ 020 000 011 - 4 9 2 -------------------------------------------
E - Barney; Canham. DP - Ohio St. 1; Oregon St. 3. LOB - Ohio St. 6; Oregon St. 6. 2B - Caravati; Ellsbury. HR - Canham; McFeely. HBP - Rabin; Zoeller; Jenkins. SH - Caravati; Stephen; Graham. CS - Angle; Caravati; Farinacci.
Ohio State IP H R ER BB SO ------------------------------------------------ Mike Madsen ............... 8.0 8 3 3 2 5 Rory Meister L,8-2........ 0.0 1 1 1 0 0
Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO ------------------------------------------------ Dallas Buck ............... 7.1 4 3 2 5 5 Kevin Gunderson W,6-2..... 1.2 0 0 0 1 1
HBP - by Buck (Zoeller); by Buck (Rabin); by Madsen (Jenkins).
Umpires - HP: Randall Dulin 1B: Danny Everett 2B: Harry Greer 3B: Scott Erby Start: 5:05 PM Time: 2:23 Attendance: 2612
Meister faced 1 batter in the 9th.
