The Oregon State baseball team faces rival Oregon for the first of five games this season at 5:35 p.m. Tuesday in Goss Stadium.
This game and the May 3 contest in Goss are nonconference games. The conference series ends the regular season May 27-29 in Eugene.
“It’s a big rivalry, and there will be some jitters again, even though it’s not the first game,” C Andrew Susac said. “We just have to come out and play hard.”
The Beavers (9-3) won four of the five meetings with the Ducks (5-6) last season, including the last four. They lead the series 159-148.
Expect Oregon’s RHP Alex Keudell (1-1, 3.09 ERA) and OSU’s LHP Cam Booser (0-1, 3.52) to be the starting pitchers. The Ducks have a regular rotation. OSU coach Pat Casey hinted at an injury to Booser.
“We are a little disadvantaged with four games over the weekend,” Casey said. “We’ll be a little unconventional and split the game a little bit. I don’t know who we are going to start. Cam Booser, if he’s ready to go, is a candidate.”
The Beavers mixed it up on the mound a little over the weekend and threw many pitchers. They were just throwing to get some work in the blowout victories, not because they were hit hard. The pitching staff was has 105 strikeouts to 31 walks.
Susac extended his hitting streak to a career-best eight games. He’s hitting .538 with three home runs and 12 RBIs. INF Kavin Keyes has a five-game hitting streak.
OSU batters lead the Pac-10 in walks with 78 at 6.5 a game. They also lead the conference in being hit by a pitch at 18. There have been 17 stolen bases this season, more than a third of the 44 from last year.
The Ducks lost their last two games at Long Beach State. They hit .216 as a team and the team ERA is 2.73. Aaron Jones (.318) is the only batter over .300.
“We just have to get a lot better,” Casey said of looking at this game. “Everyone at this time of the year don’t a have a good sense of where they are at or how good they can be. We are a long way from being the club we need to be in the conference.”
2 comments
aaron_ says:
Mar 7, 2011
The Beavs played like they should have against Hartford. The are not a very good team, but that takes nothing against the beavers. They pitched well, hit well, ran well, bunted well. They even got some players some at bats and innings pitched to guys who may not normally see action. So it was a good weekend for them. And at the end of the year when the selection committee looks at the number of wins this may help them out. I may be getting a head of myself there in thinking that, we shall see. No lets hope the boys can go out there and win one for OSU and the rest of beaver nation.
Tim says:
Mar 8, 2011
OSU showing better plate discipline. Having a lot of walks and HBP shows patience to work to get a favorable count.
UO will be a big test early in the season, but the games that matter most will be later. Better to get the pitchers healthy for the Pac-10 sched.