April 26, 2002
Corvallis, Ore. - Ben Rowe tossed a complete game four-hitter as Oregon State (26-14, 5-5 Pac-10) shut down No. 4 Stanford (28-11, 5-5 Pac-10) with a 3-1 victory over the Cardinal in the opener of a Pac-10 series on Friday. The victory came in Oregon State's first night game played in 96 years at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. Rowe did not walk a batter and struck out four to improve to 6-3 on the season. Jeremy Guthrie (6-1) had his 11-game win streak snapped on the mound despite tossing his first complete game of the season, scattering eight hits and three runs with five strikeouts.
Stanford's only run came on a leadoff solo homer by Ryan Garko in the top of the fourth inning to give the Cardinal a short-lived 1-0 lead. Garko (2-4, HR, RBI) had two of Stanford's season-low four hits.
Oregon State scored all three of its runs in the bottom of the fourth inning after two were out. Chris Biles doubled to lead off the inning and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Brian Barden before scoring on a two-out RBI single by Seth Pietsch to tie the score at 1-1. Wick Udy then singled to put runners at first and second base before J.R. Runyon singled home Pietsch for a 2-1 Beaver lead. Oregon State added a third run in the inning when Tom Creighton drew a bases loaded walk to score Pietsch.
Rowe took charge after Garko's fourth inning homer by retiring the next 13 batters before Andy Topham finally reached on an error by Biles in right field with one out in the top of the eighth. Rowe retired the next two hitters to get out of the jam.
Stanford put a pair of runners on base in the top of the ninth inning on a one-out single by Garko and a two-out infield hit from Carlos Quentin before Rowe retired potential go-ahead run Danny Putnam on a fly ball to center field for the final out of the game.
Biles (2-4, 2B) was the only Oregon State player with more than one hit.
Chris O'Riordan had both his career-high hit (12) and on-base (38) streaks broken by going 0-for-4. He did continue his consecutive games started streak alive by being in the starting lineup for the 150th consecutive game at second base.
Oregon State left 10 runners on base, while the Cardinal stranded five.
Stanford fell into a four-way tie for fourth-place in the Pac-10 with the loss, its third in its last four Pac-10 games. USC (10-3 Pac-10) leads the conference after a 14-6 win over Arizona on Friday. Arizona State (9-6 Pac-10) is second in the conference, while Washington (6-4 Pac-10) moved into sole possession of third place after a 2-0 win at California (8-8 Pac-10) on Friday. The Cardinal is tied for fourth with California, Oregon State and UCLA (5-5 Pac-10). The Bruins were a 5-3 winner over Washington State on Friday.
Stanford and Oregon State continue the three-game series Saturday-Sunday (4 pm, 1 pm, PT).