April 27, 2002
Corvallis, OR - Oregon State (27-14, 6-5 Pac-10) knocked off No. 4 Stanford (28-12, 5-6 Pac-10) for the second straight day with a 4-3 victory at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field to hand the Cardinal its first two-game losing streak of the season. Aaron Mathews scored the game-winning run on a wild play in the bottom of the eighth inning. Pinch-hitter J.R. Runyon struck out on a wild pitch in the dirt that moved Mathews to third and Brian Barden to second. Mathews came all the way around to score when Stanford catcher Ryan Garko tried to throw Barden out at second base and skipped by Cardinal second baseman Chris O'Riordan.
Stanford put the potential tying run in scoring position in the top of the ninth inning when Andy Topham singled with two outs and stole second base before Beaver reliever Jared Sanders struck out Tobin Swope for the final out of the game to record his ninth save of the season.
Ty Kline, the second of four Oregon State pitchers, earned the victory to improve to 5-0 this season by retiring the only batter he faced in the top of the eighth inning to leave two Cardinal runners stranded.
Dan Rich (1-1) took the loss for the Cardinal after taking over for starter Tim Cunningham to begin the eighth inning. Cunningham scattered five hits and three runs (two earned) with seven strikeouts and only one walk over the first 7.0 innings.
Oregon State starter Stephen Copeland was also impressive in a season-best 7.2 innings, scattering six hits and three runs.
Cunningham and Copeland were locked in a pitching dual for most of a game that was tied on three different occasions.
The Beavers picked up a run in the bottom of the first when Tom Creighton bunted for a single to lead off the inning, moved to second on a throwing error by Garko and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Mathews before scoring on an RBI single by Barden.
Stanford tied the game 1-1 in the top of the third inning when Topham doubled to lead off the inning, moved to third on a groundout by Swope and scored on an RBI single from Sam Fuld.The Cardinal took a 2-1 lead with another run in the top of the fourth. Garko and Carlos Quentin started the inning with back-to-back singles and moved up to second and third base on a sacrifice bunt by Brian Hall. Danny Putnam's sacrifice fly two batters later scored Garko.
Oregon State answered with a run in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 2-2 on a two-out solo homer to leftcenter field by Seth Pietsch.
The Beavers regained the advantage 3-2 with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning when Pietsch doubled with two outs to score Barden, who had singled with one out before stealing second and moving to third on a wild pitch.
The Cardinal retied the score at 3-3 with a run in the top of the eighth inning when Swope scored on a sacrifice fly by Garko. Swope and Fuld had led off the inning with back-to-back singles before moving up to second and third base on a sacrifice bunt by Chris O'Riordan.
Barden (3-4, RBI) and Pietsch (2-3, 2B, HR, 2 RBI) had five of Oregon State's six hits.
Topham (2-4, 2B) and Fuld (2-4, RBI) had a pair of hits each for Stanford with Fuld recordinghis seventh multiple-hit game in Stanford's last eight contests.
Stanford left seven runners on base, while the Beavers stranded five.
Stanford has fallen into a tie for fifth place in the Pac-10 standings after dropping four of its last five league games. USC (11-3 Pac-10) continues to lead the conference after beating Arizona, 12-10, on Saturday for its fifth straight Pac-10 win. Washington (7-4 Pac-10) picked up a 5-4 comeback win at California to move into a virtual tie for second place with idle Arizona State (9-6 Pac-10). Oregon State moved into sole possession of fourth place in the conference standings with Stanford, UCLA and California tied for fifth.
Stanford and Oregon State conclude the three-game series Sunday (1 pm, PT).