April 16, 2006
Corvallis, Ore. - No. 11 Oregon State (25-9, 6-3 Pac-10) closed out a three-game sweep of Stanford (15-14, 2-7 Pac-10) with a 12-1 victory in a rain-shortened game at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field in the delayed series finale on Easter Sunday. The contest was shortened to just six and a half innings due to a 10-run rule agreement reached prior to the game.
Jonah Nickerson (6-3) tossed a complete-game two-hitter for the Beavers, striking out seven and walking just two.
Cole Gilespie (2-3, 3B, HR, 3 RBI) was the offensive hero for Oregon State, while Chris Kunda also drove in a three runs and doubled and Bill Rowe (2-4, 2 RBI) had a pair of hits and RBI. Darwin Barney (2-4, RBI) added a pair of hits, while all nine Beaver starters had at least one hit and six of the nine drove in at least one run.
Stanford scored its only run of the series in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead when Chris Minaker drew a two-out walk, stole second and scored on Michael Taylor's RBI double that extended his hit streak to five games.
Gillespie made Stanford's lone lead of the series brief when he blasted his seventh homer of the season with two outs in the bottom of the first to put the Beavers back in front, 2-1.
Oregon State extended its lead to 6-1 with a four-run second. Shea McFeely started the rally with a leadoff single and the Beavers had runners on first and second two batters later when Tyler Graham beat out a bunt single. Scott Santschi then singled home McFeely to put the Beavers ahead 3-1 and end the day for Stafnord starter and losing pitcher Matt Manship (1-3), who allowed four runs on five hits and a walk with two strikeouts in the shortest start of his career (1.1 IP). Kunda then laid down a squeeze bunt against reliever David Stringer (3.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO) to bring home Graham before Canham doubled home Santschi and Darwin Barney singled in Canham to cap the rally.
The Beavers added a pair of unearned runs in the fifth to increase its margin to 8-1. Stringer struck out two of the first three hitters in the inning but the whiffs surrounded an error by Cardinal first baseman Brent Milleville that kept the Oregon State inning alive. Stringer then hit Gillespie and Rowe made Stanford pay when he singled. Both runners ended up scoring when Taylor ran by the ball while trying to retrieve it in rightcenter field.
Oregon State picked up two more runs in the fifth when Kunda's medium-deep two-out fly ball was misplayed by Cardinal centerfielder Jim Rapoport and turned into a two-RBI double that scored John Wallace and Santschi, who had reached on a bunt single and a hit by pitch earlier in the frame.
Stanford will host a pair of non-conference games at Sunken Diamond on Monday and Tuesday versus San Francisco (23-15) and Sacramento State (17-22) with both contests scheduled to begin at 5 pm, PT. The Cardinal returns to Pac-10 action with a three-game series at Arizona (15-18, 3-6 Pac-10) next Friday-Sunday, April 21-23 (7 pm, 6 pm, 12 pm, MT).