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Jason Ogata had a solid weekend for Oregon State against Georgia during Papé Grand Slam. Ogata had five hits, including a pair of home runs and drove in six runs as well for OSU.

Ogata leads Beavers at the dish

With questions buzzing, holes to be filled, Jason Ogata stepped up big for OSU last weekend at PGE Park in Portland against UG

By: Kacy Hochstatter

Posted: 3/4/08

Before the 2008 Oregon State baseball season started, there was one main question surrounding the team: Who could fill the leadership shoes on the field after the departure of two of Oregon State's all time greatest players, Darwin Barney and Mitch Canham?

This past weekend at the inaugural Papé Grand Slam, the Beavers may have begun to start answering that question.

A leader may have been born as Jason Ogata made his homecoming a memorable one. The junior from Portland was a combined 5-for-11 with two home runs and six RBI's for the series. He is now hitting .478 (11-for-23), and has hit safely in all six games so far this season.

But perhaps the most promising aspect of Ogata's weekend was not the production he accumulated, but the timing for which he did it.

In the first game of the series, Oregon State trailed Georgia 3-2 in the fifth inning. With a full count, two on and two outs, Ogata hit a shot down the line just out of the diving right fielder's reach, clearing the bases, himself included, for the eventual game winning inside the park home run.

That would not be the last moment of heroism on the weekend for the transfer from LSU. Ogata was instrumental in the Beavers' 5-4 win on Sunday as well, doing it with his bat and his arm.

In the fifth inning with the Beavers trailing 3-1 and one out, Georgia center fielder Matt Cerione hit a line drive to the wall in right field. Cerione tried to stretch the double into a triple, but right fielder Danny Robertson hit Ogata, his cut off man perfectly. Ogata in turn threw out the speedy Cerione just in time from short right field to end the threat in the fifth. A crucial play to help keep the Beavers in the game.

Not to let his offense be outdone, Ogata hit his second home run of the series in the sixth inning with a line drive to left field cutting the Georgia lead to 4-2. When Ogata's next at bat came in the seventh, he showed the 11,100 fans at PGE park what the staple of Oregon State baseball has been the past three years: clutch hitting.

With Joey Wong at second, Georgia leading 4-3, a 3-2 count and two outs, Ogata delivered. He fought off a tough pitch and tied the game up with a single through the gap between the first and second baseman into right field.

"I was just trying to get a good at bat," Ogata said. "He threw me a curve ball and he kind of fooled me a little bit. I stayed back just enough to drive it into right. It was a great feeling."

Said Pat Casey of Ogata's game tying at bat, "It was a great piece of two strike hitting."

That has become the mark of Oregon State baseball during the past three years. Someone new steps up every year. The Beavers struggled a little in the first three games, but the season is young, just like many of the new players on this team. Winning the series against a quality team like Georgia is a big step in the right direction.

"We're going to get better. We're going to be at our best at the end of the season," Ogata said. "This game showed that we are going to get clutch hits and we are going to have heart at the plate. We're going to do whatever it takes to win."

The Beavers' comeback win could not have come at a better time at this point in the season. After a blowout loss on Saturday in front of close to 11,000 fans, OSU sent the even larger Sunday crowd home with that distinctive feeling and excitement of Beaver baseball. The energy went both ways as the fans were enthusiastic and the players were as well.

"This was great," Ogata said. "There were so many fans here supporting us and we fed off their energy a lot this weekend."

Kacy Hochstatter, sports writer

sports@dailybarometer.com