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Junior Daniel Turpen, who is 9-0 in his career as a Beaver, picked up his fifth win of the season in OSU's 3-2 victory over Evansville Sunday, proving that the Beavers' bullpen might be just fine even after the loss of significant arms from last year.

With sweep, OSU moves up in baseball rankings

Beavers' second sweep of season over ranked team bumps them up in rankings; some players make big debut in Corvallis

By: Casey Grogan

Posted: 3/13/07

A weekend sweep of the Purple Aces has done wonders for the OSU baseball team's standing among the nation's best.

The three game sweep of Evansville (9-7 overall) was the second sweep of the season for the Beavers (17-3) against a ranked opponent. The Beavers earlier swept the Georgia Bulldogs in three games.

"Sweep anytime feels good," said first baseman Jordan Lennerton. "In front of the home crowd, they were here supporting us. We worked hard and got it done. We are happy with the sweep."

Entering the weekend Oregon State was ranked as high as No. 6 in various polls. A three-game sweep and losses by other teams in the nation's top 10 moved the Beavers up in the college baseball polls. Baseball America and College Baseball Newspaper now rank OSU No. 5 - an improvement from No. 9 and No. 7 last week. Rivals.com, a poll that has been generous to OSU early in the season, moved the Beavers two places from No. 6 to No. 4.

Against Evansville, many new faces made their Goss Stadium debut. Thursday in game one, Lennerton launched a two-run homer over the leftfield wall, his first home run in orange and black.

"It felt good," Lennerton said. "I'm playing after Bill Rowe who made a big impact here. I needed to make a good impression here with the home fans. It felt really good to get my first home run out of the way in the first home game of the season."

Lennerton's home run helped the Beavers get the 9-2 win over the Purple Aces. Game two featured a wonderful pitching performance from Oregon State's Joe Paterson and a surprise on the offensive side.

Paterson threw seven strong innings against Evansville, the most he has thrown at OSU. The Beaver southpaw benefited from strong defense that included three straight inning-ending double plays. Evansville led the Beavers 2-0 into the sixth inning.

In the bottom of the sixth the first two OSU batters reached base safely. After second baseman Joey Wong flew out, designated hitter Jason Ogata was hit by a pitch. With the bases loaded, catcher Mitch Canham went down two strikes. After fouling off a pitch Canham in dramatic fashion hit a slicing line drive down the right field line, before the ball went foul it struck the right field foul pole for a grand slam home run.

"It was a really ugly swing," Canham said. "Thank God the wind kept it fair. I got a little worried and when it hit, I thought it hit the bottom of the fence. It just stayed up and good things happen sometimes. I was able to put a half-decent swing on it, I guess."

The Beavers would get two more runs in the eighth inning securing the 6-2 win. Pitcher Mark Grbavac threw the final two innings after Paterson was removed earning his second save of the season.

"I was very proud of Mitch for sticking with it," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "They outplayed us and we got away with having a big inning. Joe pitched very well and we defended behind him. We didn't come out with the aggressiveness we needed playing a good club."

In game three the Beavers played the kind of baseball that put them in Omaha the last two seasons. Oregon State moved runners and scored with sacrifice bunts and flies, while pressuring Evansville by stealing two bases.

Beavers like Lennerton playing in their first series at OSU made a big impact during game three. Centerfielder Chris Hopkins made a diving catch over diving rightfielder Scotty Berke in the second inning. Hopkins also stole a base during the game while Berke finished the game 2-2 with a sacrifice bunt that put the Beavers first two runs in scoring position.

Third baseman Drew George, whose lone hit in game three was a swinging bunt, extended his hitting streak to six games. The Lebanon native fulfilling a childhood dream by playing for OSU used the weekend to overtake Canham with the highest batting average on the team, .391.

"It feels pretty sweet," George said. "I've always wanted to be a Beaver. I was more nervous Thursday than I have been because we were playing in front of the home crowd. This is the most fun I've ever had."

Oregon State enjoyed large crowds throughout the opening weekend including an interesting coincidence during game one. The Beavers, who are celebrating their 100th season of varsity baseball starting in 1907, treated 1,907 baseball fans to a home-opening victory.

"We had a great crowd and this park is beautiful," Casey said. "It's spectacular, and it's only going to get better. It was a great atmosphere."

The Beavers host the San Francisco Dons (9-8) and Canby native Luke Sommer this weekend at Goss Stadium.