No. 8 Oregon State Tops Evansville, 9-2

Jordan Lennerton goes 3-for-4 in Beavers' home opener

March 9, 2007

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State's Jordan Lennerton was 3-for-4 and homered in his first home at-bat as the eighth-ranked Beavers beat Evansville 9-2 in non-conference baseball Thursday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. OSU (15-3 overall), playing its first home game as defending national champion, had Mike Stutes pitch 6 1/3 innings and strike out five before a crowd of 1,907.

OSU and Evansville (9-5) continue their series Friday at 4 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. Both games can be heard on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area, KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area and in Spanish on LaX Sports. Live audio and video are available via subscription at www.osubeavers.com.

On Friday, OSU fans got their first look at approximately $1 million worth of improvements to the Beaver ballpark in the form of a new scoreboard with video capability and a new FieldTurf artificial turf infield.

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

A resolution from the Oregon state legislature honoring the 2006 team was read before the game, with many of the dozen Oregon State alumni currently serving on hand. OSU President Dr. Edward Ray threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the home season.

Was it any difference playing a home-opener as defending national champion?

"No, it felt the same," Casey said. "I was still nervous the whole game."

Lennerton opened the scoring with a two-run homer to leftfield in the bottom of the second inning. The junior first baseman added a single off the leftfield wall and scored a run in OSU's five-run sixth inning, then singled through the right side in the seventh.

"That got a little pressure off me," Lennerton said. "I've got (2006 first baseman) Bill Rowe's big shoes to fill, but that's a good start in front of the home fans."

OSU tacked on a run in the bottom of the fourth when Drew George led off with a double down the leftfield line and scored when Purple Ace shortstop Robbie Minor threw away a ball hit by OSU's John Wallace, making it 3-0.

Evansville got back within 3-2 in the top of the sixth inning. Troy Krider and Kirk Bascu led off the inning with singles, Jim Viscomi sacrificed them to second and third, and the runs scored on Minor's groundout and Kasey Wahl's single to center.

OSU came right back with its five-run bottom of the sixth, using five hits and a walk. Jason Ogata walked to start the inning, then George and Lennerton singled to load the bases with none out. John Wallace doubled home a pair of runs when he grounded a ball just inside first base, and Koa Kahalehoe singled home two more with a line drive to right against UE righthander Ben Norton. After Sean McCarthy relieved Norton, Darwin Barney singled, Joey Wong bunted the runners over and Mike Lissman added a sacrifice fly to bump the lead to 8-2.

Stutes improved to 4-0 this season, as the righthander allowed two runs on six hits and no walks while striking out five. Before allowing the runs in the top of the sixth inning, he had retired eight straight hitters and had limited the Purple Aces to just a pair of singles.

"It's something to build on," Stutes said of his first home start of the season. "I was disappointed after giving up the two runs, but all in all, I'll take it - it's a win to start off the home season."

OSU - which was also playing the first home game of its Centennial Season of varsity baseball - improved its all-time record in home-openers to 79-19. The Beavers have won 18 of their last 20 home-openers at 33 of their last 36.

Kahalehoe finished 2-for-3 with two runs batted in and George was 2-for-4 for the Beavers. OSU's Joey Wong had his hitting streak end at six games, but he drove in the Beavers' final run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning.

Blake Keitzman went 1 2/3 innings for OSU, with the lefthander allowing no runs on one hit and one walk while striking out one. Righthander Greg Keim picked up the final three outs for OSU.