April 18, 2008

Corvallis, OR (UWIRE) -- The Oregon State baseball team has lost four of its last six games, and it does not get any easier this weekend for the two-time defending national champions as they head to Tempe, Ariz., to face No. 2 Arizona State.

The Beavers (16-12, 4-5) are currently in the midst of their most difficult stretch of the season as they will have played three top 10 teams in three weeks. Two weeks ago OSU lost two of three to No. 7 California, and last week the Beavers dropped the last two to No. 10 Stanford after winning the first game on a walk-off single. Now the Beavers are on the road to face the defending conference champs and perennial powerhouse Sun Devils.

"The Pac-10 is a war," Oregon State coach Pat Casey said. "It gets tougher every weekend."

Arizona State (30-4, 6-3), to put it simply, has everything. Their numbers are staggering, especially for junior first baseman/ pitcher/ outfielder/ pretty much whatever else he wants to play Ike Davis. The lefty from Scottsdale is a no-brainer first-round draft pick, and it is easy to see why.

Davis is batting .423 with 14 home runs and 57 RBIs. He has an on-base percentage of .484 and a slugging percentage of .876. That's not all. Davis pitches too, and pretty well, in fact. Through 11 appearances, he is 4-0 with a 1.12 ERA and has 21 strikeouts in 16 innings. Davis is just one of the many weapons at Arizona State Coach Pat Murphy's disposal.

The Sun Devils have eight regular players that hit .327 or better, and all eight of those players have an on-base percentage of at least .427. As a team, they have hit 50 home runs and draw over seven walks a game. They also have the returning conference triple crown winner and 2007 Pac-10 Player of the Year Brett Wallace.

Last year the junior third baseman led the conference in average, home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and so on. The lefty is having a slow year for Brett Wallace standards, but is still second on the team to Davis in pretty much every statistical category. Wallace is batting .388 with nine home runs and 42 RBIs - another dominant left-handed bat, a task that Oregon State starters will have to manage well if they are to compete this weekend.

This will be the second meeting between these two teams so far this season. They played one game during the opening weekend of the season during the DeMarini Invitational, an event hosted by Arizona State in Tempe. The Beavers were never in the game, as Arizona State scored seven runs in the bottom of the first and cruised to an 11-0 win. Brett Wallace led off with a solo home run, and it was all Sun Devils for the remainder of the game. The Beavers only managed six hits and committed four errors in the game.

That game seems like a distant memory, and if Beaver fans have learned anything in recent years from a Pat Casey-coached team, it is that Beaver baseball doesn't quit. There is a lot of season left, and although the Beavers have lost four of six and are headed on the road to one of the best teams in the country, players still have confidence in themselves and their coaches.

"I think the last couple of years have showed that we can come back from anything," shortstop Joey Wong said. "It doesn't really matter where we are or what we did last game or the game before. I just think the kind of attitude that our coaches have and they have instilled in us is all we need."

Today's game starts at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Beaver Sports Network, www.osubeavers.com and Yahoo Sports.

Saturday's 6 p.m. game is also the Pac-10 Game of the Week on XM Radio Channel 193, and Sunday's game is a 1 p.m. start. Both will be broadcast on the Beaver Sports Network as well.

(C) 2008 OSU Daily Barometer via UWIRE