June 25, 2006

College World Series Capsules

College World Series Schedule and Recaps

Beavers find sparks in seven-run fourth
 

By Sean Ryan

CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder

OMAHA, Neb. – Oregon State shortstop Darwin Barney spoke of the importance of a spark in college baseball, something to get a team going.

The Beavers were in dire need of one Sunday night, trailing North Carolina 5-0 in a must-win second game of the College World Series championship series.

They got several in the seven-run fourth inning that changed the complexion of the series.

Shea McFeely’s two-run double that got OSU on the board certainly qualified.

“He went out there, he was aggressive, he set the tone,” Barney said. All it takes is for one person to find a hole, to show aggression and to get the dogs going.”

Another spark may have preceded that short down the left-field line.

“When Ty [Tyler Graham] stole third…that fired everybody up a little bit,” said Bill Rowe, whose three-run laser to the right-field seats ended the Beavers’ barrage.

Still trailing 5-0, Graham took off towards third when OSU had runners on first and second with no outs. Chris Kunda, who had fallen behind 0-2, worked a walk on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases for McFeely.

OSU skipper Pat Casey said Graham’s dash “sent a message to our club: we’re not surrendering.”

Not that anyone would expect the Beavers to fold. OSU went 4-0 after losing 11-1 to Miami to open the College World Series just to reach the championship date with North Carolina.

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One of the more amazing college baseball stats is that no Atlantic Coast Conference team has won the national title since Wake Forest in 1955. North Carolina missed out on its first opportunity to break that curse. Monday’s winning team will claim the first national title in college baseball for either team.

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Oregon State won the toss and again will be the home team for Monday’s final game. The home team has won each of the first two games. The Beavers are expected to start Jonah Nickerson, who is 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA in 14.2 innings in Omaha. Opponents are hitting .122 off of him with 12 strikeouts. Casey wouldn’t confirm Nickerson as the starter, saying he would wait until tomorrow to see how the right-hander felt. He would be throwing on three days’ rest. If not Nickerson, Daniel Turpen, who shut down Rice earlier in the week, likely could go after throwing only six pitches Sunday night. North Carolina will start Daniel Bard, who is 1-0 with a 7.50 ERA in Omaha.

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After a quick start to the game, the Beavers and Tar Heels started knocking the ball around the park. It took one hour and 55 minutes to play the first five innings. 

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Two-out lightning… North Carolina did its early damage after two men were out. In the second, Tim Federowicz singled before Seth Williams stuck his bat out on a 2-2 pitch and placed a grounder just out of the reach of second baseman Chris Kunda, who ranged towards first. Matt Spencer then singled in Federowicz. In the third, Chad Flack delivered a two-out single to score Reid Fronk, who had doubled with one out. Jay Cox then doubled Flack to third before Federowicz doubled both runners in for a 4-0 lead. In the fourth, Fronk nearly took reliever Daniel Turpen’s head off with a two-out shot up the middle for another run. 

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Two-out silence… Meanwhile, Oregon State left two runners on in the first, with Tyler Graham ripping a shot back up the middle that Robert Woodard speared, and two more in the third, with Bill Rowe flying out to deep right with two outs. That all changed when Bill Rowe belted a 2-0 breaking ball 10 rows into the stands in right for a three-run bomb to put OSU up 7-5.

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Getting ahead, working from behind… OSU starter Mike Stutes allowed seven hits and four earned runs before being lifted after three innings. Of the seven hits he allowed, Stutes fell behind with a first-pitch ball. In the same span, UNC starter Robert Woodard threw first-pitch strikes to 9 of 12 Beavers. But Woodard then hit Tyler Graham to lead off the bottom of the fourth, and after a single by John Wallace, Woodard then walked Chris Kunda to load the bases. After a two-run double by Shea McFeely, Woodard was pulled from the game.

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OSU second baseman Chris Kunda nearly made a sensational play in the top of the fifth when he laid full out for a ball up the middle. He was unable to spin and throw from his knees to get Carolina catcher Tim Federowicz.

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Robert Woodard was touched for two singles to start the game but worked out of the jam by freezing Cole Gillespie on an inside fastball and snaring Tyler Graham’s hard grounder up the middle. He threw 20 pitches in the first inning but came back and threw only four pitches in the second inning, thanks in part to a base-running blunder by John Wallace. Wallace, who had bunted for a hit to start the inning and moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt, was caught in no man’s land on a fly ball to Seth Williams in right. As the wind forced Williams to the line, Wallace strayed off second, only to race back to tag a moment after Williams made the catch. He was gunned down at third by Garrett Gore’s relay.

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Sunday’s game-time temperature was 79 with a stiff breeze blowing from the left to right.

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When Carolina scored in the first inning of Saturday’s game, it snapped a streak of 20 scoreless innings by Beavers’ pitching. Entering Sunday’s affair, OSU starting pitchers were 4-0 with a 1.59 ERA and limited opponents to a .197 average after being roughed up in an 11-1 loss to Miami to open CWS play.

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OSU’s Cole Gillespie hit one homer and drove in 22 runs before this season. The third-round pick of the Brewers put it together to the tune of a .381 average with 13 homers and 57 RBI entering Sunday. Simply put, he’s the most potent bat in the Beavers’ lineup. As such, it came as a bit of a surprise when Carolina ace Andrew Miller didn’t bury a slider in the dirt or trust his mid-90s fastball up in the zone Saturday night – although that may have been his intention – in the top of the sixth when Gillespie drilled a shot to the seats in right-center. A couple other quick hits on Gillespie: he slugs .701, holds an on-base percentage of .498 and has walked 45 times (hit by pitch 13 times) and struck out 34 times. 

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Both teams in the championship series reached new heights this season, setting new marks for wins in a season.

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Oregon State entered Sunday’s game with a string of 38.1 innings without an error. The Beavers field .975 as a team, compared to .965 by the Tar Heels.

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North Carolina’s pitching staff has been the recipient of numerous accolades – and justly so. Entering Sunday, the Tar Heels boasted a team ERA of 3.27 and limited opponents to a .236 average. But the Beavers are just as impressive with an ERA of 3.41 and an opponents’ average of .234.