Beavers take Cavs to the brink
Oregon State tops Virginia, forces decisive showdown
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
June 5, 2007

The words “if necessary” became a reality in a matter of minutes.

Six outs from elimination, Oregon State’s baseball team mounted a monumental rally off Virginia’s bullpen, scoring three times in the eighth and once in the final frame to secure a 5-3 victory at Davenport Field.

The Cavaliers’ first loss in the Charlottesville Regional forced another game - the two teams will play at noon today for the championship, one that suddenly comes with more at stake.

Michigan, also in shocking fashion, hit a solo homer off Vanderbilt ace David Price, who was in as a reliever in the 10th inning, winning the Nashville Regional and likely giving today’s winner between Virginia and Oregon State the right to host a Super Regional this weekend.

“This is why it was important for us to go 2-0 in the tournament,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor, alluding to Saturday’s 13-inning win over Oregon State. “[That win] creates another opportunity for us [today].

“I told the team we just have to be a little bit better to beat this club. Oregon State is the defending national champion for a reason; they are going to battle you to the end.”

Virginia led, 3-1, entering the eighth before the sellout crowd of 3,212 was silenced by one swing of the bat - Oregon State center fielder Chris Hopkins blasted an 0-1 pitch from Virginia reliever Jake Rule over the wall and into the trees in left-center.

The blast marked just the second homer of the season for Hopkins and the first since he hit a wind-aided dinger against San Francisco on March 16.

“It came from a guy that doesn’t hit many home runs and it just gave us that lift, that motivation to keep going,” said Oregon State first baseman Jordan Lennerton, who added a homer in the ninth. “In our dugout we heard the volume increase, and in the stadium we heard it decrease.

“[Hopkins’ homer] was the deciding factor … the play of the game.”

The home run, however, did not give Oregon State its first lead. That came five batters and four singles later when John Wallace drove in the third run of the frame off Michael Schwimer.

“In most games this year, we won the end of the game,” O’Connor said. “[Oregon State] did it today.”

In total, Virginia’s two relievers - Rule and Schwimer - combined to allow six of Oregon State’s 11 hits and four runs, spoiling Pat McAnaney’s stellar starting performance.

McAnaney, who was making his first start since May 1, kept the Beavers scoreless through the first five innings, allowing just five men to reach base.

The southpaw struggled, however, in the sixth after Virginia’s hitters spotted him a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth on a two-run single by Mike Mitchell and an RBI double by Tyler Cannon.

In the sixth, McAnaney hit Joey Wong with a pitch and allowed a single to Darwin Barney on a full-count offering, forcing O’Connor to go to his bullpen.

“[McAnaney] did more than we could have ever asked out of him,” O’Connor said. “I could tell with the look on his face that he was determined to carry the team in this ball game.

“He gave us a chance to win and that is all that we can ask out of our starter [today].”

Who that starter will be remains a mystery. O’Connor said he would make the decision in the morning before the game, likely choosing between Andrew Carraway and Matt Packer, but knowing that he has his top three pitchers, Sean Doolittle, Casey Lambert and Jacob Thompson, available if needed.

Oregon State coach Pat Casey is in the same boat, if not worse, having played four games thus far, including a 5-2 win Monday afternoon over Rutgers.

 

UVa drops the ball vs. Oregon State
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
June 5, 2007

When Virginia outlasted Oregon State in Saturday night’s marathon game, the victorious Cavaliers talked about how the Beavers had been where the Cavs want to go - to Omaha for the College World Series.
Monday evening, UVa found out that the defending national champions weren’t handing out free passes to the next round of the NCAA Tournament. The Beavers came back from a 3-0 deficit with five unanswered runs in the final four innings to pull out a 5-3 win and force a third meeting with the Cavaliers today at high noon for the NCAA regional title.

Battling to the end
Even though Oregon State has a somewhat new cast of characters with nine of last year’s players drafted, the Beavers showed off some of the same magic that led them to last year’s NCAA crown. Fatigued physically from a 5-2 win over Rutgers earlier in the day just to stay alive, the Beavers capitalized on Virginia’s mistakes and almost willed themselves into today’s brawl for it all.
The Cavaliers limped into Monday’s game minus two of their starters, right fielder Brandon Marsh (fractured wrist) and left fielder Brandon Guyer (dislocated shoulder). Even third baseman Patrick Wingfield was playing wounded, the laces of a errant Oregon State fastball imprinted on his throat from Saturday’s 13-inning dance.

No offense or defense
While UVa skipper Brian O’Connor kept a positive spin on things, his lineup lacked offensive punch and his defense was ragged at best. The Cavs committed four errors, tying a season high, and the three-run output off a mere five hits wasn’t enough to hold off the determined Beavers.
Four of those hits came during a fifth-inning explosion that knocked out OSU starter Daniel Turpen, who had actually finished the day’s first game against Rutgers. In turn, the Beavers chased UVa starter Pat McAnaney in the sixth, getting their first run, then put together a three-run eighth inning with five hits, including a home run by Chris Hopkins, only his second of the season.
Jordan Lennerton added an insurance round-tripper to lead off the ninth, almost in the same spot as Hopkins’, over the 377-foot mark in left field for the 5-3 outcome.

It’s do-or-die time
While the result was a disappointing one for the Cavaliers, playing in front of a record home crowd (3,212) for the second consecutive outing, they lived to fight again.
“That’s the good thing about baseball,” O’Connor said. “This is why it was important for us to go 2-0 in the tournament.”
There’s two things for sure heading into today’s showdown. One, Virginia will throw everything its got - pitching-wise - at the Beavers; and, two, Oregon State will not go down without a fight.
The Beavers were the only team to make it back to the CWS last year after making it to Omaha in ’05.
“Oregon State is the defending national champion for a reason,” O’Connor said. “They’re going to battle you to the end. They won the end of the ball game. In most games this year, we’ve won the end of the game. We’re going to have another chance to come out here [Tuesday] and win us a championship.”
Without question, today is the biggest baseball game in Virginia history. Not only is the regional championship on the line, but the opportunity to host a Super Regional is at stake after the nation’s top-seeded team, Vanderbilt, was eliminated Monday night at home by underdog Michigan.
If the Cavaliers beat Oregon State, they’ll host Michigan in the Super Regional. If they fall, then the Beavers, well, they’ll be smelling Omaha again.
The question is, can Virginia bounce back from adversity? We know that Oregon State can. The Beavers have been there before and proved they could survive.
Now, it’s Virginia’s opportunity to show the baseball world what it’s made of.
For the past three years, the Cavs haven’t managed to emerge from this regional thing for one reason or another. This time, they’ve got the pitching in their favor.
Will their bats and defense hold up against the defending champs?
“We did not play good defense,” O’Connor said. “We need to play air-tight defense to beat this ball club.”
The coach said he knew his pitchers would do their job, but said his fielders needed to make some plays behind them.
Meanwhile, Oregon State never gave up hope.
“We have nine-inning games for a reason,” Lennerton said.
Coach Pat Casey, who turned down a tempting, lucrative offer from Notre Dame to return to Corvallis, understood what his team was all about. The only thing he asked from it between Monday’s two games was to play with everything it had.
“At this time of year it comes down to how bad we wanted it and how hard we played,” said Casey, the 2006 national coach of the year. “We’ve been there before and that helps.”
O’Connor’s hoping that strong pitching and playing at home will overcome Oregon State’s experience. A little bit more offense might just help.

 

Feisty OSU trips U.Va. to stay alive
Cavs' bullpen lets Beavers overcome three-run deficit
Tuesday, Jun 05, 2007 - 12:06 AM Updated: 01:13 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Defending NCAA baseball champion Oregon State isn't ready to relinquish its crown just yet.

Facing elimination from the tournament, the Beavers won twice yesterday. OSU ousted Rutgers 5-2 in the afternoon and then rallied to defeat host Virginia 5-3 in the nightcap at Davenport Field.

A victory last night would have given the Cavaliers their first regional championship in seven trips to the NCAAs. But top-seeded U.Va., which led 3-1 after seven innings, collapsed late and now must face No. 3 seed OSU for the third time in four days.

Virginia (45-15) meets Oregon State (41-18) for the regional title today at noon. When they clashed Saturday night, U.Va. won in 13 innings.

Today's winner advances to the NCAA tourney's round of 16 and will face Michigan in a best-of-three NCAA super regional, at a site to be determined. "Obviously, it was disappointing how the game ended," said U.Va. coach Brian O'Connor, whose team led 3-0 after five innings. "Pat McAnaney put us in a tremendous position to win the game, and we didn't get it done in the end. That's the bottom line."

In his first start since May 1 - a midweek game against Virginia Commonwealth - McAnaney cruised into the sixth inning. But after he plunked OSU's leadoff batter on the helmet, McAnaney gave up a single.

O'Connor turned then to junior right-hander Jake Rule, who minimized the damage. Two errors by third baseman Patrick Wingfield on the same play allowed an Oregon State run to score in the sixth, but Virginia still led 3-1 when center fielder Chris Hopkins stepped into the box to open the eighth against Rule.

Hopkins isn't known for his power, and the possibility of a home run never crossed Beavers coach Pat Casey's mind. But Hopkins blasted a shot that traveled about 385 feet, landing well beyond the wall in left-center and stunning the record-tying crowd of 3,212.

"It changed the character of the game," OSU first baseman Jordan Lennerton said. "It came from a guy who doesn't hit many home runs - it was only his second of the year - and it gave us a lift and the motivation to keep going."

The Beavers kept going. Joey Wong singled off Rule, after which O'Connor summoned Michael Schwimer from the bullpen. Little went right for the junior right-hander. Schwimer gave up three hits, including a pair of RBI singles, and U.Va. found itself trailing 4-3 when it came to bat in the eighth.

On a night when the Cavaliers managed only five hits - all-ACC pick Sean Doolittle was 0 for 4 - they went meekly late. Joe Paterson, OSU's starter Friday in a win over Rutgers, sparkled in 32/3 innings of relief last night and earned the victory.

Paterson retired the last 11 batters he faced. In the seventh, he needed 10 pitches to retire the side; in the eighth, eight; in the ninth, 14.

OSU added a run in the ninth when Lennerton homered off Schwimer.

Relief pitching and lack of offense weren't the Cavs' only problems last night. Virginia tied its season high with four errors.

"We need to play airtight defense to beat this ball club," O'Connor said.

Against No. 2 seed Rutgers (42-21), OSU's Daniel Turpen worked the final three innings, throwing 35 pitches and recording his first save of the season. The junior right-hander's day wasn't over.

Turpen started against the Cavaliers and allowed only one hit through four innings. In the fifth, though, Virginia finally got to him. Back-to-back singles by Beau Seabury and Jeremy Farrell put U.Va. runners at first and second and none out. The crowd roared, and the volume rose again after Wingfield's sacrifice bunt moved Seabury to third and Farrell to second.

Mike Mitchell followed with a fly that landed just in front of charging right-fielder Braden Wells, who couldn't keep the ball from bouncing past him. By the time Wells threw the ball home, Seabury and Farrell had scored, and Mitchell was at second. One out later, Tyler Cannon smashed a double over Wells' head to make it 3-0.

Virginia blew that lead, but O'Connor said his club isn't panicking.

"We've got one ballgame to play for a championship," he said, "and you can't ask for a better situation."

 

Cavs and Penn State will play it again
Tuesday, Jun 05, 2007 - 12:06 AM

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Virginia and Penn State have agreed to renew their football series.

The schools announced yesterday that they will play each other in 2012 and 2013. It has yet to be decided which game will be in Charlottesville and which will be in State College, Pa.

"Following the recent confirmation of the Virginia-USC series," Cavaliers coach Al Groh said in a news release, "the announcing of two games versus Penn State further shows our intent to aggressively schedule premier teams on a national scale."

U.Va. will host Southern California on Aug. 30, 2008. The teams will meet in Los Angeles on Sept. 11, 2010.

In a series that dates to 1893, Penn State leads Virginia 5-2. Under Groh, U.Va. is 1-1 against Penn State. The Wahoos upset the Nittany Lions 20-14 at Scott Stadium in 2001, Groh's first season as coach at his alma mater. In the teams' most recent meeting, Virginia lost 35-14 at PSU in 2002.

Also yesterday, U.Va. announced the starting times for its first three games this season. Virginia opens Sept. 1 at Wyoming at 2 p.m. (Eastern). The Cavaliers' next two games - Sept. 8 against Duke at Scott Stadium and Sept. 15 vs. North Carolina in Chapel Hill - each will start at noon.

The Versus network will televise the Wyoming game. U.Va.'s games against ACC rivals Duke and UNC will be carried by Lincoln Financial Sports/Raycom. - Jeff White

 

Beavers force Cavaliers to brink
The defending national champions overcome a 3-0 deficit to force a second regional title game.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Virginia put itself in position Monday night to win a baseball game with pitching and defense, just the way coach Brian O'Connor likes it.

The Cavaliers had a trip to the NCAA Super Regionals in their sights, then, in a manner of minutes, found themselves on the brink of elimination.

Defending national champion Oregon State smacked around UVa relievers Jake Rule and Michael Schwimer for three runs in the eighth inning and rallied for a 5-3 victory at Davenport Field.

One of the teams will end its season today, when the Cavaliers (45-15) and Beavers (41-18) meet at noon.

Third-seeded Oregon State, a 7-4 loser to Virginia in a 13-inning affair Saturday night, got a second chance at the Cavaliers by virtue of a 5-2 victory over second-seeded Rutgers in Monday's first game.

Daniel Turpen picked up his first save of the season by going the final three innings against Rutgers, then started and pitched into the fifth inning in the nightcap.

The winner Monday night, was Joe Paterson, who started and got the win Friday night against Rutgers, then came back on two days' rest to strike out five of the 11 UVa batters he faced.

It was Paterson's first relief appearance of the season.

"Paterson was a guy who started on a weekend, then started the next weekend," Oregon State head coach Pat Casey said. "If pitchers are taken care of throughout the year, they're capable of [pitching with limited rest].

"You can't do it with everybody. Not everybody's capable of doing it."

Neither coach could say who would start today, although O'Connor said he did not anticipate sending out Friday starter Sean Doolittle to start today's game.

Doolittle and closer Casey Lambert are both options for this afternoon's game, although Lambert threw 95 pitches in relief Saturday against Oregon State.

On Monday, the Cavaliers went with junior left-hander Pat McAnaney, who had not started since May 1 and had pitched a total of 1 23 innings in the past three weeks, but McAnaney did not disappoint.

McAnaney pitched into the sixth before giving up an unearned run, but the Cavaliers had scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it 3-0.

The big blow was a two-run double by No. 9-hitter Mike Mitchell.

Virginia opened the game with a single by Tim Henry, then failed to get a hit in seven of the next eight innings. Six of 11 strikeouts by Beavers pitchers came on called third strikes.

Rule came on for McAnaney in the sixth and, after Oregon State scored its first run on one of four Cavaliers errors, seemed to have the Beavers under control as UVa took a 3-1 lead into the top of the eighth.

"It was a perfect scenario," O'Connor said. "Just the way we drew it up before the game."

That was before Oregon State leadoff hitter Chris Hopkins hammered Rule's first pitch over the left-field fence for his second homer of the season. When Joey Wong slapped a single to left, the call went out for Schwimer.

Schwimer allowed three hits and a sacrifice to the first four batters as the Beavers went ahead 4-3.

The scoring ended with a homer off Schwimer by No. 9-hitter Jordan Lennerton to start the ninth inning.

"Pat McAnaney put us in a tremendous position to win the game and we didn't get it done," O'Connor said. "Oregon State is the defending national champion for a reason."

 

Two wins keep OSU in it
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
NORM MAVES JR.
The Oregonian

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- If there's one thing Oregon State has learned over the past three college baseball seasons, it is the difference between sick, critical and finished.

The Beavers were all three Monday, and they still will be swinging this morning for an NCAA super regional berth against Michigan.

They had to win twice Monday to get this far. After dispatching Rutgers 5-2 in the afternoon game, they beat host Virginia (45-15) to buy one more day for themselves.

Oregon State (41-18) rallied for three runs in the eighth inning and one more in the ninth to beat the stunned Cavaliers 5-3 and force today's game.

"The only thing we really asked our club to do today was play with everything they had," OSU coach Pat Casey said. "Obviously, we know our backs are pinned to the wall. Now it's a matter of how badly we want it and how hard we can play."

The Beavers played hard enough Monday. They had to patch together a pitching staff in the second game that included Daniel Turpen, who closed the Rutgers game, Blake Keitzman, Mark Grbavac and finally, in desperation, their last remaining starter, Joe Paterson (9-6).

They overcame a 3-0 deficit built when the Cavaliers finally got to a tiring Turpen for three runs in the fifth inning.

Oregon State scratched in a run in the sixth on a Virginia error, but when the Beavers put on their hitting gloves for the eighth inning, they still were down two runs.

Were the Beavers in panic mode? Not really, first baseman Jordan Lennerton said.

"We have nine innings in a game for a reason," he said. "We've done it before, so it's always in the back of our heads that if we're down late in the game, we can still score."

In one swing, the deficit was cut in half. Leadoff hitter Chris Hopkins hit the second pitch he faced over the left field fence.

"That gave us a complete lift," Lennerton said. "This came from a guy who doesn't hit many home runs. It gave us that lift, that motivation to keep going."

Joey Wong sliced a single to left field, then Darwin Barney duplicated the feat to right. Mike Lissman dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt, then Jason Ogata rolled a difficult chopper to shortstop Tyler Cannon on which he couldn't make a play, and Wong fled home with the tying run.

John Wallace, who had come into the game in the sixth inning when Virginia switched from left-handed Pat McAnaney to right-hander Jake Rule, then Michael Schwimer (3-1), untied the knot with a single to right field to score Barney.

Davenport Field, filled to a record capacity 3,212 fans -- mostly Virginians -- fell quiet.

Paterson set the Cavaliers down in order in the eighth, then Lennerton stepped in to lead off the ninth -- and drove a home run to left field, in the same place where Hopkins hit his.

"I was looking for a pitch on the outside half of the plate to hit," he said. "I got a fastball, but I'd been missing them all day. I just put a good swing on it.

"I was ticked at myself for the strikeouts, errors and letting the team down. I was happy I hit the ball out of the park to give us some insurance."

Paterson finished the Cavaliers in order in the ninth.

Casey and Virginia coach Brian O'Connor were scrambling to figure out who they were going to use for starting pitchers today; neither one could commit to a pitcher Monday night.

The winner of the OSU-Virginia game will face Michigan, which stunned No. 1 Vanderbilt 4-3 in 10 innings Monday to win the Nashville Regional and will face the winner of the OSU-Virginia game. The Associated Press reported late Monday that the super regional will be in Corvallis or Charlottesville, Va., depending on the outcome of today's game.

 

Beavers notebook Lechelt, Hopkins come through with big homers
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
NORM MAVES JR.
The Oregonian

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- When you have all your chips on the table and everything on the line, you take your aces from anywhere.

But Oregon State got the biggest help from two unlikely sources in their two wins Monday -- home runs from third baseman Lonnie Lechelt in the 5-2 victory against Rutgers and from leadoff batter Chris Hopkins in the Beavers' decisive eighth inning in the 5-3 victory over Virginia.

Hopkins had hit just one other home run all year. But Virginia's Michael Schwimer fed him a fat pitch in the eighth inning that he couldn't resist. He drove it over the left-center field fence to cut Virginia's lead to 3-2 and launch the winning rally.

"I was just trying to get on base, and he threw this fastball about letter high," Hopkins said. "I swung very, very hard at it and just happened to catch it."

As he circled the bases, his teammates bolted from their dugout to greet him.

"I knew after that happened," Hopkins said, "I might spark a rally."

Beavers coach Pat Casey laughed about it later.

"It didn't even cross my mind that he could do that," Casey said. "I can hear him now, 'Coach, you've got me dragging and pushing (bunts) and I've got all this power.' "

Lechelt is in his third year with the Beavers and never has reached the offensive potential of his high school years in Kennewick, Wash. He hit .125 as a freshman, .087 as a sophomore and going into Monday's game .214 this year. His reliable glove got him the job at third, not his bat.

But he has hit in every game in the Charlottesville Regional, including a double in the 13-inning marathon against Virginia on Saturday. He went 3 for 4 against Rutgers in the first game Monday, including a 400-foot home run to left field in the seventh inning.

Big catch: OSU shortstop Darwin Barney made a catch in the eighth inning against Virginia that Casey said was "the best defensive play I've seen in 20 years as a coach. . . . It was phenomenal."

But it wasn't even his ball to catch. It belonged to center fielder Chris Hopkins.

The Beavers had just taken a 4-3 lead against the Cavaliers when Virginia's Sean Doolittle opened the bottom of the inning with a towering fly ball in Hopkins' direction.

But suddenly Hopkins was shrugging his shoulders and staring up at the leaden sky.

"I just lost the ball," Hopkins said.

Barney, as usual, was off at the crack of the bat.

He could see that Hopkins was in trouble. Second baseman Joey Wong was in the area, too, but didn't have much of an angle.

The ball started veering over Barney's glove shoulder, where he couldn't see it, so he stuck his glove out and the ball settled into it.

He crashed, rolled, and held the ball up in his glove.