Gazette-Times

Drew George doubled home the tying run with two outs in the ninth inning, then scored the game-winner on Jordan Lennerton’s single as fifth-ranked Oregon State beat San Francisco 3-2 in nonconference baseball Sunday afternoon at Goss Stadium.

The Beavers (20-3) stretched their winning streak to a season-high nine games.

The Beavers completed a sweep of San Francisco (9-12), the defending West Coast Conference champion, after being limited to just one hit through eight innings by Don right-hander Tommy Peale.

“There are nine innings in a game for a reason,” Lennerton said. “You don’t have to do it all in the first five innings; you’d like to, but we can handle being down late in the game and still come back and put up some runs.”

It was the third time this season the Beavers have rallied to win a game in the eighth or ninth inning.

“We just need to be focused on what it takes to win,” OSU coach Pat Casey said. “Sometimes you can play well and lose, and that’s disappointing, because what you’re really trying to do is win. You’re not really trying to outhit or outpitch your opponent. Certainly today, in the statistics of baseball, they did a much better job than we did but on the scoreboard, we won. That’s what I told our guys to focus on, was the fact that playing a team sport is about winning, it’s not about anything other than that and we found a way to win.”

Going into the bottom of the ninth, OSU trailed 2-1 and the Dons summoned left-hander Cole Stipovich, who had allowed just two runs on three hits in 51/3 innings of relief during Saturday’s game. Stipovich retired the first two Beavers, then walked Mitch Canham on a full-count pitch.

That brought George to the plate, and he fell behind in the count no balls, two strikes. On the next pitch, he drove the ball to the fence in right-center field just out of the reach of right fielder Luke Sommer and center fielder Lucas DeLong; Canham beat the throw to the plate and the game was tied 2-2.

“I was just looking for a pitch outside to hit a single to the right side of the field, and he left it up a little bit,” George said. “I got the barrel on it and drove it to the gap far enough for Mitch to score.”

San Francisco then turned to right-hander Brian Anderson, who walked Jason Ogata to put runners at first and second for Lennerton. Lennerton worked the count to two balls, two strikes, then lined the next pitch down the right field line to plate George with the winning run.

“He threw me a slider on the first pitch that was up, and I’m happy that he did because it gave me a chance to see what he had,” Lennerton said. “Then he threw me a couple of fastballs; once I had two strikes on me I just tried to cover the plate and make sure I could handle the outside pitch. He threw me a slider that came in and I pulled it to right field. That’s what every baseball player dreams about. I love having the crowd behind me and my teammates up on the top step and everybody supporting you, and knowing you can do it.”

Lennerton’s hit made a winner of Eddie Kunz, who struck out the side in the top of the ninth. OSU starter Daniel Turpen had gone 72/3 innings, allowing two runs on seven his and no walks while recording a career-high seven strikeouts; it was the third straight start in which he had pitched at least seven innings.

Oregon State 3, San Francisco 2

SAN FRANCISCO 010 010 000 — 2 7 0

OREGON STATE 010 000 002 — 3 3 0

Peale, Stipovich (9), Anderson (9) and Morales, Norfolk. Turpen, Keitzman (8), Kunz (9) and Canham. WP: Kunz (1-0). LP: Stipovich (1-1). 2B: George (OSU). HR: Sommer (USF)

Hits: USF 7 (Railey, Poppert, Sommer, Morales, Chavez, Nelson, DeLong). OSU 3 (Lissman, George, Lennerton)

RBIs: USF 2 (Sommer, Poppert). OSU 3 (George, Lennerton, Santschi)