The Barometer Online

Issue date: 3/4/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Peter Strong Jason Ogata had a solid weekend for Oregon State against Georgia during Papé Grand Slam. Ogata had five hits, including a pair of home runs and drove in six runs as well for OSU.

Before the 2008 Oregon State baseball season started, there was one main question surrounding the team: Who could fill the leadership shoes on the field after the departure of two of Oregon State's all time greatest players, Darwin Barney and Mitch Canham?

This past weekend at the inaugural Papé Grand Slam, the Beavers may have begun to start answering that question.

A leader may have been born as Jason Ogata made his homecoming a memorable one. The junior from Portland was a combined 5-for-11 with two home runs and six RBI's for the series. He is now hitting .478 (11-for-23), and has hit safely in all six games so far this season.

But perhaps the most promising aspect of Ogata's weekend was not the production he accumulated, but the timing for which he did it.

In the first game of the series, Oregon State trailed Georgia 3-2 in the fifth inning. With a full count, two on and two outs, Ogata hit a shot down the line just out of the diving right fielder's reach, clearing the bases, himself included, for the eventual game winning inside the park home run.

That would not be the last moment of heroism on the weekend for the transfer from LSU. Ogata was instrumental in the Beavers' 5-4 win on Sunday as well, doing it with his bat and his arm.

In the fifth inning with the Beavers trailing 3-1 and one out, Georgia center fielder Matt Cerione hit a line drive to the wall in right field. Cerione tried to stretch the double into a triple, but right fielder Danny Robertson hit Ogata, his cut off man perfectly. Ogata in turn threw out the speedy Cerione just in time from short right field to end the threat in the fifth. A crucial play to help keep the Beavers in the game.

Not to let his offense be outdone, Ogata hit his second home run of the series in the sixth inning with a line drive to left field cutting the Georgia lead to 4-2. When Ogata's next at bat came in the seventh, he showed the 11,100 fans at PGE park what the staple of Oregon State baseball has been the past three years: clutch hitting.

Continued...

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