Spring Break
For Beavers, Cardinal season rides on weekend games
Oregon State, Stanford meet this weekend with potential postseason berth up for grabs
Casey Grogan
Issue date: 5/22/09 Section: Sports
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The Daily Barometer
For Oregon State and its opponent, the Stanford Cardinal, a series loss this weekend could mean the end of the season. For the victor a chance to participate in the NCAA tournament could be the reward.
"I wouldn't say its backs against the wall, but we know what we have to do and that is obviously to win," said sophomore pitcher Tyler Waldron.
Fresh off a big 14-4 victory over Oregon, Oregon State (33-16, 13-11 Pac-10) is looking to take advantage of a Cardinal team (29-23, 12-12) that has lost its past two games. In the Beavers routing of the Ducks, junior shortstop Joey Wong racked up four hits and drove in three runs.
Head coach Pat Casey has yet to announce his starting rotation for the weekend, but it will likely include freshman Sam Gaviglio. Sporting a 8-1 record, Gaviglio earned his first Pac-10 conference start last weekend in Oregon State's 8-2 win over Washington State. Gaviglio went 7.2 innings in the Beavers' only win of the weekend against the Cougars.
"We know we need to win every game to be sure to get into the postseason," said senior outfielder John Wallace. "We have to take it one game at a time and we need to find a way to win."
The Beavers offense is led by junior catcher Ryan Ortiz, who is hitting a team high .358 with 17 doubles and is tied for a team high with four home runs. Following Ortiz is sophomore first baseman Jared Norris and his .333 average.
Hitting .329 with four home runs and a team high of 11 stolen bases is junior designated hitter Adalberto Santos. Sophomore outfielder Michael Miller rounds out the Beavers hitting above .300, with his .310 average.
On the opposite side of the field is a Stanford Cardinal team who, like Oregon State, feels they need a series victory to advance to the postseason. Having advanced to the College World Series last season, the Cardinal started the 2009 season slow, losing nine of their first 12 games.
"We were in the same situation a couple years ago when we needed to go down to UCLA and win a couple games," Wallace said. "The Stanford series is big and we need to come out focused. We need to put everything on the line because that might be our last if we don't."
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