Greg Peavey Turns in Solid Start in Beavers Series Clinching Win Over Georgia.
March 4, 2008Future Knights Jason Ogata and John Wallace Lead OSU Offense
Greg Peavey of Vancouver, Washington was named the top newcomer to the Pac-10 by Baseball America in the national publication's college preview issue. The Oregon State Beavers were featured on the cover and ranked #7.Peavey pitched last summer for the Corvallis Knights. Greg made 12 appearances and went 0-1 while recording 4 saves and posting a 1.14 ERA. He struck out 26 over 23 2/3 innings pitched and was named the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League's #1 prospect by Baseball America and All-WCCBL honorable mention.
Oregon State opened its 2008 season vs. #3 ranked Vanderbilt Friday, Feb. 22 in the DeMarini Invitational in Tempe, Arizona. Vandy beat the defending champs 8-1. Three-year Knight Erik Ammon started at catcher and 2007 Knights' centerfielder Braden Wells led off and started in leftfield.
The Beavs went 1-2 in Arizona beating Miami of Ohio 8-3 and losing to #1 ranked and host Arizona State 11-0.
Peavey debuted vs. the Sun Devils. The frosh struggled and didn't make it out of the first inning. But Greg rebounded with an impressive outing vs. Georgia in a critical rubber game this past Sunday at PGE Park.
The hard throwing right-hander tossed 6 2/3 innings allowing 7 hits and 4 runs while walking none and striking out 7 Bulldogs. Greg was relieved by his 2007 Knights' teammate southpaw Blake Keitzman of Roseburg, Oregon. Keitzman got Peavey out of the inning and OSU rallied with 2 runs in the bottom half of the inning and the winning run in the eighth to beat Georgia 5-4 before a Pac-10 record crowd of 11,166.
"I think the key was the fact that Peavey stayed with it and our club continued to find a way to get some guys on base and manufacture a couple runs," said OSU head baseball coach Pat Casey.
Keitzman has now made 3 scoreless relief appearances and has struck out 6 over 4 innings pitched.
Future Knights Jason Ogata and John Wallace led the Beavers offense vs. UGA.
Ogata hit a game-winning three-run inside the park homer in Friday's 6-4 win and homered and delivered a game-tying, two-out RBI single in Sunday's series clinching victory. The junior infielder/designated hitter from Westview High School in Beaverton, Oregon went 5 for 11 with a homerun and 6 RBI. Wallace, a junior outfielder from Reno, Nevada, went 5 for 8 with a double, homer and 2 RBI. Wallace leads the team in hitting with a .444 batting average, Ogata is second at .429. Jason leads the team in RBI with 10.
Oregon State's three-game set at PGE Park drew 29,332.
OSU is now 6-1 vs. University of Georgia over the past three years going back to the Beavs 2006 College World Series 5-3 win over the Bulldogs.
Future Knight pitcher Taylor Starr from Longview, Washington made his OSU debut in Saturday's game vs. Georgia. The frosh right-hander tossed two scoreless innings of relief.
Oregon State improved its record to 4-3 with a 16-0 whitewashing of University of Portland this afternoon at Joe Etzel Field.
Knights alums Brett Casey ('06-07), Erik Ammon ('05-07), Josh Keller ('06) and Brad Kidd ('07) all had great days. Casey collected a double and 2 RBI; Ammon was 1 for 1; Keller tossed 3 hitless innings of relief and struck out 5 Pilots; and Kidd, a sophomore transfer from BYU, threw a scoreless inning of relief.
Future Knight left-hander Josh Osich from Boise, Idaho threw a scoreless frame in relief, striking out 3. Ogata hit a two-run double to extend his hitting streak to 7 games and Wallace hammered his second homer and collected 3 RBI.
OSU heads to San Diego for four games (LMU, Santa Clara, USD and San Diego State) starting this Friday.
