Zags sweep two-time champ OSU

The target on the back of Oregon State University’s baseball team has grown considerably since last spring.

That’s what happens when you win back-to-back NCAA championships.

Win one, especially if you’re a little-known school from a cold-weather climate like Corvallis, and some might consider it a fluke. But back that first one up with a second and you suddenly become the team everyone – even the perennial national powers – start gunning for.

The trick is understanding how much that target has expanded and then responding accordingly, which OSU coach Pat Casey didn’t think his 23rd-ranked Beavers (20-16) did Tuesday and Wednesday when they dropped a pair of non-conference road games to unranked Gonzaga (27-18) at Patterson Baseball Complex.

“That’s one of the challenges our kids are supposed to meet,” Casey said, when asked about being the main blip on every opponent’s radar following Wednesday’s 4-2 loss to the Bulldogs. “The game has to be as big to you as it to the guys you’re playing and, obviously, this Tuesday and Wednesday, it wasn’t for our kids. … Our kids didn’t play with any kind of intensity. They didn’t show up.”

Gonzaga, after using a six-run eighth inning to reel in the Beavers and post an 11-6 upset win on Tuesday, kept things more conventional Wednesday, using a winning two-out single by Grant Kveder to break a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh. Kveder scored on the play, thanks to a three-base scoring error, and made a winner out of Brandon Harmon (3-6), the third of four pitchers used by GU coach Mark Machtolf.

Afterward, Bulldogs first baseman Ryan Wiegland, who had a pair of hits and drove in a run, tried to downplay the importance of sweeping the two-time defending College World Series winners.

“We try not to change our approach all that much – just stick to the plan we have and play the way we’re coached to play,” he said. “But it’s a lot more fun playing one of the top teams in the country at home, getting some good crowds out here and being able to beat them twice on our home field – especially with the big (West Coast Conference) series we have coming up here this weekend against San Francisco.”

Cougs meet OSU next

Oregon State will continue its five-game road swing through eastern Washington on Saturday, when it takes on Pac-10 rival Washington State at Bailey-Brayton Field in the first game of a three-game series that concludes Monday.

WSU (22-19, 3-9), which won two out of three games against the Beavers in Corvallis, Ore., last season, is coming off a 6-2 non-conference home loss to San Jose State that snapped a three-game winning streak and didn’t set with coach Donnie Marbut.

“I was disappointed with our lack of effort in every facet of the game,” Marbut said after Saturday’s loss to the Spartans. “You cannot take a day off against the teams on our schedule.”

Martin sets Zags record

Gonzaga freshman Cody Martin pitched the ninth inning Wednesday against OSU and picked up his eighth save of the season to break the previous single-season school record of seven set by Randy Bostic in 1982.

Martin, who came into the game with a 3-0 record and a team-leading earned run average of 2.08, tied Bostic’s record on April 12 but had not pitched in a save situation since earning a spot in the Bulldogs’ starting rotation.

Sasquatch sweep

Cody Reeves had four hits as CC Spokane outlasted Big Bend in the 13-inning opening game and Braden Friesz had three hits in a second-game win as the Sasquatch (17-18, 8-14) posted a 2-1, 14-9 sweep in Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges play at Spokane Falls Community College.

Rylin Dukes and Ben Chavarria each had three hits for the Vikings (14-24, 5-17) on the day.

Quick pitches

Washington State’s Scott Suttmeier singled in the third inning of Saturday’s 6-2 loss to San Jose State to extend his hitting streak to 16 games. … Gonzaga outfielder Drew Heid was named to the Collegiate Baseball Foundation’s National All-Star Lineup this week after going 10 for 15 with five doubles and a home run in four games last week. Heid, named the WCC’s Player of the Week on Monday, also drove in five runs and scored six in last week’s offensive outburst.