May 5, 2006

Box Score

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Junior Tim Lincecum struck out 16 batters over eighth innings to become the Pac-10's career strikeouts leader and out-lasted Oregon State All-American Dallas Buck as the 22nd-ranked Washington baseball team beat fifth-ranked OSU, 6-4, Friday night at sold-out Goss Stadium.

Lincecum (11-2), the nation's lead in both strikeouts and victories, finished the game with 460 career strikeouts to pass the all-time Pac-10 record of 449, set by USC's Rik Currier between 1998 and 2001. He struck out the side in order in the second and the fifth, when all three were on called third strikes. He also fanned four in the eighth, thanks to a third-strike wild pitch. In his eigtht innings of work, he allowed four runs on five hits, walking five.

The win improved the Huskies to 31-17 overall and 9-7 in Pac-10 play while Oregon State fell to 32-11 and 9-4. It was just the third loss of the 22 home games this season for the Beavers.

Buck, who had won 14 straight decisions dating back to last year, fell to 9-1 with the loss. Over seven and one-third innings, he allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits, walking three and striking out seven.

Lincecum got in trouble in the first, allowing a double and two walks, but a double play and a strikeout got him out of the jam. Lincecum then struck out the side in order in the second and fanned the first batter in the third before getting into more hot water.

Chris Kunda, who doubled to the first, tripled to the gap in left-center field. After a walk and a shallow flyout put runners at the corners with two outs, Lincecum got ahead of OSU left fielder Cole Gillespie. However, Gillespie belted an 0-2 pitch out over the fence in left-center field, giving the Beavers a 3-0 lead with his ninth homer of the season.

The Huskies, who were retired in order the first time through the lineup, stormed back with four runs in the top of the fourth. With runners at first and third and two outs, a wild pitch allowed Jake Rife to scored the UW's first run. Curt Rindal followed with an RBI single to cut the lead to 3-2 and then sophomore Matt Stevens launched a towering fly ball just over the left-field wall, his 15th home run of the year, to give the Huskies a 4-3 lead.

The Huskies' four runs snapped Buck's streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 25 and two-thirds.

After giving up the home run, Lincecum settled in, retiring 11 of the next 12 Beavers hitters. However, with one out in the seventh, OSU right fielder Scott Santschi hit a fly ball to left that Zach Clem lost in the sun and dropped for a triple. After Lincecum hit Ryan Gipson with a pitch, Kunda grounded the first pitch to sharply to third to start an inning-ending double play.

Washington added two insurance runs in the eighth. With one out, Rife doubled and Matt Hague reached on an error. Clem followed with a single to right, scoring Rife and chasing Buck from the game. Reliever Joe Paterson got a force at second for the second out, but Rindal came through with an RBI single to make it a 6-3 Husky lead.

OSU replied with one run in the bottom of the eighth. After John Wallace reached on a third-strike wild pitch to lead off, Darwin Barney walked. Gillespie followed with an RBI single, but Lincecum fanned the next three Beavers to end the threat.

Husky sophomore Elliott Cribby struck out two of the three OSU batters he faced in the ninth inning to pick up his ninth save of the season.

Saturday's game two of the series will air live both on KKNW AM-1150 and FSN-TV.

LINESCORE
Pac-10 Conference Game
#22 Washington 6, #5 Oregon State 4
Washington      000 400 020 -- 6 7 0
Oregon State    003 000 010 -- 4 5 1
Tim Lincecum, Elliott Cribby (9) and Matt Lane. Dallas
Buck, Joe Paterson (8), Mark Grbavac (8) and Mitch Canham.
W - Lincecum (11-2). L - Buck (9-1). Sv - Cribby (9). 2B -
UW, Jake Rife; OSU, Chris Kunda. 3B - OSU, Kunda, Scott
Santschi. HR - UW, Matt Stevens (15); OSU, Cole Gillespie
(9). T - 2:36. A - 2,362.