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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 6:35 p.m., Monday, June 18, 2007

CWS: Oregon State pounds Arizona State, 12-6

Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — Mike Stutes and three relievers combined to hold one of the nation's top hitting and scoring teams to seven hits, and Oregon State revved up its own offense to beat Arizona State 12-6 in the College World Series on Monday night.

The defending champion Beavers, who had seven hits in a 3-2 win over Fullerton Saturday, scored every inning until the seventh and finished with 18 hits. Mike Lissman went 3-for-4 with a three-run homer and four RBIs. Chris Hopkins, Joey Wong and Jason Ogata also had three hits apiece, and Jordan Lennerton homered.

The performance was a stark contrast to last month's Pac-10 series in Corvallis, Ore. The Sun Devils swept the three games, limiting the Beavers to a total of nine hits.

The Beavers (46-18) play Wednesday against the winner of a Tuesday night Bracket 2 elimination game between UC Irvine (46-16-1) and Arizona State (49-14). Irvine or ASU would have to beat the Beavers twice to keep them out of the best-of-three championship round that starts Saturday against the Bracket 1 winner.

Stutes (11-4), making his third career CWS start and winning for the second time, allowed only two singles until he left with the bases loaded in the seventh.

Blake Keitzman relieved and gave up an RBI single to Raoul Torrez and a two-run single to Eric Sogard. Petey Paramore delivered a long sacrifice fly against Joe Paterson to trim the Beavers' lead to 12-5 in the ninth.

Stutes was solid for a second straight start in the NCAA tournament. He allowed two runs on three hits in eight innings of the Beavers' super regional clincher against Michigan.

Making his latest outing more impressive was the lineup he was facing. Arizona State was batting .348 with 78 home runs in 62 games.

In losing three straight at home to the Sun Devils a month ago, Oregon State batters hit a combined .105 (9-of-86).

ASU coach Pat Murphy was looking for an encore from the two pitchers who played key roles in that series.

Brian Flores (11-2), who pitched a complete-game one-hitter against the Beavers last month, started Monday and faced only seven batters, allowing two runs on four hits.

Josh Satow, who allowed two hits and no runs in eight innings against OSU last month, entered in the second inning and left after the fourth having allowed six runs on eight hits.