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Associated Press 18y

Stutes dominates as Oregon State eliminates Miami

NCAA

OMAHA, Neb. -- Mike Stutes watched Oregon State play in the
College World Series on TV last year.

The Beavers sure are happy he's on the mound for them this time
around.

Stutes allowed one run in six-plus innings and Oregon State
scored four times in the third to take control and eliminate Miami
8-1 in the College World Series on Tuesday night.

"I was having a good time," said the sophomore righty, who
transferred from Santa Clara before the season. "This is the
biggest stage it gets for college baseball, and I was just trying
to have a good time with it."

Shea McFeely hit a long home run for Oregon State (46-15), which
got its second win in seven CWS games and will play Rice on
Wednesday night. The Beavers need to beat the Owls twice to advance
to the championship series this weekend.

Stutes (8-2) cruised through his first six innings, and had his
legs massaged by the team trainer in between trips to the mound to
prevent cramping. He allowed one hit -- a single by Eddy Rodriguez
in the fifth -- before tiring in the seventh.

"Mike was outstanding to handcuff Miami for as long as he
did," Casey said. "Mike's got a great arm -- and location,
location, location. And then, when you're throwing at 91, 92 [mph],
that location really works out."

Stutes gave up a one-out homer to Dennis Raben that landed five
rows from the top of the bleachers in right field to put Miami on
the scoreboard. The Hurricanes (42-24) routed Oregon State 11-1 on
Saturday, but the Beavers turned the tables on them in this one.

"Miami is a really good hitting club also, so we knew we had to
go out and get a little revenge because they put it on us the other
day," catcher Mitch Canham said. "The offense stepped it up and
Mike came out and gave us a great showing on the mound."

After Raben's homer, Stutes gave up consecutive singles to
Yonder Alonso and pinch-hitter Gus Menendez before being replaced
by Eddie Kunz. After handing the ball to coach Pat Casey, Stutes
walked off the mound and received a standing ovation from the crowd
behind the Beavers' dugout and high-fives from his teammates.

Stutes allowed one run and four hits in 6 1-3 innings, struck
out three and walked one.

"He had great stuff," Miami outfielder Jon Jay said. "He was
locating and getting ahead of our hitters. We couldn't do a good
job figuring him out. The key to him was getting ahead of us and
making good pitches. He was on tonight."

Stutes was helped by two dazzling defensive plays early. Jay hit
a liner with two outs in the first that tailed away from left
fielder Cole Gillespie, but the speedy outfielder closed in on the
ball, dived and made a sliding catch.

With two outs in the fourth, Danny Valencia lined a hard
one-hopper that shortstop Darwin Barney knocked down, recovered and
threw to first to get the runner.

Oregon State took charge in the third against Carlos Gutierrez
(9-7). Scott Santschi hit a leadoff double, moved to third on
Barney's single and scored on a wild pitch that bounced away from
Rodriguez behind the plate and rolled to the backstop.

John Wallace ended Gutierrez's short night with a single that
put runners on second and third. The right-hander allowed four runs
and four hits in two innings.

It was Gutierrez's first appearance for the Hurricanes since May
19, when he gave up five runs in 1 2/3 innings against Georgia
Tech. He has been battling arm troubles and it was originally
thought he needed Tommy John surgery before he was cleared to pitch
in Omaha.

Gillespie greeted reliever Marcelo Albir with a double -- his
school-record 25th of the season -- to make it 3-0. Bill Rowe drove
in another run on a groundout to first. One out later, Canham
singled to make it 5-0.

McFeely led off the fourth by jumping on an 0-1 pitch from
sidearmer Jon McLean and sending the ball deep into the second
section of seats in left field to give the Beavers a 6-0 lead.

"It looked like someone teeing off at the driving range kind
of," Canham said. "Shea has the ability to do that."

Canham added an RBI double in the fifth. Tyler Graham's RBI
triple in the ninth made it 8-1.

Oregon State got its first run in the opening inning on Rowe's
sacrifice fly to left.

Miami avoided being shut out at the College World Series for the
first time since a 4-0 loss to Arizona State on June 4, 1994. The
loss ended an impressive run for the Hurricanes, who were the only
team to win both a regional and super regional on the road to make
it to the College World Series.

"We had to fight through a lot of adversity, probably the
toughest road of anybody to come to Omaha this year," Miami coach
Jim Morris said. "They fought through that. Our bats were slow
tonight. We ran out of gas. I'm not quite sure why that is. We
didn't swing the bat and hit the fastball like we've been hitting
it."

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