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USC Rides The Buss To 5-2 Win Over Oregon State
May 17, 2008 LOS ANGELES - Junior center fielder Nick Buss (Clinton Township, Mich./San Diego Mesa CC) went 2-for-4 with three RBI and recorded his first career two-home run game Saturday as the USC Trojans defeated the Oregon State Beavers, 5-2. USC has won the first two games against the two-time defending national champions and keeps its postseason hopes alive with four games to play. The Trojans (26-26, 9-11) have won four straight games and five of their last six to reach the .500 mark for the first time since April 20. Junior right-hander Ryan Cook (Clovis/Clovis HS) picked up the win, going seven innings and allowing two runs on eight hits with two walks and six strikeouts. He allowed two runs and five hits in the first two innings, but stopped the Beavers (25-22, 11-12) after that by giving up just three hits in five innings. Grant Green and Anthony Vasquez had two hits each for the Trojans while Vasquez threw two innings of scoreless relief to pick up his first save as a Trojan. Jorge Reyes (3-3) took the loss for Oregon State, giving up four runs on six hits in six innings. He struck out nine while walking two. John Wallace and Ryan Ortiz recorded three hits apiece in the game. Ortiz singled home Chris Hopkins in the first and Jason Ogata's RBI double in the second made it a 2-0 OSU advantage. A wild pitch in the USC second scored Derek Perren from third for the Trojans' first run. Buss hit a solo shot in the third to tie the game at 2-2 and his second homer, a two-run shot in the fifth, put the Trojans ahead for good. USC would later add an insurance run in the eighth on Vasquez's RBI single. Two fine defensive plays by Hector Rabago and Perren in the OSU ninth preserved the win as the Beavers stranded 11 runners on the day.
The series concludes tomorrow with a 1 p.m. start and will be broadcast live via a video webcast on usctrojans.com, courtesy of TrojanTV All-Access. OSU 110-000-000---2-11-1 USC 011-020-01x---5-7-0 |
