Box Score in PDF Format 
May 30, 2009
CLEMSON, S.C. -- Oklahoma State defeated top-seeded Clemson, 3-2, Saturday night at Doug Kingsmore Stadium to move into the NCAA Clemson Regional championship round.
Neil Medchill's RBI single in the bottom of the eighth plated Micheal Dabbs with what proved to be the game-winning run, and OSU closer Randy McCurry retired the Tigers in order in the top of the ninth as the Cowboys remained undefeated in the double-elimination tourney.
Third-seeded OSU, which improved to 34-22 on the season, will face the winner of Sunday's Clemson (41-20)-Tennessee Tech (31-23-1) elimination game Sunday at 6 p.m. (CST). The Cowboys need one win to advance to next week's Super Regionals.
The first 6 ½ innings of Saturday's contest was a pitching duel between OSU's Andrew Oliver and Clemson's Casey Harman as both southpaws kept their opponents off the scoreboard.
But with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Tom Belza delivered a solo home run just inside the right field foul pole for the game's first run. It was the sophomore's fourth homer of the Regional and sixth of the season.
Up next, OSU doubled its lead as Mark Ginther crushed a 3-1 offering from Harman over the wall in left-center field to put the Cowboys on top, 2-0. The blast was the freshman's fourth of the season.
The lead would not last long. In the top of the eighth, back-to-back singles by Clemson's Brad Miller and pinch-hitter John Nester put Tigers on first and third with one out. Chris Epps then delivered an RBI single into right field to cut OSU's lead to 2-1.
Following Epps, Mike Freeman collected Clemson's fourth consecutive single, which plated the tying run and drove Oliver from the game. Epps advanced to third on the play, while Freeman took second on a throw from the outfield.
With runners on second and third and one out, OSU called on McCurry out of the bullpen to squash the rally.
And the freshman right-hander did just that. After striking out Jeff Schaus for the second out of the inning, McCurry intentionally walked Ben Paulsen to load the bases. He then induced a pop out from Kyle Parker to end the inning and keep the score tied at 2-2.
OSU answered in the bottom of the eighth. After a one-out double by Dabbs, CU recorded the second out of the frame when Tyrone Hambly grounded out. But Medchill singled off the glove of Paulsen at first base, and the ball carried into right field to allow Dabbs to score the go-ahead run.
McCurry earned the win on the mound with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief. He did not allow a hit and recorded three strikeouts, including two in the top of the ninth, to improve to 4-1 on the season.
Oliver lasted 7.1 innings, allowing two runs on eight hits. The junior southpaw struck out six and allowed just one walk.
Throughout the middle innings, Oliver escaped damage repeatedly by making big pitches and getting strong defense behind him.
In the fourth, Clemson squandered a leadoff double as the Cowboys turned an inning-ending double play on a line drive off the bat of Paulsen.
OSU repeated the feat in the fifth, as this time a leadoff single by Parker went for naught as the next batter, Wilson Boyd, lined into a double play.
In the seventh, Clemson stranded another runner as following a double by Paulsen, Oliver struck out Parker and got Boyd to line out to third base.
Harman was equally tough as following Medchill's two-out single in the first inning, he retired 17 of the next 19 OSU batters, with the only two Cowboys reaching base doing so via walks.
OSU Game Notes
- Medchill, Belza and Dabbs each extended hitting streaks Saturday. Medchill has now hit safely in 11-straight games, while Belza's hitting streak is now at 10. Dabbs has a hit in eight consecutive games.
- OSU is now 11-8 in NCAA Tournament play under head coach Frank Anderson.
- Prior to Belza and Ginther's home run blasts, the last time the Cowboys had hit back-to-back homers was April 1 against Tabor College when Tyrone Hambly and Marcus Knecht pulled off the feat.
Clemson vs. Oklahoma State Post-Game Quotes
Clemson head coach Jack Leggett
On the game
"It was a tough loss for us. I thought Casey pitched a heck of a game for us. Oliver did a nice job pitching, we just couldn't seem to catch up to his fastball there and we had some men on base. Our golden opportunity was when we tied it up 2-2 and we had men on second and third and couldn't finish it off. It was a rough ballgame, but now our goal is focused on the game tomorrow at three o'clock."
On hard hitting right at fielders
"It's frustrating, there is no question about it. I thought we put some good swings on the ball, when Boyd hit that ball to the third baseman. We kept hitting the balls hard, but you
have to find some holes. If we could find a few holes then we can position ourselves at the end. We just need to find a way to get men on base. From top to bottom we just need to be a little bit more productive, and make a little bit better adjustments sometimes. We have to just come back tomorrow and put this one behind us. Our new goal is to win this first ballgame and then get that second one.
On the fly ball to left resulting in Dabbs' eighth inning double
"I thought when it was hit that it had a chance to drop, but it hung up there for us and then I don't think it miscommunicated. He may not have seen Jeff come out of the corner of his eye, or what happened. It's obviously unfortunate, if we could have made that play we would have been in better shape. Now we have to go back and concentrate on tomorrow."
On pitchers
"Well we have some pitching left, so we will be okay. We will be ready to play tomorrow. We will throw Chris Dwyer on the mound tomorrow and just take one inning at a time, one game at a time. Get ourselves back where we need to be and give ourselves an opportunity to win. I think we have enough arms, we just have to hit the ball, play good defense and pick up some runs with men on base."
On getting a faster start
"We just need to get some leadoff men on base, and then like I said just have to break the ice a little bit early. As the game goes on, they were the home team and Casey was pitching so well we needed to get him some runs to give him more margin for error. We just have to keep on battling, keep working our line up, find a way to get leadoff men on base, push them around and just do all of those things that teams that win tournaments have to do."
On home-field advantage
"I hope they will come out tomorrow and get behind our kids. Our kids have been battling hard, and we have our back against the wall so what better time to support your team than tomorrow."
Clemson pitcher Casey Harman
On pitches hit for home runs
"First one was a slider, and the second one was a fastball. He put a pretty good swing on the slider, if I could take that pitch back I would and throw a better one to him."
On Belza
"Obviously I heard about him hitting the three home runs, but my mentality I go out and try to get everyone out. I don't look at somebody like I have to pitch him differently than anybody else, you have to go after everybody. That's how I was trying to be tonight, but he got the best of me and I tip my hat to him. We are just going to try and move forward and win these next couple of games."
First baseman Ben Paulsen
On tomorrow
"Just have to play the next game our hardest. This one will actually have a chance to
be our last one. We just need to play our best baseball, and I have a good feeling about tomorrow."
On grounder off his glove in eighth resulting in game-winning hit
"That is one of those plays that you practice. You feel like you can make it every
time, but it just hit off the heel of my glove and into the outfield. I guess it was hit just
hard enough and off my glove for a runner to score off second."
Oklahoma State head coach Frank Anderson
On game
"Obviously it was a really well played game. Casey pitched very well for Clemson, and then we had one scratch hit I think through six innings, then we hit a couple balls pretty hard and they hit some balls pretty hard as well. We got double plays out of them, and it was that type of baseball. I thought it was very competitive from both sides and there was a great crowd, and a good win for us."
On Oklahoma State pitcher Randy McCurry
"He's done a good job for us obviously. He's a freshman, and he's had some situations that have been tough for him, so he's been through tough situations. He's very competitive, and he's going to go out there and battle. And that's the biggest thing when you get in these situations; you have to have kids that will compete and he'll go out there and do that.
On criticism about making the tournament
"We really haven't thought about it that much. I was more worried about getting our team prepared the week that we didn't play in the conference tournament and never discussed it one time with the kids really, because what are you going to say? We just went about practice in the same way and watched the show, so I don't think there was that much of a chip on our shoulder. We just wanted to play and have fun and play clean baseball. And that's been our biggest goal."
Oklahoma State shortstop Tom Belza
On hitting so many home runs
"[laughs] I'm not really sure [what's going on]. I'm just up there hitting it, and I was down 1-2, same deal as yesterday. I wasn't really looking for anything, and I got a curveball and just got the barrel to it. I thought it was going to go foul, but it straightened out a lot. I don't know what happened to it, but it stayed fair so I was pretty happy."
Oklahoma State pitcher Andrew Oliver
On the game
"I was just preparing myself to pitch like I would start the game. As far as the game, I thought it was exciting. We got a couple of huge plays to help us out to get out of the inning. Our guys were ready to play, and they came swinging the bats. I was just trying to battle that other guy because he was putting up zeroes, but I thought overall we were ready to play this game."
On the eighth inning and giving up two runs
"I felt good. They started leaning toward the other half of the plate towards the end there and found some holes."
