No. 8 Oregon State Next Up

No. 8 Oregon State is the next foe for BYU baseball when it opens play on Thursday at the third annual River City Classic in California.

The Cougars are seeking their first win in seven outings this season, so it will be a tall order when they face the Beavers, 3-3, in the 2 p.m. contest hosted by UC Davis. Getting the starting nod on the mound for BYU vs. OSU is junior righthander Jesse Craig (0-2, 3.46). In addition to being ranked No. 8 by Baseball America, OSU is ranked No. 10 by Collegiate Baseball magazine, but has been ranked as high as No. 2 this season.

Thursday's game will be broadcast live via links on the Internet at www.byucougars.com.

On Friday BYU will play Washington State, 6-2, at the UC Davis Field at 10 a.m. Southpaw Patrick Wells (0-1, 9.00) is scheduled to start that game. Saturday's game against St. Mary's College, 4-4 at the start of this week, will be at Sacramento State's Hornet Field at 10 a.m. Senior Brandon Christiansen (0-0, 4.50) is scheduled to pitch against the Gaels.

Other teams in the tournament who will not be playing BYU are Portland, North Dakota State, San Francisco and co-hosts UC Davis and Sacramento State.

"This is our chance to get back up on the horse after getting bucked off," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "We are struggling with our confidence, and we hope these games will get us back to respectability. We have a solid team but have been off the mark on hitting. Our pitching is going to continue to get better."

After the three games in California, BYU will play Southern Utah in a three-game series in St. George on March 2-4.

For more information on BYU's baseball team for this week, click on the PDF link at the top of this page.