Downtrodden Huskies face red-hot Beavers

Apr 19, 2013, 12:00 AM

It’s been a long and trying season for the Washington baseball team. Injuries, struggles on the mound, and a lack of timely hitting have doomed the Huskies to the cellar of the Pac-12, where they sit with a 9-25 record, 3-9 in Pac-12 play. Next up for the Huskies is one of the hottest teams in the country. This weekend, the UW plays host to No. 5 Oregon State in a three-game set that features a night game Friday and afternoon matchups Saturday and Sunday. Oregon State’s pitching staff, one of the best in college baseball, has the Beavers (29-6, 10-2 Pac-12) on a four-game win streak, including a sweep of Utah this past weekend. On the season, Oregon State’s team ERA is 1.87, and it holds opponents to a .203 batting average, both tops in the conference. Despite the fact that his team will be facing such a dominant squad, UW head coach Lindsay Meggs said he is focused only on his team. “For us, it’s just about getting better at everything we do,” Meggs said. “We’re really not even thinking much about them.” The Huskies are coming off a tough home loss to Seattle University on Tuesday. The Redhawks hit the Huskies hard: The UW gave up 11 hits and 10 runs in a 10-4 loss. Despite the struggles on the mound, perhaps the biggest letdown from Tuesday’s loss was the normally solid UW defense’s pair of costly errors that allowed the Redhawks to put the game away. Meggs said his team’s struggles in the field, while frustrating, are not his biggest concern. “We’ve played pretty good defense,” Meggs said. “It’s disappointing, because that’s kept us in a lot of games, and we just didn’t do it.” As he usually does for a weekend series, Meggs will likely trot out ace Austin Voth on Saturday to try and match up with Oregon State’s number two. The first and third games will probably be started by two of a group of UW starters that includes Nick Palewicz, Trevor Dunlap, Tyler Davis, and Jared Fisher. The Beavers will likely begin the series with Matt Boyd, a senior from Mercer Island who is 7-1 with a 1.55 ERA in his first season as a starter. However, Boyd isn’t the only Oregon State starter who has been hot recently. The Beavers’ three weekend starters — Boyd, right-hander Andrew Moore, and left-hander Ben Wetzler — have allowed just seven earned runs in their last 42 1/3 innings pitched combined. Meggs understands that Oregon State poses an extremely tall task for a struggling team. But he was adamant that his squad is not focused on who takes the field opposite them. “Right now, we’re treating everybody the same,” Meggs said. “We’re having trouble with everything. Those guys can hit, they can pitch, and they can defend, but we’re not going to worry about them.” Reach reporter Daniel Rubens at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @drubens12

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