Brooks Hatch

We’ll have an OSU baseball story online and in print, on how the Beavers plan to adapt to the loss of Jordan Poyer and Josh Osich, on Sunday. IN the meantime, here’s a leftover item from our conversation with Kraig Sitton in conjunction with that story:

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Oregon State junior  Kraig Sitton’s been an effective situational reliever the past two seasons; the 6-5 lefty’s been especially adept against left-handed hitters.

He was 1-3 with a 4.05 ERA overall and had 27 strikeouts and only seven walks in 20 innings, and he limited opponents to a .225 batting average. He’s 3-3, 3.97 lifetime, with 50 strikeouts in 45 1/3 career innings.

His value increases as one goes deeper into the numbers.

He’s inherited 66 runners, but only 11 have scored. Last year only three of his 33 inherited runners scored, and he seemed to have an uncanny knack of getting the first or second batter he faced to hit into a double play.

Sitton worked some as a starter in fall practice, and has extensive experience in that role at McMinnville High School and with the Spokane RiverHawks of the West Coast league in 2007 and 2008 (he did not play summer ball in 2009).

A redshirt junior, Sitton was drafted in the 17th round by the Boston Red Sox last June but he eschewed turning professional – in a quality organization, to boot – for at least one more year.

And he’d gladly start this season, if asked, which might be a possibility with the season-ending elbow injury to junior left Josh Osich.

“If that’s what the team needs, then that’s what I’ll do,” Sitton said. “If I’m in the same role as last year, then whatever helps us win is OK.

“I’ve worked a lot at getting bigger and stronger, more durable to allow me to sustain more pitches,” and thus go deeper into games if asked. “And I’ve worked on my changeup as well.”

They should bottle whatever’s in the water at McMinnville High, which has produced three quality OSU pitchers who have been drafted in the past three seasons: Sitton in 2009, and Joe Paterson and Daniel Turpen in 2007.

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And, congrats to ex-Beavers shortstop Darwin Barney, now in the Cubs’ organization at triple-A Iowa. He and fiance  Lindsay Jenkins, a fellow Southridge High graduate, are getting married on Saturday.

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We had a Hawaii baseball preview from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin yesterday; here’s one from the Honolulu Advertiser today. The Beavers open their season at Hawaii on Feb. 19.

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The Pacific-10 Conference on Thursday reprimanded first-year USC women’s basketball coach Michael Cooper for his profane remarks after last Sunday’s rivalry game against UCLA, which the Trojans (sorry, there is no such thing as a “Women of Troy” on the Blog) won.

Cooper opened his postgame comments with a pithy, “F— UCLA,” a brief, concise statement the Pac-10 obviously felt was out of line. Here are the details of the reprimand.

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The West Texas Roughnecks of the Indoor Football League have received a commitment from ex-Beavers defensive back Eldorian McCullough, who was at OSU for at least part of the 2005 season after transferring from San Francisco City College. He’s not listed among OSU’s all-time lettermen in the media guide.

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And finally, congrats also to president Dan Segel and the Corvallis Knights.  Segel was a finalist for the Business Person of the Year award, and the franchise was a finalist for the Business of the Year, at the 62nd annual  Celebrate Corvallis awards ceremony on Thursday nignt.

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Related posts:

1. Brooks Hatch: Thursday update
2. Brooks Hatch: Thursday update
3. Brooks Hatch: Wednesday stuff
4. Thursday 8/2: Keitzman making his move
5. Brooks Hatch: Thursday update