Win One is a gripper.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

OMAHA, Neb. - In consecutive appearances in the College World Series, Oregon State has about seen it all except this: winning its opening game.

The Beavers got past that challenge Saturday night, turning back Cal State-Fullerton 3-2 in Rosenblatt Stadium, though the 26,559 who made it the ninth-largest crowd in series history weren't sure until the final out was recorded with a Titan on third and the potential winning run on first.

As if OSU (45-18) knows an easy way to win a game. But at least the Beavers did win this one. In the previous two Junes here, it was an opening loss that put them immediately into elimination games.

`It's nice to go into the second game 1-0,' OSU shortstop Darwin Barney said. `The last two years it's been tough. You get so worked up and you're so excited to get on that field, and then you get beat.'

This victory puts the Beavers up against Arizona State (49-13) on Monday at 4 p.m. PDT. The Pac-10 champion Sun Devils won three of four from the Beavers during the season, including a sweep of a series late in the conference schedule.

`It was the bottom for us,' said OSU outfielder Scott Santschi, who drove in two of the OSU runs, one on his first homer of the season. `You could say it's (seeking) redemption, but it's more we're a different team now than the way we played in the Pac-10.'

True. Since being swept by the Sun Devils, OSU has won 9-of-11 games it has played, all against NCAA Tournament teams.

And now the Beavers have even won an opening game in Omaha.

`To win the first one takes the pressure off you,' OSU coach Pat Casey said, before turning from pleased to cautious. `Let's just take it one at a time. We've got a great Arizona State team on Monday.'

The Titans (38-24) certainly offered their own set of challenges. This is a program well versed in this situation, with this being Cal State-Fullerton's fourth appearance at Rosenblatt Stadium in the past five years, including a national title run as recently as 2004.

And like the Beavers, the Titans were on a late roll, with five consecutive wins as they roared through the regionals and a Super Regional without a defeat. The pitcher the Beavers beat Saturday night was Wes Roemer, who still set a school record for career strikeouts with 366, including his seven in this defeat.

Two of the runs he gave up were solo homers, by Mike Lissman in the first inning and Santschi in the seventh.

`I'd love to have those two pitches back,' Roemer said. `They were bad pitches, but they were the only two bad pitches I threw all game.

`Unfortunately, that's what beat us.'

Lissman's blast to left was his ninth of the season, matching Mitch Canham for the team high, so no surprise there. But Santschi? The senior's last home run was in last year's NCAA Tournament, and he now has three in his career.

The third one, about two rows deep in the stands in right-center, came when Roemer left a changeup high in the strike zone.

`It was high enough that I got a good eye on it, and I sat back and got enough of it,' Santschi said. `Maybe the wind helped, I don't know, but it went far enough.'

OSU's other run came in the second inning when Santschi singled in John Wallace, who had singled and advanced to third on Roemer's errant pickoff throw and a groundout.

Roemer ended up throwing 123 pitches in eight innings before being pulled, ending a streak of three complete games.

`He's referred to as a bulldog and (Barney) said he gets better as the game goes on,' Santschi said. `He's a tough kid. You definitely want to get those hits and get those runs across early.'

It especially helped with freshman Jorge Reyes on the mound for OSU. He acknowledged some early nerves.

`It's something I've never experienced before,' Reyes said of his start in this setting.

Reyes worked the first six innings, allowing a fourth-inning home run by Nick Mahin among his three hits, before leaving after a slight injury to his right calf muscle. Joe Paterson allowed a run in the eighth on an infield single - that's what the official scorer ruled a bobbled grounder - and a single off the pitcher's foot before a sacrifice fly brought the Titans within 3-2.

Then it got very interesting in the ninth. Paterson recorded the first two outs, and the game appeared over when CSF's Evan McArthur, a North Medford graduate, lofted a fly to left. But Barney and Wallace had a communication breakdown, and the ball fell for an error.

That brought in Eddie Kunz, and he recorded his 12th save on a groundout, but only after a single put runners at the corners.

`I was feeling pretty good about our defense until two out in the ninth,' Casey joked.

OREGON STATE VS. ARIZONA STATE

4 p.m. Monday at Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha, Neb.

TV: ESPN. Radio: KKNX-AM (840).