Pitcher rebounds to Beaver mound
Mike Stutes returns to home state with plenty of ‘Friday night’ skill
CORVALLIS Ñ Mike Stutes, stud pitcher at Lake Oswego High, is now stud pitcher for the Oregon State Beavers.
The transformation took a while, though. It involved another university and a realization that going away to college isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.
“Sometimes when there’s a good program down the road, the grass is greener on the other side,” says Dan Spencer, Oregon State’s well-regarded pitching coach.
So when Stutes Ñ the state’s player of the year in 2004 after leading the Lakers to the state championship Ñ went hunting for a college destination, he chose Santa Clara over OSU.
“I kind of wanted to get away and and be on my own,” says Stutes, who will start Sunday for the fourth-ranked Beavers (34-11 overall, 11-4 in Pac-10 play) in the finale of their three-game series against Arizona State at Tempe. “I wanted to get away from home and do the whole college thing.”
After a freshman year in which he went 4-5 with a 5.40 ERA, Stutes transferred to Oregon State.
“I liked Santa Clara as a school and made some good friends,” says the 6-1, 185-pound sophomore right-hander, “but the baseball program didn’t work out for me. They were playing more politics; I need to be in a program where the whole focus is on winning. That’s how I am. Everything I do is to win the game. That’s my only goal. That’s what’s important here at Oregon State.”
Stutes chose OSU over offers from Louisiana State, Long Beach State and Texas Christian, even though the other schools promised a spot in the starting rotation. Oregon State was returning starters Dallas Buck, Jonah Nickerson and Anton Maxwell from a team that won the Pac-10 and reached the College World Series; the only promise was a fair shake.
“They told me Anton was (the third) starter; he went 11-1 last year and deserved it,” Stutes says. “I knew I was going to have to come in here and prove myself. I thought I could do that.
“I talked to Coach (Pat) Casey and some of the players on the phone when they were in Omaha. I knew (shortstop) Darwin Barney pretty well and had played with and against a bunch of the (OSU) players in high school,” he says. “It was very important for me to be comfortable, and it’s about an hour away from home. I felt my best chance to improve as a player was to come here.”
The biggest draw, though, was the program itself.
“I saw what they did last year, and I wanted to be a part of that,” Stutes says. “I talked to some of the guys about that, and they said it’s the best thing they’ve done in their life.”
Stutes started the season as a spot starter and long reliever. It wasn’t a case of instant success. But ever since a four-hit, 3-0 win over Stanford on April 13, the third spot in the rotation has been his, and he has rolled to a 5-2 record. He ranks third in the Pac-10 in ERA (2.25) and fourth in opponents’ batting average (.216). He’s allowed only 47 hits with 63 strikeouts in 60 innings.
“I expected him to be good, but he has become dominant quicker than I thought he would,” Spencer says.
Casey has quickly become a fan of Stutes.
“Mike throws a live fastball and can snap a breaking ball off for a strike,” Casey says. “He’s a competitor. He always wants the ball, and he has gained confidence. For him, that was the biggest issue we needed to work with. The arm’s always been there. He walks around here like he’s supposed to be pitching in the rotation, and that type of attitude is something that really affects a pitcher’s mound presence.”
With Buck and Nickerson expected to move on to the pros this summer, Stutes could be the Beavers’ ace next season.
“Mike has Friday night stuff,” Spencer says. “There are only a few guys in this league that do; we are fortunate to have three of them.
“The difference between pitching on Friday night and just being another guy is demeanor. How tough are you? Now you’re matched up against their best guy. Mike has the kind of character and competitiveness to rise to that challenge,” he says. “He’s the odds-on-favorite to be our guy next year.”
Notes
Stutes has committed to playing for Bourne in the Cape Cod major amateur league this summer. Teammates Barney, Eddie Kunz and Mitch Canham will play for rival Falmouth, and Joe Paterson has a chance to land with the Falmouth club. É Center fielder Tyler Graham, who has struggled with a hamstring injury all spring, says the leg feels good and he will try to play this weekend. “That’s totally Tyler’s call,” Casey says. “If he gets clearance from our medical people, we’ll use him. Arizona State has a lot of left-handed arms, so his (right-handed) bat would come in handy.”
kerryeggers@portlandtribune.com