Kunda comes through for Beavers

Second baseman has huge regional as OSU advances in postseason

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Jun 6, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

CORVALLIS Ñ A year ago Ñ even four months ago as the 2006 season got under way Ñ it wouldn’t have been difficult to envision Dallas Buck or Jonah Nickerson or Tyler Graham standing at the podium, addressing the media as Most Valuable Player of an NCAA regional.

But Chris Kunda?

Oregon State’s senior second baseman, who entered the season expecting to play a backup role, couldn’t have been more important last weekend as the Beavers swept through three opponents to set up a Super Regional best-of-three matchup with Pac-10 rival Stanford. The winner heads to Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series.

Kunda hit the game-winning, eighth-inning, two-run single in OSU’s opening 5-3 win over Wright State, blasted his first two home runs of the season in an 11-3 rout of Kansas and showed why he was Pac-10 defensive player of the year in the Beavers’ deciding 12-3 undressing of Hawaii in the championship game.

“It just happened to be one of those weekends where the offense finally came around,” says the Philomath native, who came into the season with a reputation as a good-glove, light-hitting player but is now carrying a .290 average hitting in the two hole. “I was confident, saw the ball real well every at-bat. It was nice to be in one of those zones for all three games.”

Fans were standing and chanting “Koooon-da!” during Saturday’s fence-clearing display against Kansas.

“His newfound power boosted us to new heights this weekend,” ace closer Kevin Gunderson says with a smile. “But he’s just been playing great. Anytime you have a guy who can play second base like that behind you, you feel pretty comfortable out there on the mound.”

Oregon State (42-14), ranked between fourth and eighth in the four national polls, caught momentum and played better as the weekend wore on.

“We feel pretty confident,” says Nickerson, who was outstanding pitching the victory over Kansas. “This is the best baseball we’ve been playing all year. It’s the right time to hit stride.”

Notes

Stanford finished 11-13 in conference play and was swept by the Beavers (1-0, 3-0, 12-1) in a three-game series at Corvallis on April 13, 14 and 16.

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