OSU
Sports History Minute - Date
Part
4 of 20: The Comeback...May 17, 1952
The 1952 OSC baseball team.
Let's
say you're playing in a baseball or softball game
and your team is down 12-0. And it's the bottom
of the eighth.
Would you give up? Toss in the towel?
This is exactly the situation Oregon State College
found itself in on May 17, 1952, in a game against
the guys from Eugene. The place was OSC's Coleman
Field, and Head Coach Ralph Coleman could see defeat
in the faces of his boys as they picked up their
bats to take their next to last swings.
Just six at-bats left, so many runs to make up.
A cartoon baseball beaver from the 1953 yearbook. |
Just
chunk it, right? No harm done. After all, he
surely thought, this was the second of a four-game
series. Game one had been theirs and winning
three of four wouldn't be that shabby. And the
season hadn't been too shabby either. The Beavs
had all but wrapped up the Northern Division
pennant and led the pack in both batting average
and fielding percentage.
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Through eight, OSC had managed but one hit off Duck
starting pitcher Don Siegmund. On defense, the Beavs
had committed an incredible 11 errors. It looked
as if they hadn't had fielding practice in a month.
Siegmund looked like Nolan Ryan pitching to a junior
high nine.
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Above:
Dwane Helbig works to beat the
throw to first in a game against
Washington State.
Left:
Cub Houck rounds first in a game
during the 1952 season. The yearbook
caption beneath this photo described
Houck as a "top notch hitter."
All
photos on this page from The Beaver,
1953.
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If Coleman said anything to his team before the start
of the inning, his words are lost to history. What
isn't lost is that for the next hour, the Beaver baseballers
would stage one of the great comebacks in OSU history.
A six-hit barrage greeted Siegmund to start the inning.
The package included a homer by Beaver second baseman
Donny Johnson, a triple by third baseman "Cub" Houck,
and four assorted singles by the rest of the lineup.
Clearly, the momentum had shifted.
Add to these a pair of Duck miscues and the Beavers
were back in business. Ducks 12, OSC 8.
Bottom of the ninth. Beavers at bat. They could smell
it.
Two singles, three walks and two more Duck mistakes
even the score.
What a comeback!
Top of the 10th. The Beaver nine is exhausted but
they play on. Three errors, two by Johnson, give the
Lemon-Yellow two more nuggets.
14-12, Ducks.
Now it was time for OSC to bat and Johnson made up
for his earlier mistakes by driving home a run to
pull the Beavers within one. Jim Ruggles came next
with a single up the middle to put two on, himself,
and Johnson on third with the tying run.
But it was not to be. Left fielder Dwane Helbig popped
out to end the inning...and the game.
In the final two contests, the struggle was just as
mighty, with each school winning one to end the series
at 2-2.
But the Beavers had won the Division crown and would
go on to become the only baseball team in Oregon State
history to compete in the College World Series in
Omaha.
(A future "History Minute" in this series will concentrate
on what the Beavers did during that historic trip
to the cradle of college baseball.)
-- George
P. Edmonston, Jr.
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