CORVALLIS — Oregon State’s four-year, 229-game streak without being shut out had to end sometime.

But the odds of it happening at Goss Stadium seemed remote when California junior right-hander Alex Rollin took to the mound on Saturday for his 12th start of the spring.

The 6-foot-2, 215-pound junior from Los Gatos, Calif., had a 6-2 record. But he’d also allowed 88 baserunners in 51 innings and opponents were hitting .319 against him, leading to a 4.62 ERA.

No matter. On this day he resembled Brandon Morrow, who made the jump from Berkeley to the big leagues after being Seattle’s first-round selection in the 2006 Major League draft, or 2007 staff ace Tyson Ross, a tough-luck, 1-0 loser in Friday night’s series opener and the Pac-10’s leader in ERA (2.17).

Rollin stuffed the Beavers (27-8, 3-5) on four hits through six-plus innings and relievers Craig Bennigson and Matt Gorgen each escaped bases-loaded jams in the final three innings for a 4-0 victory that ended California’s (18-18, 3-5) eight-game series losing streak.

“All my pitches were working,” said Rollin, who struck out four, walked one, and faced just one batter over the six-inning minimum before being lifted in the seventh after giving up a double and an infield single with no outs. “I was working both sides of the plate, didn’t have anything down the zone and got a lot of ground balls,” leading to 10 of a possible 18 outs on grounders.

Aided by two double plays, he got ahead of virtually every batter and threw only 79 pitches.

“I watched and learned from (Ross) the night before,” Rollin said. “He knows how to attack hitters. Get ahead early, keep it down, and the success rate is pretty high when you do that.”

Moreso than Morrow or Ross, Rollin may have resembled the all-stater he was in 2003 at Los Gatos High, and the Texas Collegiate League’s Pitcher of the Year he was in 2004, when he was 6-0 with three saves and a 0.00 ERA in 37 innings with the Graham Roughnecks.

That was before arm injuries sidelined him in 2005. He was 0-1, 7.84 in 20 2/3 innings spread over 13 games in 2006, then began putting it all together again by going 4-4, 2.00 in 11 games at Alexandria (Minn.) in the Northwoods League that summer.

“He mixed speeds well, kept us off-balance with his breaking ball.” OSU first baseman Jordan Lennerton said. “We struggled making the adjustment to that.”

The Beavers hadn’t been shut out since losing 10-0 at Stanford on April 19, 2003. They had scored in 114 consecutive home games, dating back to a 13-0 loss to the Cardinal on April 28, 2002.

OSU had the tying run at the plate with two outs in the seventh and ninth, but Dale Solomon and Drew George grounded into force plays to end the innings. OSU touched reliever Matt Gorgen for three straight two-out hits in the ninth to load the bases and temporarily revive a quiet crowd of 1,972 before George was retired.

“We can’t come out and get shut out like that on our home field,” Lennerton said. “We have to come with more fire, more intensity, but we didn’t have that today.

“You have to get fired up early and often. We’ve come back and won in the ninth before but you can’t rely on it, you have to get after it early.”

Added OSU coach Pat Casey: “We shouldn’t have somebody play with more aggressiveness in our yard than we play with.”

The rubber game of the series is 1 p.m. today. The probables are junior right-handers Daniel Turpen (6-1, 3.84) for OSU and Nick Nunez (2-1, 6.82), the only available Golden Bear with more than two 2007 starts. Sophomore lefty Craig Bennigson has three starts but relieved on Friday and Saturday.

“We have to keep our heads up, and get ready to play again,” Lennerton said. “It’s another day. We have to come out and win the series.

“No matter who starts for us, we always have a good shot. We have an outstanding staff. We have to be more aggressive at the plate.”

California 4, Oregon State 0

CALIFORNIA 000 010 300 — 4 9 0

OREGON STATE 000 000 000 — 0 7 0

Rollin, Bennigson (7), Gorgen (8) and Cutler; Paterson, Keitzman (7), Reyes (9) and Canham. WP: Rollin (7-2). LP: Paterson (5-4). 2B: Grigsby (UC), Brady (UC), Kahalehoe (OSU).

Hits: California 9 (Gorman 2, Grigsby 2, Munster, Capbarat, Satin, Brady, Cutler), OSU 7 (Barney 2, Lissman 2, Kahalehoe, Lennerton, Wallace).

RBIs: California 4 (Brady 2, Cutler, Gorman).

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