Oregon baseball’s bats came alive during Friday’s 8-2 win over Ohio State, but that offensive production disappeared on Saturday as the Ducks (11-4) fell to the Buckeyes (8-4) by a final of 5-0.
Starting pitcher Ryan Riga was masterful for the Buckeyes, scattering just five hits in a complete game shutout of the Ducks. The left-hander struck out 10 batters and allowed just one walk and a hit batsman.
Oregon’s best opportunity to get on the board came in the bottom of the first when leadoff man Aaron Payne made it to third base with no outs. Payne reached on a bunt single and made it to third after an errant pickoff throw by Riga was recovered by Ohio State first baseman Ryan Leffel and promptly airmailed into left field.
The next batter, Austin Grebeck, attempted a safety squeeze, but was ruled out and the play was called dead after Grebeck ran into the ball outside the batter’s box. Tyler Baumgartner would then hit a comebacker to the pitcher and Payne was caught in a rundown after making the questionable decision to break for home. Tolman would ground out to first base to end the inning.
“Looking back, it was real important,” Payne said about failing to score in the first inning. “You get up early, especially after Friday night, and it just keeps that momentum going. It didn’t work out and I don’t think that’s why we lost, but it’s always helpful to get up early.”
Freshman left-hander Matt Krook didn’t have the best command of the strike zone on Saturday for Oregon, but he was able to limit Ohio State to one run by missing plenty of bats. Krook allowed a lone single in the fourth inning and struck out 10 batters, but was unable to make it out of the sixth inning due to his inefficiency. He walked six Buckeyes (he entered the game with five walks) and threw at least five pitches to 17 of the 23 batters he faced.
After inducing a groundout to lead off the sixth, Krook walked Ronnie Dawson, which brought head coach George Horton to the mound to end Krook’s night after 109 pitches.
“He wants to stay in there longer,” Horton said. “But as I told him, you’ve got to throw the ball over the plate more. He’s trying to do that but sometimes when your breaking ball breaks like that and your fastball moves like that, it’s hard to control.”
Krook had trouble getting a good feel for his slider last weekend against Cal State Fullerton, but his punchout pitch was on point on Saturday. He generated eight swing-and-misses with his slider (16 total) and threw it for a strike nearly 60 percent of the time.
“It was there,” Krook said about his slider. “The only difference was my fastball wasn’t as good as it was against Fullerton. I just couldn’t locate it. It’s frustrating.”
Right-hander Trent Paddon relieved Krook and allowed a double down the left field line off the bat of the first batter he faced, Leffel. Dawson came around from first to score to give the Buckeyes a 1-0 lead.
Ohio State would add four runs in the ninth inning, two of them charged to Oregon southpaw Garrett Cleavinger and the other two charged to closer Jake Reed, who allowed three hits and a walk in an inning of work.
After the game, Horton acknowledged missed offensive opportunities and a few defensive miscues, but pointed to the 10 walks issued by the pitching staff as the biggest downfall for Oregon on Saturday.
“Most of the areas of concern — tonight it was walks — our guys address like real men and they’ll figure it out,” Horton said. “It’s harder to play catch when there are a lot of swing-and-misses and a lot of walks. It’s hard to stay on your toes. We didn’t have that same defensive orchestration that I bragged about last night. The tempo was not nearly as good because we weren’t throwing strikes.”
Horton admitted that failing to score in the first was a huge missed opportunity for the Ducks in a game that was within reach until the ninth inning.
“It eliminated the momentum right there, but we weren’t able to get much going,” Horton said. “Who knows? Had (Riga) gotten off to a little poorer start, maybe he doesn’t pitch with quite as much conviction and confidence. From that point forward, he really pitched well. So you tip your cap to him.”
Sunday’s rubber match is scheduled to start at noon, with Jeff Gold taking the mound for Oregon against Ohio State’s Zach Farmer.
Follow Chris Mosch on Twitter @chris_mosch