The Oregon baseball Sunday starter role has been a revolving door this season, but Jeff Gold made a strong case for himself on Sunday and the Ducks’ bats broke out in a 20-4 drubbing of Ohio State.
After scoring seven runs in the fourth inning of Friday’s game, the Ducks went 15 innings without scoring a run before putting a four spot up on the scoreboard in the second inning on Sunday.
Down 1-0, Oregon chased starting pitcher Zach Farmer from the game in the second inning. Farmer walked four Ducks and allowed a bunt single to A.J. Balta to give Oregon a 2-1 lead with Tyler Baumgartner up to bat with the bases loaded and two outs. Farmer threw a 1-1 curveball to Baumgartner, who sat back on the offering and laced it down the right field line for a two-run double. That would be the end of the day for Farmer, who was charged with four earned runs on three hits and four walks.
The Ducks busted the game open the next inning, scoring seven runs in the frame to extend the lead to 11-1. Oregon had the bases loaded with one out, and this time it was Mark Karaviotis who came through, singling home the first run of the inning. Ohio State reliever Tanner Tully hit Aaron Payne (his seventh HBP of the season) and struck out Austin Grebeck before plunking Baumgartner in the head with a fastball. Ducks players and fans were able to breathe a sigh of relief as Baumgartner stayed in the game and was able to avoid any major injury.
The next batter, Mitchell Tolman, cleared the bases with a fly ball that landed just beyond the reach of the center fielder, Troy Montgomery, for a three-run double. Kyle Garlick would follow suit with a double down the left field line that plated Tolman to give the Ducks their seventh run of the inning.
Oregon tacked on four more runs in the sixth inning, as Tolman capped off the scoring with a two-run single with the bases loaded. The Oregon corner infielder recorded his sixth RBI of the game with another bases-loaded single in the eighth inning, which set the stage for Oregon’s final exclamation point on its offensive barrage.
Balta belted a 3-1 fastball from reliever Trace Dempsey into the right field bullpen, which ran up Oregon’s run total to 20 — the most runs scored in a game by Oregon since the program was reinstated in 2009.
“It was nice to square up and get some revenge for the Fullerton almost-walk-off,” Balta said.
When a team has a double-digit run advantage, a starting pitcher usually gets pulled from the game after five or six innings, but Gold was extremely efficient with his pitch count, which allowed head coach George Horton to leave him in the game. Gold needed just 90 pitches to get through eight innings and allowed seven hits and three runs but didn’t issue any walks and struck out eight batters.
“I thought he was spectacular,” Horton said. “Again, it was a case of a couple of the hits were a result of throwing too many strikes — a little fat in the strike zone with count leverage. But that was one of his sharpest outings.”
Gold’s performance was almost completely opposite of Matt Krook’s outing on Saturday, as the freshman left-hander struggled with pitch efficiency and needed 109 pitches to get through 5.1 innings. On Sunday, Gold threw 66 of his 90 pitches for strikes and only went to a three-ball count once.
“I threw four pitches for strikes in the first inning and I was like, ‘Everything looks good today,’” Gold said. “Coach Horton called a great game and we were able to mix speeds well. I gave up some hits but that happens.”
As the Ducks head into Pac-12 competition next weekend against USC, Horton was pleased with his club’s ability to bounce back after being shut out on Saturday. While the wheels certainly fell off for Ohio State on Sunday, Horton emphasized that the series win came against a quality opponent.
“I think Ohio State’s personnel is pretty good,” Horton said. “I think they’ll be a contender in the Big Ten. But last year we didn’t win two out of three from anybody that was significant and we ended up being a nationally (ranked) eight seed. So we reminded our guys of that and certainly if we’re going to do anything in the Pac, we’re going to have to beat a lot of teams that are significant.”
Follow Chris Mosch on Twitter @chris_mosch