Oregon head baseball coach George Horton said Tommy Thorpe needed to “show up” earlier this week after the ace got shelled in his last start. Thorpe did that and more in a dominant performance in Oregon’s 8-2 win over Ohio State Friday night.
The junior southpaw tossed seven shutout innings, giving up just two hits and striking out a career-best 10 batters with no walks, by far his best outing of the season.
Thorpe, who became Oregon’s ace after the pitching staff lost Cole Irvin for the season, pitched well in his first two starts this year. He was 1-0 with a 1.38 ERA and the Ducks were undefeated. Last weekend against Cal State Fullerton, Thorpe was pulled in the sixth after giving up seven runs (six earned) on eight hits as Oregon suffered its first loss of the season. @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=11401&SPSID=94835&KEY=@@
It was tough to tell if Tommy Thorpe would show up early on, as he was aided by two great defensive plays by shortstop Mark Karaviotis and second baseman Aaron Payne in the first inning. Then Oregon’s bats came alive for seven runs in the fourth and Thorpe was dialed in.
“He pitched good. I think even to start the game … he didn’t have great conviction in his pitches, had a little doubt in his mind,” Horton said. “Then after we got the seven (runs) he looked like a different guy. He looked like Tommy from last year. So I think the fact that we were able to bust through like that made him relax and then he could trust his stuff. This was definitely his best outing of the year.”
Thorpe mixed up pitches well, keeping hitters off-balance with both his curve ball and slider. Both breaking balls were consistently in the strike zone and forced 11 swings and misses.
“It’s been in and out this year,” Horton said of Thorpe’s slider. “I think at times it’s been that good. I think the fact that he was able to get his curveball and locate his fastball and get ahead is always the big difference. Guys don’t chase pitches out of the zone if you’re not ahead so Tommy got ahead and then had his three pitch mix going and pitched very well.”
“I lost my command a little bit with my slider at the end there,” Thorpe said.
Overall, Thorpe caused 22 swings and misses from Ohio State batters, an unusually high number. Thorpe said he wasn’t overly surprised and felt that his slider was close to what he threw last season. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=11401&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=209428957@@
“At the beginning of the season my slider was getting tagged a little bit, so seeing them swing and miss reminded me of last year,” Thorpe said. “My slider was just as good today as it was last year.”
Thorpe’s next start will likely be in a week as conference play begins against USC.
Chris Mosch contributed to the reporting of this piece.
Follow Madison Guernsey on Twitter @guernseymd
