Several Ducks thought it was gone. With two outs and a runner on second in the bottom of the ninth inning, Oregon’s A.J. Balta blasted a Koby Gauna pitch towards the right field fence. But Cal State Fullerton’s Clay Williamson tracked it down mere feet in front of the wall, preserving the 3-2 Titans victory at PK Park. The win clinches the series victory for the Fullerton baseball team, which beat the Ducks 9-2 on Friday night.
“When it left his (Balta’s) bat, because he has that kind of power, I thought we had a chance,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “But unfortunately, we didn’t get it done.”
A home run at the end would’ve diverged from the overall theme of the game, in which pitching, small ball and weather were most prominent (the heavy Eugene air, however, likely caused Balta’s blast to stay in the park, multiple Ducks said after the game). The Ducks clawed back and had chances to even the series, but the Titans executed just a bit more.
Fullerton opened up the scoring in the second inning with two outs (two-out scoring would be a theme of the game). With catcher Jared Deacon on first, freshman Matt Krook walked the next two batters to set up leadoff hitter Austin Diemer. Diemer delivered, hitting a single up the middle to score Deacon and second baseman Taylor Bryant.
The Ducks would get on the board an inning later. Center fielder Connor Hofmann (1-for-2) hit a one-out single and moved over to second on a Kevin Minjares groundout to shortstop. In a familiar scenario, the leadoff hitter came up with two outs and got a big hit. Second baseman Aaron Payne (1-for-4) hit an 0-1 pitch past the diving first baseman J.D Davis into right field, scoring Hofmann.
The Ducks took the field to warm up for the fourth inning at 3:00 p.m., but headed back to the dugout just minutes later. A downpour hit PK Park, delaying the game for 23 minutes. Krook, who struggled with his location and pitch count in the first three innings, came out after the delay and dominated the next three. He retired nine batters in a row, striking out seven of them. In his six innings of work, Krook gave up three hits, two walks, two earned runs and struck out 8 on 111 pitches.
“After the rain delay,” Krook said, “for whatever reason, I felt really good coming back out.”
In between Krook’s dominant final three frames was a perfectly executed trick play in the bottom of the fourth.
Kyle Garlick (1-for-4) hit a one-out single and moved over to third base on a two-out single by the catcher Jack Kruger (1-for-3) , who put good aluminum on the ball all day. Then, before Fullerton’s Justin Garza began his delivery, Kruger took off towards second. He looked to be caught in a rundown after Garza stepped off and threw to shortstop, but as Kruger ran back to first, Garlick took off towards home and beat shortstop Keegan Dale’s throw to tie the game at 2.
“Our pitchers are taught to check the runner at third, and in this case, it didn’t happen,” Kruger said. “Kyle made a great read at third base.”
Garlick, who cut open his knee on the slide into home, said he’s worked on this play several times in practice, on both defense and offense.
“As soon as he turned his back, I’m running,” Garlick said. “He gave me a courtesy look — it wasn’t the greatest — and he just turned his back and I went.”
The game would stay tied until the top of the ninth, when Matt Chapman came home on a sacrifice fly from Greg Velazquez. Chapman and Davis led off the inning with singles (Chapman got to third on Davis’ single) off of Trent Paddon.
Tyler Baumgarnter (2-for-4) led off the ninth with a single and moved to second a pitch later on a Mitchell Tolman bunt, but neither Garlick (groundout to third) nor Balta could drive him in, although Balta (0-for-4) came incredibly close.
As the Titans congregated towards the mound to celebrate their victory, Balta squatted over second base with his head aimed towards the ground, like he’d just gotten the wind knocked out him.
“He put a good swing on it,” Krook said. “I wish would’ve gone a little farther.”
Follow Victor Flores on Twitter @vflores415