Oregon baseball has announced its starting pitchers for the upcoming four-game series against the University of San Diego. It’ll be Jace Stoffal on Thursday, then three freshmen: Leo Uelmen on Friday, Jackson Pace on Saturday and Matthew Grabmann on Sunday.
When asked about the rotation on Tuesday, head coach Mark Wasikowski said he hadn’t discussed it with the coaching staff yet. There aren’t any major surprises, but there is still a slight switch and some questions to be answered.
Stoffal sat out the first week of the season after tweaking something in the weight room. While it was more of a precautionary move, he still isn’t back to full strength. He pitched only three innings in his season debut last Friday, throwing just north of 30 pitches. Wasikowski said he won’t be fully ramped up this week either, but he should be stretched out a little longer than last time.
Stoffal was one of Oregon’s most hyped pitchers in the offseason, especially after the injury to Isaac Ayon. He reportedly worked his fastball up to 94 miles per hour. Though he didn’t quite reach that in his season debut, he was still sitting in the low 90s and topped out at 93, a tick ahead of where he was last year.
Uelmen has been the Game 2 starter in all three series so far. He impressed in his debut, going five innings without walking anyone or giving up an earned run. He was shakier against UC Santa Barbara, surrendering three runs in four innings. This start will be another tough test, as the Toreros have a lethal offense with six hitters batting over .300.
Pace was the Game 4 starter in the first week of the season, and he had arguably the best outing of anyone. He pitched six innings and allowed just one earned run. He didn’t start in the second weekend since it was only a three-game series, but he came in on Saturday after Grabmann only went two innings. Like Uelmen, he was shakier in his second go-round, permitting two runs in three innings.
Still, with Pace finding more early success than Grabmann, the two were flipped in the rotation. The highly touted Canadian will now start on Sunday.
Grabmann has limited the opposition to three hits in six innings so far, but he’s also walked five, hit three and struggled to put hitters away. After his first start, he said his goal was to finish hitters on 0-2 and 1-2 counts rather than going full so often. That didn’t happen, as he labored through two innings. He failed to impress Wasikowski and was pulled from the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader sweep.
Turner Spoljaric is another name to keep in mind. Grabmann’s fellow Canadian partner has been utilized as a long reliever so far, and could get a bulk of action in the case of a starter departing a game early. Spoljaric has allowed five hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings, but he’s managed to limit opponents to one unearned run.
This crop of young pitchers has shown some nerves early in the season, but they’ve also shown promise when Oregon has needed it badly. The keys for them will be getting ahead in counts and avoiding free passes. Stoffal, meanwhile, looks to build himself up to where he can reliably go five to six innings.
Oregon kicks off a four-game set against San Diego Thursday at 3 p.m. in PK Park.
