In its attempt to bounce back from losing four of its past five games, Oregon baseball took Arizona State into extra innings at PK Park on Friday. But, two costly errors from the Ducks proved to be the difference, as the Sun Devils won game one of the series, 7-6.
The scoring began in the third inning when Mark Karaviotis and Mitchell Tolman led off the inning with consecutive walks. Shaun Chase singled up the middle, scoring Karaviotis.
With one out, Scott Heineman bunted a ball towards Seth Martinez, ASU’s starting pitcher, who couldn’t keep his footing, allowing Chase to score. Austin Grebeck followed with an RBI double down the left field line that scored Cuddy.
Conor Harber started his first career game as a Duck Friday. But in the fifth, after pitching four innings and allowing just a single run, he unraveled for four earned runs in the inning.
With one out, Johnny Sewald singled up the middle and reached second on a balk from Harber. Jake Peevyhouse then singled to left, scoring Sewald.
Then with two outs, Trever Allen singled through the left side, scoring Peevyhouse. Allen and RJ Ybarra advanced to second and third on a throwing error from Grebeck on the play, respectively.
Horton then went to Joe Reta out of the bullpen. Soon after, Reta balked in Ybarra for the third run of the inning – one that Oregon brought on themselves. After a hit batter and walk, Josh Graham relieved Reta.
Graham suffered a single to David Greer that scored two Sun Devils capping a five-run inning.
Oregon chipped away in the seventh and eighth innings scoring a run apiece. Cuddy hit a solo home run in the seventh to lead off the inning.
In the eighth, Oregon had the bases loaded with no outs, but managed just one run.
In the 10th,  Arizona State finally scored. Greer led off the inning and got hit by the pitch, placing him at first. He would be sacrificed over to second by Snow.
With Garrett Cleavinger now on the mound, disaster happened for Oregon. A fly ball to right field fell after Heineman misread it and slipped. Greer scored easily as the ball tricked away from Heineman.
“It was going to be a heartbreaking game no matter who lost that with the conditions and the weather,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “We gave away too much from the defensive side.”
Oregon was retired in order in the 10th.
The series resumes Saturday at 2 p.m. for game two.
Key statistics:
Conor Harber: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 3 K
Seth Martinez: 2.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R (3ER), 2 BB, 3 K
Shaun Chase: 2-6, 1 RBI, 4 K and individually left six runners on base
Brandon Cuddy: 2-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 HR
Oregon: 16 runners left on base (All-time high came in 20113 19 against Wichita State)
Oregon: 0-5 with the bases loaded and 1-6 with runners on third and less than two outs.
Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @andrewbantly