A beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon was host to game two at PK Park between No. 19 Oregon and St. John’s. A night ago, Oregon needed four pitchers to get through its 12-inning affair. Tonight they needed just two en route to its 7-2 victory.
Freshman David Peterson pitched well through the first seven innings. After surrendering three hits in the first inning, Peterson gathered for an 8-pitch – all strikes – second inning that included two strikeouts.
“I felt great,” Peterson said. “I felt like I was zoned into the target and Tim (Susnara) did a great job behind the plate today.”
But in the eighth Peterson couldn’t finish what he started. After loading the bases on a walk and two soft singles, Oregon head coach George Horton went to reliever Josh Graham.
With no outs and the bases loaded, Graham surrendered a sacrifice fly and a single hit to limit the damage to just two runs.
“At that time I thought it was the right time (to take Peterson out),” Horton said. “He was at 99 or 100 pitches and we could bring Josh (Graham) in. Josh did a nice job picking him up.”
That’s all the offense St. John’s could muster.
Oregon scored a run in both the fourth and fifth inning. The first came with the bases loaded and no outs for Phil Craig-St. Louis. The junior hit a chip-shot over shortstop Jarred Mederos’ head that had just enough to fall in shallow left field. However, with the runners unsure if the ball would be caught or not, Shaun Chase was forced out at third while Mitchell Tolman crossed the plate.
Then in the fifth, sophomore Austin Grebeck got a fastball and hit a solo line-drive home run over the left field wall for his first collegiate home run.
“I hit one in the alumni game, but that didn’t really count,” Grebeck said. “It felt good…I feel like I’m in a good place and can continue to build off that.”
Though happy with the runs, Horton thought his guys could have gotten more.
“I thought we turned potential crooked numbers into ones,” Horton said. “The greed in me wanted more, you always think that way as a coach… It looked like we were leaving them in the game.”
In the seventh Oregon broke through for three runs. The big swing came from Friday night’s hero, Brandon Cuddy.
Cuddy, with the bases loaded and one out, singled to left-center to plate two runs. Then fellow Seminole State college transfer Craig-St. Louis followed with an RBI single of his own, scoring Chase from second.
“I felt good about that,” Horton said of the three runs his team earned in the seventh.
The Ducks picked up two more runs in the bottom of the eighth to build their lead to 7-2.
David Peterson picked up the win (2-0) while Josh Graham earned the save (1), Cody Stashak suffered the loss (2-2).
Key statistics:
-David Peterson: 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
-Josh Graham: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 K
-Austin Grebeck: 1-4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 R
-Mitchell Tolman: 4-4, 1 RBI, 2 R
The series resumes Sunday at 12 p.m. at PK Park.
Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrewbantly