No. 8 Oregon baseball flirted with disaster on Sunday, yet managed to split a humbling three-game series with the California Golden Bears to kick off Pac-12 play. Oregon manufactured three unearned runs in Cal’s self-destructive seventh inning to narrowly elude the weekend sweep. The Ducks now aim to wipe all traces of their collective offensive crap chute before Tuesday.
Starting pitcher Jack Karraker never quite settled in against a formidable Cal offense that put together 20 hits in its previous two games. Karraker’s wild pitching translated into six free base runners and a heap of undue stress for the Ducks, but his unpredictability kept Cal’s bats effectively silenced.
Karraker carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning of Oregon’s 4-2 win, but unexpectedly left the game early with a sore elbow after 59 pitches (30 for strikes). Right-hander Joe Reta relieved Karraker with no outs and a 2-1 count and immediately placed the Ducks in hot water.
A single and a walk loaded the bases for Brian Celsi, one of six Bears sluggers hitting greater than .300 on the season. But on the first pitch he saw, Celsi laced a grounder to second baseman Mitchell Tolman, who turned a crucial 4-3 double play to rescue Oregon from the treacherous inning unscathed.
Stephen Nogosek found himself standing on thin ice upon replacing Reta, who was yanked from the game after flubbing an easy putout for an error. Nogosek walked two consecutive batters on full counts to load the bases for this time for Trevin Haseltine, but produced a clutch ground out to survive another scare.
Scott Heineman led off with a double in the top of the seventh, catalyzing a good ol’ fashioned Bears implosion. Consecutive throwing errors on sacrifice bunts by Austin Grebeck and Nick Catalano allowed Heineman to score the game’s first run.
Matt Eureste has sputtered at the plate recently, but came through with a sacrifice fly to score Grebeck from third. Three walks later, Brandon Cuddy knocked Catalano in with a bases-loaded ground out to give the Ducks a 3-0 advantage.
Cumberland answered back with an two-RBI double in the bottom of the inning, but Catalano delivered the death blow shortly thereafter blasting a two-out 0-2 pitch over the fence in left for his second career homer to make it 4-2.
Garrett Cleavinger took over for Nogosek with two outs and a man on second in the eighth and escaped the inning with a vicious 3-2 slider to strike out Celsi, who buckled at the knees. Two more hitters reached base for Cal in the ninth, but Cleavinger squashed the prospect of a comeback and earned the save in the Ducks’ redemption victory.
Oregon hit just one for 14 with runners on base and zero for six with runners in scoring position, while its pitchers walked 11. Cal, however, left a whopping 14 runners on base—a formula for success for no team.
The win puts an end to Oregon’s four-game losing streak and raises the expectations for its two-game bout with UC Riverside starting Tuesday at 6:00 p.m.
Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @kennyjacoby