Oregon (25-10, 10-5 Pac-12) avoided a trap game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (6-29-1) with a 3-2 win Monday night, but the focus postgame was on an injury to Ducks shortstop J.J. Altobelli. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205414936@@ @@http://www.pac-12.org/SPORTS/Baseball/Standings.aspx@@
After earning a walk in the third inning, Altobelli injured his right shoulder while diving back to first base on a pickoff attempt from the Lions’ Brett Schweiger. Altobelli was immediately removed from the game and replaced with Thomas Walker.
Head coach George Horton said he wasn’t sure the severity of Altobelli’s injury, but the junior shortstop would have an MRI on his right shoulder Tuesday morning.
Altobelli’s was just the latest injury to an Oregon player after Aaron Jones sprained his ankle last weekend. Brando Tessar also left his start on Sunday early and Scott Heineman is out with a foot injury.
Horton doesn’t expect to see Heineman’s services for the rest of the season, but said he didn’t have enough information to give any further details on the specifics of the injury.
“It sounds like Heineman’s out for the season,” he said. “I’m not sure exactly the medical term and what’s going on on so forth, I’m going to defer to (assistant athletic trainer Tom Embree) on that.”
Walker came around to score the game’s first run in the third inning, but he was the only Duck to score in the inning despite three walks and a hit batter. Schweiger struggled through the inning, throwing 44 pitches to get through the frame.
The Ducks doubled their lead an inning later on an RBI single from Walker, who went 1 for 3 with and a run scored in place of the injured Altobelli.
Jeff Gold pitched six shutout innings before allowing the Lions to plate two runs in the seventh. Gold surrendered just five hits and started the game with three perfect innings.
It was another solid start for Gold, following up on his five no-hit innings last Tuesday against San Francisco. Tommy Thorpe and Jimmie Sherfy pitched hitless eighth and ninth innings as the Oregon pitchers combined to strike out the final eight batters. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=11401&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205411644@@
“I’m just trusting my work, and Coach Horton’s calling a great game as usual,” Gold said.
Oregon’s winning run came on a deep sacrifice fly by Kyle Garlick to score Aaron Payne.
The Ducks took the field today as a top-10 team for the first time in school history, but Garlick says he’s not focused on stats.
“I don’t look at it,” Garlick said. “I know some people are really into the stats but I just play the game.”
The Lions may not have been as daunting an opponent as Stanford, but Garlick said it was important to treat them like a team that was much better than 6-29.
“You never want to play down to your competition,” he said.
After a pivotal three-week set that saw the Ducks take three straight series from ranked opponents, Horton said the road doesn’t get any easier for his team down the stretch. @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=11401&SPSID=94835@@
“Shame on us if we take any Pac-12 opponent lightly,” Horton said. “We’ve already found out that anybody could beat anybody. You just watch the conference race and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.”
With the Ducks arriving late last Sunday night, Horton said he saw Monday’s game as a potential trap game. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=11401&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205414335@@
“You look at their overall record and you go, we just beat Stanford two out of three and here’s Arkansas-Pine Bluff coming into your yard,” he said. “I told the players to blame me for scheduling this game.”
Horton also said that playing back-to-back games is a fact of life for those who want to play at the next level, something he made sure his team understood.
“Guess what, that’s what professional baseball players have to do,” he said. “We’re not gonna use the excuse that we were tired, but we didn’t have the same emotional togetherness as we had at Stanford.”
The Ducks return to action Wednesday night in Keizer, Ore., against Portland before hosting Washington State for a three-game series starting Friday night.