The Oregon baseball team finished off a three-game sweep of Seattle on Sunday afternoon with a 6-1 win over the Redhawks. The Ducks (41-14, 19-8 Pac-12) play two games this week against Portland before traveling to Corvallis for the final Pac-12 series of the season, needing two wins over the Beavers to clinch at least a share of the Pac-12 title. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205429324@@ @@http://www.pac-12.org/SPORTS/Baseball/Standings.aspx@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=11401&SPSID=94835@@
It’s a chance for Oregon State to play the same type of spoiler role that Oregon played against the Beavers last season, but for now the Ducks are concentrating on a Portland team that has given them trouble in the past.
“If I have to give any speeches it will be on Tuesday or Wednesday,” Oregon head coach George Horton said@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=1205425@@. “When we go into (Oregon State), as much respect as we have for that, if I have to give a speech something’s wrong.”
On Friday, Alex Keudell became the first pitcher in school history to win 10 games in a season — breaking the record held by several other Ducks including last season’s ace Tyler Anderson. Keudell will take the mound on Friday night looking for his 23rd career win, which would set a new school record for wins in a season. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=11401&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205429050@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=94833&SPID=11401&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=1599895&Q_SEASON=2010@@
Keudell pitched a gem for the Ducks, holding Seattle (22-27) scoreless through eight innings. The senior right-hander was spotted a two-run lead after the bottom of the first and never looked back.
“When your teammates put runs on the board early, it’s nice to be able to relax a little bit and just throw strikes,” Keudell said.
The Ducks’ hot start didn’t continue, however, as they were held hitless between the second and seventh innings until center fielder Connor Hofmann hit an inside-the-park home run — the first since Oregon reinstated baseball — to lead off a bizarre seventh that would see the Ducks score on Hofmann’s home run, a balk and a walk to take a 6-0 lead into the eighth.
Hofmann hit a ball to left field that got over the Redhawk left fielder, who then tripped while chasing the ball to the wall. By the time he hit second base, Hofmann said he knew he had a chance at scoring on the play.
“Out of the batters box, coach always tells us to think in twos,” Hofmann said. “I was thinking out of the box ‘two’ and then I saw the guy was jogging to the ball and I just kept going.”
Oregon had to work a little harder to bring home the win in the second game of the series on Saturday, getting the victory courtesy a walk-off hit from Aaron Jones. The Ducks once again scored in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead, but stalled offensively throughout the middle innings. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=11401&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205429289@@
Oregon scored a run in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to tie the score going into the final frame. Aaron Payne was hit by a pitch to bring Jones to the plate with one out, and the sophomore from San Clemente, Calif., drove a full-count pitch for the game-winning RBI.
“I got myself into a good count,” Jones said. “And I knew a fastball was coming.”
In Sunday’s series finale, the Ducks took 4 1/3 innings to register their first hit but erased an early 1-0 deficit to win 6-1. Oregon had plenty of opportunities early despite not getting a base hit, thanks to four walks from Redhawk starting pitcher Bryan Dalton.
After four no-hit innings, Dalton retired J.J. Altobelli @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=204836035@@to bring up Aaron Payne, who smacked his first career home run into the right field bullpen. That sparked a rally that lead to two more runs, and the Ducks would score twice more in the sixth and once in the seventh to give their bullpen insurance.
Jeff Gold picked up the win for the Ducks in 6 1/3 innings of work. Gold gave up just five hits and allowed the one run while striking out five.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=204836105@@