For Cam Gaulke and the Oregon club baseball team (0-3 overall), Thursday’s 6-3 loss to Wenatchee Valley College was tough to digest.
Up 3-2 through seven innings, the Ducks saw their lead vanish after four walks by Bennett Frazier and an error in the Knights’ side of the eighth.
“Letting the game slip away hurt a little bit,” Gaulke said. The Duck outfielder, who went 0 for 4 with a walk, said that, still early in the pre-season, the only things the team should take from the game are the positives.
“Wenatchee is a solid ball club, and we swung the bat well, balls just weren’t falling in. Plus, it is only our third game of the year,” Gaulke said.
Oregon coach Kenny Swartwout was positive about the game. He said that without the disastrous eighth inning Oregon should have won.
“We had them,” Swartwout said. “Our pitchers were pitching great through seven innings, and even though we only had five hits, they came in timely situations.”
Shortstop Scott Marchione led the way for the Ducks offensively, collecting two of the team’s five hits. Bryan Hansen, who started the game as pitcher, was 1 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored.
In four innings of work from the mound, Hansen gave up one earned run on two hits while striking out five batters. Frazier and Kyle Knapp combined for five innings in relief, giving up four runs – only one of them earned – on three hits.
“Without the four walks and the error, it would’ve have been a great win versus a very good team,” Swartout said.
Thursday’s game at Sheldon High School against Wenatchee was originally scheduled as two seven-inning games. But after a full day of rain and time constraints, the teams decided to play one nine-inning game instead; however, the rain wasn’t a factor. Swartwout said it was like magic how the rain stopped for the game.
The only real factor was the cold. Jeff Rogers, the club coordinator and first baseman for the Ducks, said it was freezing toward the later innings.
The Ducks next chance to get their first win of the season comes on March 22, when they travel to Coos Bay to play Southwest Oregon Community College.