The answers still aren’t coming for the Oregon baseball team, who lost another Pacific-10 series this weekend. The Ducks managed six runs in three games, and lost two of three games to the UCLA Bruins.
“We got a little swine flu going on,” head coach George Horton said of his team’s struggles. “It’s going from guy to guy.”
It’s an apt analogy, considering the team’s play against the Bruins (22-22 overall, 13-8 Pacific-10 Conference). Although the Ducks started the weekend on a high note, winning game one 3-2 behind another strong performance from junior pitcher Erik Stavert, they lost the next two by wide margins.
“It’s rough. I’m not going to lie,” freshman first baseman Darrell Hunter said. “No one likes losing. Yeah, getting one win is better than getting none and getting swept obviously, but we’re not happy with that.”
Stavert (5-3) went eight innings on Friday, and allowed one run on six hits and struck out eight batters. It was Stavert’s third game in a row with at least eight strikeouts. Closer Drew Gagnier closed out the ninth inning after allowing one run on two walks and a hit.
But then Oregon (14-31, 4-14) came out flat on Saturday, and 17-year old Trevor Bauer threw a complete game against the Ducks. Bauer, who graduated high school in the winter, allowed two runs on six hits in the 6-2 Bruins victory.
Freshman Tyler Anderson (2-6) started on the mound for Oregon, going 4.2 innings and giving up five runs on six hits. From the plate, shortstop KC Serna went 2-for-2, and third baseman Danny Pulfer went 1-for-3 with an RBI.
The team went into Sunday with one last chance to take the series from the Bruins, but again UCLA rode their starting pitching and held the Ducks to one run. Charles Brewer started for UCLA, and he went six innings and gave up five hits and one run.
“We had a lot of opportunities to score,” Pulfer said. “Especially in the fifth when we could have scored more than one run. We just couldn’t capitalize.”
Madison Boer (1-6) was the pitcher for Oregon, and he also went six innings, giving up three runs on six hits and two walks.
Boer left in the seventh inning after walking the lead off man, with the score 3-1 UCLA. But reliever Geoff Nichols walked the number eight hitter for the Bruins, and allowed a single to load the bases. Lead off hitter Eddie Murray executed the squeeze play to score the runner from third, and that run sparked a deluge.
The next batter, Justin Uribe, walked on five pitches from reliever Ryan Fleckenstein, then Zack Thornton came in for Fleckenstein. Thornton’s first pitch hit designated hitter Casey Haerther to score a run, and then he walked in first baseman Cody Decker on four straight pitches to score another run. Reliever Bennett Whitmore then came in, and let three more runs score, two on wild pitches, and one on an RBI single.
All in all six runs crossed the plate in the top of the seventh inning, and 55 minutes later the score stood at 8-1 Bruins and another series was lost.
“I thought Madison (Boer) came out and pitched well,” Pulfer said of the inning. “He was on his game today, but it was the right call to take him out. But we just had a melt down after that, kind of how our season has gone: one inning nightmare.”
Catcher Mitch Karraker went 2-for-2 from the plate with a walk, and first baseman Darrell Hunter went 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored to lead the Ducks.
It was yet another frustrating series for Horton who has done just about everything to try and motivate the team. Last Tuesday he even burned a stuffed monkey he had been carrying around in his bag to try and get the proverbial monkey off the team’s back.
It even looked like his little stunt worked after Friday’s game, but the Bruins rallied and sent the Ducks into the week hoping that the series against Washington State will be the series where they finally break through.
Hopefully no more monkeys are harmed in the process.
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