Breakout Box: Key Stats
8 — Oregon’s pitching staff has recorded eight shutouts this season.
20 — Oregon’s pitching staff has kept the opposition off the scoreboard for 20 straight innings, dating back to Sunday’s game against Stanford.
36 – It’s been 36 years since Oregon last recorded back-to-back shutouts. They did so in May of 1976.
 
A little fatigue was no problem for Oregon’s baseball team.
Playing its fifth game in the last six days, the Ducks (28-24-1) topped visiting Gonzaga 9-0 Wednesday afternoon. Oregon was backed by a strong effort by starting pitcher Alex Keudell, who picked up his sixth win of the year after throwing 7 1/3 strong innings.
The victory, which gave the Ducks a two-game series sweep of Gonzaga (29-16-1), was Oregon’s third in a row and fifth in their last seven games. They’ve only lost once since a three-game sweep by UCLA earlier this month.
“It’s a big win, to have a 9-0 win and not give up a run against these guys,” Keudell said. “They’re a good team, so I would say it was a good series for us.”
It also marked Oregon’s first back-to-back shutouts of an opponent since 1976. (The Ducks blanked the Bulldogs yesterday, 6-0.)
“I think they wanted to come back today and do something and Alex wouldn’t let them,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “Playing uphill is a little bit more difficult than playing downhill, and we kind of took away some of their offensive things that they could do.”
With a tired team and spent pitching staff, Keudell got the start despite pitching 5 1/3 innings on Saturday.
If Keudell had any trouble coming back on only three days rest, it didn’t show. The right-hander allowed only one extra base hit to an above-average Gonzaga offense, and went deep enough into the game to help a worn-out bullpen.
“Towards the end, like the fifth, sixth, seventh and the eighth, I was getting tired,” Keudell said. “But just tried to battle through it and get a win for my team.”
Of course, pitching is always easier when working with a lead, and Oregon’s offense did its part to support Keudell.
In the bottom of the first, the Ducks struck for two runs off Bulldog starter Aaron Brooks, on an RBI groundout by Ryon Healy and an RBI single by Aaron Jones.@@http://www.gozags.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/brooks_aaron00.html@@
After a scoreless second, the Ducks scored two more in the third. After Brett Thomas opened the inning with a single, Healy laced an RBI double to left. Next up, Jones hit an RBI single to score Healy and give the Ducks a commanding 4-0 lead.
“After that two in the first and then two in the third, it always feels a little easier,” Keudell said. “You can just pound strikes and just try to get other guys.”
The Ducks added a run in the fifth on an RBI triple by Kyle Garlick, and three more in the seventh inning (on an RBI bunt single by KC Serna and a two-run single by catcher Brett Hambright), and the rout was on.
“Gonzaga didn’t show us very much,” Horton said. “I think that’s a good baseball team. They hit some line drives that we turned into outs, and they were playing uphill the entire time. I think we might have caught them at the right time, in between crucial league contests. I was very happy with the way we played.”
Keudell continued his strong pitching into the eighth inning, when Oregon removed him from the game in favor of reliever Scott McGough.
“I think (pitching coach Andrew) Checketts made a good call getting him out of there at that point, turning it over to McGough,” Horton said.
McGough pitched the game’s final 1 2/3 innings, striking out two and allowing one hit to secure the victory.
After a day off today, Oregon will head North to Pullman, Wash., to begin a three-game series with Washington State. First pitch on Friday is set for 5:30 p.m.