As the competition has improved, Jace Stoffal has only gotten better.
In starts against the No. 8 and 12 teams in the country, Stoffal has combined to allow just one earned run in 15 2/3 innings. One might have thought the grunt of the Pac-12 schedule would slow him down, but the complete opposite has been the case.
“I like to think that I take every game the same,” Stoffal said. “I guess I’ve just been pitching better against them. There’s nothing about it. Just trying to prepare and play the same way every single time I go out there. Sometimes it works, and sometimes you’re not on, and sometimes you really are on.”
Stoffal allowed two runs (one earned) in 6 2/3 strong innings in Oregon’s series-opening 11-5 win against No. 12 Arizona State on Friday night. It was just another in a strong string of starts for Stoffal, who is quickly establishing himself as this team’s ace. “Jace the Ace” may have just been a catchy nickname at first, or wishful thinking, but now it actually means something. He’s lowered his ERA to 2.83 and become a starting pitcher the Ducks can depend on — an especially rare phenomenon for Oregon over the last couple years.
“It’s just a lot of fun,” Oregon center fielder Colby Shade said. “Especially living with him, the preparation at practice, at home, getting to bed, even the nutrition, stuff like that. So it’s no shock when he goes out there and pitches, but it’s really fun to watch him.”
Stoffal kept a potent Sun Devils offense at bay despite not having his sharpest stuff. He didn’t dominate to the level of his performance two weeks ago against No. 8 Stanford, when he fired a three-hit shutout. But he still managed to only issue two walks — one of which was the last batter he faced — and didn’t allow an earned run until the sixth inning.
One thing he often stresses is the importance of throwing all four of his pitches for strikes. On Friday, he said, only his fastball and changeup were working, while he struggled to command his curveball and slider.
“As the Friday guy, even if you aren’t on, or you suck that day or whatever, you gotta grind it out for the team,” Stoffal said. “I wasn’t hitting my spots, but it was working out. My defense made some great plays behind me.”
Stoffal worked an efficient nine-pitch first inning, but the third inning was the first time he really had to bear down. Third baseman Sabin Ceballos made a rare error, and the baserunner got a massive jump on some kind of miscommunication on Oregon’s part. The team held a quick meeting at the mound to reconvene. But with two outs, Luke Hill tapped one to right field for an RBI single, bringing in an unearned run — which, at the time, tied the game.
“He was a little bit wild early in the third,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “And then I think he focused on some mechanical things and was able to get himself back in sync. The bottom line is, he got himself almost seven innings of work again tonight, and he did a fantastic job.”
With Oregon scoring seven runs in the fourth, Stoffal got the momentum boost he needed and was able to settle in.
“It’s amazing. As a pitcher in general, having an offense like that is ridiculous, and it gives you more confidence,” he said. “It deflates the other side, and then elevates our dugout.”
Stoffal said he doesn’t like to sit down in between innings in order to stay warm. He has bands he works out with in the dugout in an effort to stay moving — especially when the offense is out on the field for a long time, scoring runs.
“Not a lot. Don’t want to get tired,” Stoffal said. “But just keeping the arm loose, keeping the body; I’m not trying to sit down and get stagnant.”
He had to make in-game adjustments as well, which goes back to the command struggles on his breaking pitches. Pitching coach Jake Angier calls pitches from the dugout. With sort of a three-man tandem of pitcher, catcher and coach working as a unit to execute each pitch, Angier sometimes has to make adjustments to his plan based on what he sees on the field.
“You still gotta try. I tried to show him, if I could throw them for a strike, being able to throw even three pitches for strikes is a big deal,” Stoffal said. “But it’s baseball. No one is ever going to be on every single time they pitch. Angier knows that, and he can see that. It’s not even really a conversation; we didn’t talk about it. He just can see it, so he’s just going to go to the two pitches that are working, and then compete with those two.”
Compete Stoffal certainly did, showing the PK Park crowd once again why he’s taken the reins as Oregon’s ace. While it may not have been a Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week caliber performance this time around, it was more than good enough. In fact, when a pitcher can have a great outing and then come into the postgame press conference and talk about how they didn’t feel great, that’s a pretty good sign that they’re talented and that they hold themself to a high standard.
And a high standard is what Oregon needs at this point in the season, as it wraps up a critical stretch of Pac-12 games. The Ducks have a chance at their first ever Pac-12 baseball title, now only 1.5 games behind Arizona State before the final two games of the series. If they were to win them both, they would jump ahead.
Stoffal is going to be critical to their success going forward, if they want to make this run and especially if they want to succeed in the postseason.
“We’re just excited about his development,” Wasikowski said. “It’s great.”
