Baseball is a game of observing tendencies. On Friday night, No. 19 Oregon broke one in particular, one it has consistently shown this season.
In eight of the Ducks’ first 10 wins, they trailed at one point during the game. Friday night, they opted out of this tendency with an early three-run home run, which kept Oregon ahead for seven innings. Oregon (11-2) almost caved in its series opener against St. John’s (5-5), but they held on to win 4-3.
A one-out triple to left-center field from Austin Grebeck got Oregon going early. Mitchell Tolman then earned a walk to set up Shaun Chase. Chase, who’s been struggling at the plate, struck out.
Next up was Brandon Cuddy. He picked up his teammate with a three-run home run that landed on the Player Development Area over the Oregon bullpen.
“That was one of the most critical at-bats of the whole game,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “We might of played a better baseball game all the way through if that had not happened.”
Then, 14 consecutive scoreless frames were displayed on the Oregon scoreboard in left field. The top of ninth’s spot wasn’t one of them.
“We forgot to bring out lunch bill and go to work,” Horton said. “(We) left them in the game.”
Leadoff singles from Ty Blankmeyer and Alex Caruso got St. John’s first two-runners on the base paths. It was the first time a Red Storm player touched second base. Blankmeyer eventually reached third, too, on a wild pitch. Jarred Mederos then worked a walk to load the bases.
Then Michael Donadio, St. John’s three-hitter who entered with a .367 batting average and 5 RBIs, struck out.
But long reliever Conor Harber couldn’t best the Red Storm cleanup hitter Zach Lauricella, who singled on a slow ground ball in the infield which gave enough time for all runners to gain 90 feet.
“(Harber) had one walk, the balls weren’t hit hard, I thought he still had good stuff, it’s been a magic formula, he’s been one of our best guys,” Horton said. “Even in a situation where it looked like they were going to make a run at us, we still had the confidence in him to close that inning out. It didn’t go his way.”
Garrett Cleavinger was called in relief to close out the ninth. St. John’s countered the change with a move of its own with pinch hitter Bret Dennis. It worked. Dennis singled up the middle scoring two runs to tie the game at three.
That’s all St. John’s could manufacture in the ninth, but the damage was done and extra innings were needed.
In the eleventh, Oregon got a chance. A leadoff walk from J.B. Bryant and sacrifice bunt from Phil Craig-St. Louis got the Ducks in business. Another walk to Daniel Patzlaff and a past ball moved the two Ducks into scoring position with only one out. With Nick Catalano up, business turned sour. A failed suicide squeeze caught Bryant between third and home. Catalano then struck out to end the inning.
“(The) squeeze bunt has been a very important play in our repertoire and our offense,” Horton said. “(Mark Wasikowski) went for it and it backfired. Then it was like we were shocked that not everything works, that’s great to have that confidence but I didn’t like the response.”
Déjà vu occurred in the 12th. Matt Eureste led off with a walk and Grebeck bunted him over to second. Then Oregon, again with some help, broke their usual trend: Tolman grounded a ball to Mederos at shortstop, who overthrew Harris at first, scoring Eureste to win the game.
Key statistics:
-Cole Irvin: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 K
-Brandon Cuddy: 1-4, 1 HR, 3 RBI
-Conor Harber: 4.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
-St. John’s bullpen between the fifth and 11th innings: 7.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 9 K, 5 BB
-Oregon: 1-11 with runners in scoring position
The series resumes Saturday at 2 p.m. at PK Park.
Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrewbantly
Mitch Karraker has been named the new Oregon baseball pitching coach, head coach George Horton announced Tuesday afternoon via a news release. Karraker’s promotion comes after Dean Stiles departed Eugene to become the pitching coach at Florida International. Karraker was a catcher for Oregon from 2009 to 2011. After 2011, he …
