Oregon (27-13, 11-7 Pac-12) dropped a third-consecutive game Tuesday night, falling to Oregon State (27-12, 8-7 Pac-12) 7-1 in the first of five Civil War matchups. While the game was technically a nonconference game, that doesn’t take any of the sting out a loss to their in-state rivals.
“It’s disappointing to lose, always,” said freshman third baseman Thomas Walker. “We kind of go into every game thinking we’re going to win — obviously that being an in-state rival you don’t want to lose that game, but it’s disappointing no matter who we’re playing against.”
The Ducks three-game losing streak — which equals their longest of the season — hurts, but Walker said the Ducks need to put their nose to the grindstone and get back to work.
“We need to rally together as an offense and as a team to get back on the horse,” he said.
Oregon State got a career day out of Taylor Starr who struck out a career-high seven in the longest outing of his career, including three-straight called strikeouts to begin the bottom of the first.
Following that inning from Starr, the Beavers scored two runs in the second inning before adding four more runs in a nightmarish third — an inning that saw Oregon throwing three wild pitches.
Horton said Oregon lost the game because the Beavers were simply the better team on the field.
“I didn’t think we were very competitive right from the very beginning of the game,” Horton said. “We got out-pitched, out-hit and out-defended. We just weren’t very competitive today.“
He was quick to note, however, that the Ducks lackluster play shouldn’t be blamed on injuries.
“The quality of our at-bats — whether we’re missing some of our guys or not — that’s not an excuse,” he said. “The guys that we’re putting up there need to have better at-bats, the guys that we’re pitching need to have better command of the strike zone.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by shortstop Kevin Shepherd.
“I felt we came out a little flat,” he said. “We just took a while to get going.”
He said some of Oregon’s slow start can be blamed on the game being a midweek game, but he said the Ducks should be ready to play any day of the week.
“You still gotta show up, especially when it’s the Beavs,” Shepherd said. “I just don’t think we did a very good job of that today.”
While Oregon looked flat, Horton said Oregon State played an extremely solid fundamental game.
“They made the game look pretty simple early,” he said. “They’re scoring a lot of balls up, using the whole field, hitting mistakes, moving runners by swinging the bat and using the bunting game, and we had three backward Ks in the first inning.”
As poorly as he felt they played, he said the game didn’t feel like the Ducks were within six runs.
“It ended up being 7-1, but it felt like it was 15-1,” Horton said.
He said the Ducks current funk could be a defining moment in a season that, just a week ago, looked like it could produce postseason baseball in Eugene.
“It might be a critical moment,” he said. “If we let it, it could be a negative spiral.”
He said there is some good news for the Ducks, as Aaron Jones may be ready to rejoin the Oregon lineup — at least in a limited capacity — for this weekend’s series against Cal. JJ Altobelli is also close to returning to the Oregon lineup, but Horton said the team needs to produce more even without Jones and Altobelli.
“If we’re looking for the cavalry to ride in, we’re looking in the wrong direction,” he said.
Ducks baseball drops third-straight contest, falls to Beavers 7-1
Daily Emerald
April 23, 2012
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