In the ninth inning with one out of Tuesday night’s game, catcher Eddie Rodriguez blasted a home run to center field, just to the left of the batter’s eye wall that stands behind the 400 foot marker. The cheers from the sparse crowd that remained followed him around the base paths, and his teammates streamed from the dugout to meet him.
The only problem was, instead of winning or even tying the ball game against the Portland Pilots, it only broke up Portland’s shutout, and it still led 3-1. And two fly outs later, it was official, as the 31-9 Pilots came into PK Park and beat No. 15 Oregon (30-15) for the fourth time in a row.
“They didn’t sneak up on us. They’re a good baseball team,” head coach George Horton said. “They’ve won 11 in a row, and they’re 31-9. They were a better baseball team than us…the Pilots are legitimate and we weren’t worthy of the challenge.”
The story of the game for Portland was freshman pitcher Chris Johnson. The Edmonds, Wash. native made just his second start of the season, and cruised through the Duck lineup, allowing four hits in seven innings of work. Johnson struck out five and walked one, and he kept Oregon baffled all night.
“He was just pounding the strike zone, getting ahead of us 0-1,” Rodriguez said. “He just kept the ball down and whenever someone does that you elevate the ball a little bit and we had a lot of pop ups instead of putting the ball on the ground and making the defense work…hats off to that guy.”
“He’s kind of funky and threw two different breaking balls and working his fast ball in there just off the plate….he just kept us off balance all night,” Horton said.
Portland had six hits to Oregon’s five, and three of them came in the first. Oregon starter Joey Housey (2-1) gave up a leadoff hit to shortstop Kris Kauppila, and after a battle with center fielder Craig Smith, Housey walked him to put two men on with no outs. First baseman C.J. Cullen moved the two runners over with a ground out to the first baseman. Then designated hitter Beau Fraser flew out to left field, scoring Kaupilla from third.
Right fielder Kyle Haskin followed with an RBI single to center field, and it looked like Housey would be in further trouble when second baseman Riley Henricks roped a ball off of Jack Marder’s glove at first, and ended up on second with a double. But Housey got left fielder Garrett Queen to ground out to second base to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Oregon was held in check. Left fielder Marcus Piazzisi singled in the first on a bunt, and a double by catcher Eddie Rodriguez moved him to third. But right fielder Steven Packard ground out to the shortstop to end the inning.
From there Oregon managed two hits from the second to the eighth inning. Packard doubled in the fourth, and Rodriguez singled to right in the sixth. Then Rodriguez broke the shutout in the ninth with his one-out home run, but to him and the team it didn’t matter.
“I think we got gooned out with one strike,” Horton said of his team’s offensive effort. “We were a little frivolous at the plate and hit a lot of fly balls.”
Portland got on the board again in the seventh. With one out, Nick Armenta hit a slow roller to pitcher Madison Boer, but he beat out the throw to first, which went wide of the bag. Armenta ended up on second base, and catcher Rocky Gale hit a 1-2 pitch into center field for an RBI single.
Boer went four perfect innings after coming in for Housey in to start the third inning, and he retired the first hitter of the seventh before he surrendered his first base runner. Alex Keudell came in with two outs in the seventh to get Kaupilla to ground out to end the inning.
Christian Jones and Drew Gagnier combined to pitch the ninth inning.
Now Oregon looks to this weekend’s series with rival Oregon State in Corvallis. While Portland helped itself out with a big win over a ranked opponent, Oregon will need to pick up the series to continue to impress the NCAA tournament selection committee.
“We shouldn’t lose any games, especially these mid-week games because they’re the ones that are going to count in the long run,” Rodriguez said. “Yeah, it’s disappointing, but we have a lot to learn from this experience.”
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TOP PERFORMERS
Eddie Rodriguez: 3 for 4, one run, one RBI, one double, one home run
Madison Boer: 4 2/3 innings pitched, two hits, one run, and four strikeouts
Chris Johnson: Seven innings, four hits, zero runs, and five strikeouts