It wasn’t pretty, but Oregon completed the sweep of St. John’s at home by a score of 8-6 on Sunday.
Starting pitcher Jack Karraker worked from the stretch early and often, falling behind in counts and catching too much plate with his fastball. His 1.67 WHIP and first-pitch-strike percentage of .586 indicate room for improvement, but on the plus side, none of his runs today were earned.
“He didn’t have his best command, but his mentality got him through that,” Horton said.
Karraker’s location issues manifested in the second inning, when St. John’s inflicted most of its damage. After walking the lead off hitter, he battled to induce a routine double play ball to shortstop Daniell Patzlaff, who got the nod over everyday starter Mark Karaviotis. But Patzlaff booted the sure out and instead both runners advanced safely.
Karraker conceded a four-pitch walk to load the bases, then Matt Harris scored on an infield fielder’s choice. With two outs, Robert Wayman drilled a single through the right-side hole to drive in Robbie Knightes, but Karraker hosed the runner advancing to third after an overthrow home to end the inning.
“You can only control what you can control,” Karraker said of the shaky start. “We had to grind through some innings, and then our offense grinded down their guys.”
Oregon began chipping away in the fourth, when Brandon Cuddy scorched a triple down the line in left to bat in Phil Craig-St. Louis.
Matt Eureste legged out a potential double play to extend the fifth inning and allowed Scott Heineman to reach home safely and tie the score at 2-2.
St. John’s unraveled in the sixth and Oregon capitalized with four runs on three hits to pad itself with a 6-2 lead. With runners on first and second, catcher Shaun Chase laid a picture-perfect drag bunt down the third base line and legged it out to load the bases. Then Jakob Goldfarb drew a walk on a full count to give Oregon its first lead of the afternoon.
Daniel Patzlaff redeemed himself with a two-out base knock up the middle to score Chase and Heineman and put the Ducks up by four.
Trent Paddon relieved Karraker to start the seventh and continued his struggles on the mound, giving up two singles right off the bat. A sacrifice bunt and a strikeout gave Oregon two outs, but Tolman charged and bobbled a soft ground ball to let another St. John’s run score.
Paddon left the top of the eighth with no outs and bases loaded, having given up four hits and a walk in nine batters faced. Garrett Cleavinger made his 77th career appearance for Oregon, the most in school history, but Bret Dennis spoiled it with a bases-clearing double to silence the crowd and even the score at six.
The game would not stay tied for long, however, as Shaun Chase erupted from his massive slump with a two-run jack to left-center, his third of the year. Chase was 3-4 on the day with a home run, triple off the fence in center, and bunt single.
“It was a slider,” Chase said of the home run pitch. “He hung it to me. I knew he threw a lot of sliders yesterday, so it was in the back of my mind that he’d throw a lot of sliders today.”
Chase was hitting .159 coming into the series, but left hitting .204.
“I guess that explains why we stayed with him,” Horton said.
The Ducks hung on in the ninth to clinch its 13th win of the season 8-6. Oregon is now 8-0 at home this season.
St. John’s lead-off through clean-up hitters rocked the Ducks’ pitching staff in the series, accounting for 20 of the team’s 28 base hits, a familiar trend. Slots 1-4 have carried St. John’s all season long for 73 hits, 59 percent of the team’s total hits this season.
Collectively the Ducks’ bullpen failed them this weekend, allowing nine runners to score in the seventh inning or later. Connor Harber was dominant for four innings on Friday, but a three-run ninth enabled St. John’s to scratch and claw for another three innings. Josh Graham yielded two of starter David Peterson’s runs in the eighth on Saturday, and Paddon and Cleavinger allowed four runs in the final third today.
The Ducks will take on San Francisco at home in a two-game series Tuesday and Wednesday.
Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @kennyjacoby
Oregon overcomes defensive woes, sweeps St. John’s
March 7, 2015
Taylor Wilder
The Ducks baseball team looks to leave a disappointing loss to San Francisco behind them as they start conference play in Berkeley, California against the Golden Bears.
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