The Oregon baseball team clinched a series win against USC Sunday with a 4-2 win at PK Park after a series-opening 4-3 win on Saturday afternoon. The Ducks (37-14, 18-8 Pac-12) and Trojans (22-23, 7-15 Pac-12) will play the third and final game of the series on Monday evening. @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=11401&SPSID=94835@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=11401&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205426782@@
Starter Alex Keudell picked up his ninth win of the year and his eighth in as many starts on Saturday as the Ducks opened the series with a 4-3 win in front of 2,951 at PK Park. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=11401&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205426782@@
Oregon took an early 1-0 lead in the third inning by way of a home run off the bat of Aaron Jones. It was the first homer for Jones since returning from an ankle injury, bringing his total on the season to six. Jones connected with an offspeed pitch and easily sent it into the leftfield bullpen.
“Coach (Mark Wasikowski) has been talking a lot about being fastball ready,” Jones said. “That makes it easy for the off-speed pitches that are up.” @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=94834&SPID=11401&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205236710&Q_SEASON=2011@@
USC leveled the score in the fourth inning, but the Ducks struck three times in the fifth inning to take the 4-1 lead. USC scored twice in the sixth to pull within one run before Tommy Thorpe and Jimmie Sherfy took over with two outs in the sixth.
Sherfy earned his 12th save of the season for the Ducks in one and 1/3 innings of work, earning four strikeouts in the process — though he did keep things interesting.
“He’s a tough guy to hit, that’s for sure,” head coach George Horton said. “So even though he creates his own issues, we still like him to have the baseball at the end of the game.” @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=94834&SPID=11401&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=1205425&Q_SEASON=2011@@
Freshman Jake Reed overcame a shaky start Sunday as the Ducks clinched a series win with a 4-2 victory over USC. Reed settled down after hitting two of his first four batters.
“I kept my composure, unlike last week,” Reed said. “I know that was part of the reason why it kind of got out of hand there and I made a big point to myself that I was going to keep my composure in bad innings.”
Reed gave up a run in the first and seventh innings but was nearly unhittable in the middle innings, retiring 11 consecutive batters before giving up a sixth-inning single to Alex Sherrod. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205427228@@
“He didn’t look like the confident Jake Reed that we’ve seen since he set foot on campus,” Horton said. “Then he found it. All of the sudden he had a six-pitch inning, and he figured out how to get out of his own way.”
Aaron Payne led the Ducks offensively again with two RBI in a 3-for-5 outing. Payne gave the Ducks a key insurance run with a single in the eighth inning after J.J. Altobelli was intentionally walked.
“We put everyone on yesterday and didn’t cash them in,” Payne said. “We got that extra run today and with Sherfy on the mound you don’t really need it, but it’s always comfortable to have that two-run lead.”
Altobelli had a strong day of his own offensively going 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored. Altobelli has been productive out of the nine-spot in the Duck batting order, but Horton doesn’t anticipate moving him back to the top of the order.
“I like the way it’s functioning right now,” Horton said. “It’s always nice to have a real quality, clutch player down in the order, and J.J. has certainly been that in his career.”