Senior Cam Gaulke and his Oregon club baseball teammates had seen enough.
After an infuriating 1-0 loss in the opener of the Ducks’ three-game series against Central Oregon Community College on Saturday, Gaulke and some of the other veterans on the club squad met to formulate a game plan for the series’ final two games.
“Honestly, I think everyone got a little pissed off,” Gaulke said. “Some of the older guys got together and showed everyone that we were a little pissed off about how we lost, and I think it translated to the field.”
In the ensuing games, the Ducks created plenty of opportunities to take out that frustration on their opponents. Oregon cruised to a pair of convincing victories in the two remaining contests to win the weekend series and better its Northern Pacific West record to 3-2.
“I thought (the series) went really well,” Gaulke added. “We came out a little flat in that first game but did a lot of good things in games two and three.”
In those contests, the Ducks were finally able to string some hits together and take advantage of less than stellar COCC pitching.
And Gaulke, for one, let his bat do the talking. He drove in three runs and got on base three times to help lead the Ducks to a 6-1 victory in the series’ second game.
Starting pitcher Logan Cooper picked up the win with five strong innings of one-run ball while Carlos Borromeo shut the door out of the bullpen with two scoreless innings.
Oregon then proceeded to earn a series victory with an 8-2 win on Sunday. The rubber match featured more strong Duck offense to complement a remarkable pitching performance by hurler Sean Susa.
The sophomore from Monte Vista High School in California threw seven shutout innings to earn the win while only allowing three COCC batters to reach base. Susa’s effort was supported by standout offensive performances from Cooper Mandleblatt and Jacob Schumacher.
Although the 8-2 final score was never truly in doubt, things did turn a little dicey in the bottom of the ninth inning because of a birthday present Oregon head coach Chad Franke gave his freshman corner infielder, Pat Canepa.
“It was Canepa’s 19th birthday (on Sunday), so earlier in the week I asked him what position he wanted to play the most for his birthday.” Franke said. “He asked me to let him pitch, so I told him if we get up by eight runs, I’ll let you pitch.”
And as fate would have it, the Ducks carried an 8-0 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. After receiving an inquiring glance from Canepa in the eighth, Franke knew he had to make good on his promise.
“With two outs in the bottom of the ninth I put him on the mound,” Franke said. “He struggled a little bit, walked a couple guys and one guy got a hit, so I went back out there put him back to third.”
Reliever Ryan Redding came in to get the game’s final out, however, and Canepa’s brief
outing was deemed a success.
Still, Franke is probably grateful Canepa fared much better with a bat in his hands than he did on the mound. The freshman reached base safely in six of his 12 plate appearances in the series while also stealing four bases and driving in a pair of runs. Mandleblatt and Schumacher also had big weekends, as they combined to drive in nine of the Ducks’ 15 runs on the weekend.
The Ducks hope to sustain that momentum into next weekend’s three-game road series against Seattle University.
“If we can stay aggressive at the plate and play smart baseball, I think we’re going to be okay,” Gaulke said.
[email protected]