Last Friday, infielder Danny Pulfer started at shortstop, and usual first baseman Jack Marder moved over to second base. This was all because starting shortstop KC Serna was suspended for the series for breaking team rules.
This arrangement lasted all of just a couple of innings in the first game of the East Tennessee State series because Marder hit his head sliding into home plate and received a severe concussion for his efforts.
The next inning, Pulfer was back at second base, and reliever Scott McGough came in to play shortstop. Some people who were not familiar with the team paused to wonder why a player who didn’t have a single inning or at-bat logged at the position in over 40 games this year was all of sudden on the field, but it really wasn’t that much of a stretch. Last year, McGough played seven games at shortstop, the position he was originally recruited to play. He made the switch to pitcher only after it was realized he couldn’t hit as well as he could field.
“That was my main position in high school,” McGough said. “I never really pitched more than 15-20 innings a year and closed stuff out. It helped me out coming here because I was in the mindset of an athletic one.”
Serna said he was excited for McGough and how well he did over the weekend.
“I’m glad he did fine. I was pumped for him, helping him out as best I could,” said Serna, who came back Tuesday with a base hit. “He’s another teammate, you know? You can’t really get mad at him for balling out. I was excited for him.”
McGough had a few hits over the weekend and played flawlessly in the field, but don’t expect to see him between second and third much because he has a 2.76 ERA in 49 innings on the mound.
“We have a new shortstop in the mix,” Horton said with a smile. “He was in my office yesterday wondering why he didn’t start. I’m saying that tongue-in-cheek of course, but we won’t be afraid to use him in a pinch. The good news is that most everybody is healthy, more so than usual at this time of the year.”
McGough threw the last 1.1 innings of Tuesday’s win against Portland, which was significant because the Ducks finally were able to beat the pesky Pilots. In four previous tries, the Ducks lost four straight times and had been frustrated by how the Pilots handled them.
“Yeah, we finally beat the Pilots,” Horton said. “That’s a good baseball team. We have a lot of respect for them. It wasn’t an awesome game that we played, but we’ll take it and we respect them.”
“It certainly was (nice to win),” McGough said. “It was our first time up there. New ballpark, new atmosphere, so it was pretty cool to get a win. Especially on the roll we’ve been lately.”
The roll he is speaking of is the current five-game winning streak the Ducks find themselves on. After losing three games to Oregon State two weeks ago, Oregon played five non-conference games, including a 13-4 win over No. 19 San Diego on May 11. The break from the Pacific-10 Conference (where Oregon is tied for sixth place) came at the perfect time so the Ducks could get back on track.
“We hit a speed bump at OSU. I think it was more of a wake up call than a speed bump, but it was unfortunate that it was to them,” Pulfer said. “It’s kicked us into a fourth gear now. I think we’re good.”
Tuesday’s win also gave Oregon 35 wins for the season — a milestone Horton has called the minimum number of wins the team would need to get to a NCAA Regional. But with seven games to go, the Ducks want to solidify a spot in the postseason because no one thinks their work is done.
“I still don’t think we’re in yet. There’s no guarantee,” Pulfer said. “Things can go south quickly. That’s the game of baseball, and we’re just here to prevent that from happening. There’s a lot of good teams around the country trying to get in.”
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