After struggling mightily through the first half of the season, Oregon’s baseball team is finally showing signs of life.
Saturday, the Ducks beat No. 23 Arizona 7-3 to claim their first Pac-10 series win since last May. While Oregon still needs to make up significant ground to have a shot at qualifying for the postseason, the Ducks have won seven of their past 10 contests and seem to be heating up as they enter a season-defining stretch of conference games.
“It’s an easier road to get into the playoffs,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “Had we lost (Saturday), and the devastation of that and the frustration of that, we would have had to really run the table. (Saturday) was critical.”
Perhaps sensing the significance of the moment, the Ducks put forth one of their best all-around efforts of the year to improve to 21-17 overall and 4-8 in Pac-10 play. Freshman infielder Ryon Healy headlined Oregon’s offensive attack with three hits and two RBI.
After putting Oregon ahead in the first inning with an RBI single, Healy launched the first home run of his collegiate career in the fourth.
“It felt great,” Healy said. “I got a good piece of it and it helped my team win the ballgame.”
Working with a lead for most of the afternoon, starter Alex Keudell earned his fifth win of the year by throwing 5 2/3 innings of three-run ball. Junior Scott McGough went the remaining 3 1/3 frames in relief of Keudell to pick up his fourth save.
Although Oregon held a comfortable lead for most of the game, Arizona actually got on the board first. The Wildcats scored a single run in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by catcher Jett Bandy.
However, the Ducks answered back in the bottom of the frame. With one out, right fielder Aaron Jones singled to left-center field to score second baseman Danny Pulfer, who walked to open the inning. Later, Healy knocked in Jones with a single to give Oregon the lead.
The Ducks scored two more runs in the second on RBI singles by left fielder Stefan Sabol and Jones, added a run in the third on Healy’s homer, and another in the fourth on groundout by Sabol.
Arizona came back with single runs in the fourth and six innings, but the Ducks added an insurance run in the eighth and were never seriously threatened.
“That was one of our better efforts from inning one to inning nine,” Horton said.
However, Oregon’s performance the previous day one was one of their worst.
Friday
The Ducks wasted a masterful compete-game performance by Madison Boer and fell 2-1 to Arizona.
Boer, who suffered his third loss of the season despite allowing only six hits over nine strong innings, surrendered a run in the fifth on an RBI groundout, and a solo home run in the seventh, which proved to be the difference.
Although neither team mounted many threats, Oregon’s offensive was woeful. The Ducks didn’t draw a single walk from Arizona starter Kyle Simon, who pitched a complete game of his own to earn his seventh win, and mustered a season-low three hits.
After scoring a run in the first inning on an RBI fielder’s choice by Sabol, Oregon had only one hit in the game’s final eight innings.
“That guy was doing a good job of spotting his pitches low and getting us to chase and getting us to put the ball in play early,” Pulfer said.
Pulfer was the lone bright spot for Oregon’s offense with two hits in his four at-bats.
Oregon will return to play at 6 p.m. Wednesday when they host Portland. It will be the fourth time the Ducks and Pilots have played this season.
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