Oregon Baseball Drops Series to Trojans
Photo by: Stephanie Lovell/DuckTv
The University of Oregon baseball team dropped two of three to the University of Southern California (No. 11, USA Today) this weekend making them 5-10 in Pac-12 play and 23-18 for the season.
After scoring an improbable series victory over the heavily favored Oregon State Beavers last weekend, the Oregon baseball squad looked to secure an even more improbable series win against a ranked USC Trojan squad. However, inconsistency all around grounded any chances of that happening.
Starting pitching once again proved to be checkered for the Ducks. The starts lasted a combined 11 innings while giving up 13 earned runs. Coming off his longest outing of the season vs. OSU, Cole Irvin was far from the same form on Friday. Irvin surrendered 6 earned runs in just 3 2/3 innings, arguably his worst outing of the year.
Conor Harber’s struggles as the Sunday starter persisted as he lasted just one inning while giving up three runs. Since taking over Jack Karraker’s spot in the rotation, Harber’s ERA has ballooned to over five on the season. David Peterson was the only Duck starting pitcher to last more than 4 innings.
Meanwhile, Oregon’s offense found life in bunches over the course of the series. The Ducks rocketed out to a 4-0 lead in the 1st inning on Friday, but were only able to score once more run after the 1st while the Trojans racked up 13 runs. Saturday the team spotted USC 15 runs as they clobbered the Trojans 15-4 before cooling back down in a 7-3 loss Sunday.
The Ducks hit .281 overall for the series primarily in part to Saturday’s offensive explosion. Nick Catalano led the Ducks going 4-for-13 with five-RBIs.
Oregon has struggled vs. ranked opponents going 4-5 on the year.
The Ducks now return home for a six game home stand at PK Park. Oregon starts a three game series with the University of Washington Huskies this Friday, April 24th at 7:00 p.m.
