Oregon Baseball Takes Series, But Misses on Sweep vs. Stanford
The University of Oregon baseball team secured a second straight pac-12 series win taking two out of three from the Stanford Cardinal.
Oregon won the first two games of the series thanks to early spurts of offense in both games. The Ducks gave Friday starter, Cole Irvin, a 6-0 advantage through the first three innings, and cruised to a 7-3 series-opening win.
Game two was more of the same as Oregon sprinted out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning thanks to catcher Tim Susnara’s 2-RBI double. David Peterson polished it off with six and one-third solid frames of pitching. His only blemish came in the top of the seventh as he gave up a three-run homer to Cardinal first baseman, Alex Dunlap, who made it 4-3. From there on, the bullpen took care of business and sealed the victory.
However, the Sunday game proved to be a missed opportunity for the Ducks. After taking a 5-2 lead to the 8th inning, the normally reliable bull pen imploded as Stephen Nogosek and Garret Cleavinger gave up a combined 4 runs and the lead.
The game three loss prevented Oregon from getting the team’s first Pac-12 series sweep of the year. This also limited the Ducks’ recent surge, and put them at 4-2 for the six game home stand.
With 13 games left on the schedule, every game becomes that much more crucial for Oregon if the Ducks want to keep its post season dreams alive. Head coach George Horton knows how “expensive” each loss can be from here on out.
“Hopefully it won’t hurt us if we can do well on Tuesday and do well on the road the next two weekends,” said Horton.
The Ducks will travel to Corvallis on Tuesday to face the Oregon State Beavers in a one game series at 6:00 p.m. Oregon will follow that up with a three game series vs. Washington State next weekend.
