After losing Tuesday’s game 8-4, the Oregon baseball team (18-6) responded well in Wednesday’s game. After a delayed start from early rain, the Ducks got an early lead over San Francisco (12-10) and continued to manufacture runs throughout the game, scoring in six of the nine innings in a 12-5 victory.
The Ducks were all over the base paths in the opening inning, scoring five runs, but not because of a rally started by multiple hits. In fact, the Ducks had just one hit in the entire inning. USF starting pitcher Jordan Haseltine went just 0.1 innings after allowing six of the first seven hitters on base. Haseltine walked the first three Ducks he saw. Then, with bases loaded and no outs, Haseltine drilled Mitchell Tolman, allowing the first run of the game to be scored. Then, with one out, freshman A.J. Balta hit a hard ground ball in between shortstop Nico Giarratano and third baseman Bob Cruikshank. Nick Catalano then walked, taking Haseltine out of the game.
Haseltine would be replaced by lefty Matt Narahara. Narahara didn’t do much better in the first, walking Jack Kruger to score Tolman from third. Then A.J. Balta took off for home on a wild pitch. The ball rolled up the backstop, giving Balta extra time to slide in safely ahead of the tag. Narahara buckled down for the remainder of the inning, leaving two runners on base. Haseltine would be charged for all five runs that came across in the inning.
“We’ll take it,” head coach George Horton said. “To get a five that gets you out to a good start and then the bounce-back effort to get a win is a good deal.”
In the bottom of the first, the Dons started to chip away. Giarratano started the two-run rally with a single up the middle. Then USF’s star player Bradley Zimmer continued to swing a hot bat, ripping a double to right field. With runners now on second and third, Derek Atkinson singled up the middle to score both runners.
Entering the top of the fourth the Ducks held a 6-2 lead. To lead off the inning Aaron Payne hit a very high fly ball that carried out to right field. Drifting back to the wall, USF right fielder Atkinson jumped up trying to bring Payne’s fly ball back into play but the ball sneaked just over Atkinson’s glove and the wall. This was Payne’s second career home run as a Duck — his last home run came on May 20, 2012.
“I was kinda around the corner, so I saw him hit it and then just saw the reaction,” Horton said.
Payne passed “his good old buddies,” Horton said, in Brett Hambright and J.J. Altobelli in career home runs — Hambright and Altobelli only had one.
Horton gave the ball to Brando Tessar to start Wednesday’s game. Tessar gave Horton and the Ducks five innings, allowing six hits, three runs (all earned), and striking out four. Tessar didn’t allow a walk but did hit a batter in his outing.
“I was happy with the way he threw strikes,” Horton said.
Jordan Spencer was the first Duck to come in relief and pitched a clean 6th inning with one strikeout.
In the seventh, Oregon picked up two more after Catalano reached base via a walk and was moved over on a sacrifice bunt by Jack Kruger. It was then Mark Karaviotis who singled to right, scoring Catalano. Karaviotis then got to third on a single from Payne and scored on a sacrifice fly by J.B. Bryant.
Then Jack Karraker was called upon in a 10-3 game to get work in. The Dons responded in the seventh, matching the Ducks with two runs in the inning. Two straight singles set up Justin McCullough for an RBI situation. McCullough doubled to left center, scoring both runners on the play.
Garrett Cleavinger and Jake Reed pitched clean innings in the eighth and ninth, respectively. Of the five pitchers Oregon threw not one surrendered a walk.
Brando Tessar was awarded the win in the 12-5 Oregon victory.
The Ducks will leave the city by the bay taking one of two games and will head down south to Palo Alto on Thursday for their weekend series against Stanford.
Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @abant3