David Peterson pitched an eight-inning gem against Illinois State Sunday, helping Oregon clinch the series in a 3-1 win. Peterson tied a career-high with nine strikeouts and retired 25 of the 28 batters he faced. He allowed just one unearned run on two hits and a walk.
Peterson pitched himself into trouble a few times, committing a fielding error on a come-backer and a throwing error on a pick-off attempt. But he was also effectively wild, keeping the Redbirds off-balance and guessing with a mixture of fastballs and breaking balls in the dirt.
“Other than fielding his position and pick-off plays, he was outstanding,” Horton said of Peterson. “He was real sharp today — for an extended period of time, maybe as sharp as I’ve ever seen him.”
Peterson agreed he pitched as well today as ever.
“I felt like I was on point, and I thought that everything was working for me,” Peterson said.
The Ducks were not prolific at the plate, but they were efficient. Four runs and four walks was all they needed to score three earned runs. They put up 14 runs on 18 hits the first three games of the series but struggled on offense yesterday, when they were held to two runs on five hits in their first loss of the season.
“We were scuffling for runs when we got home, and this is a tough ballpark to get a whole bunch of runs in,” Horton said. “I liked our approach a lot better today.”
Illinois State struck first due to a rocky first inning for Peterson. Lead-off hitter Daniel Dwyer got on base with a bloop single to center and moved over to second when Peterson mishandled a potential double-play ground ball on the mound. Dwyer waltzed home on Peterson’s wild pitch shortly thereafter to take a 1-0 lead.
Back-to-back opposite-field doubles from Phil Craig-St. Louis and Steven Packard in the second inning evened the score at one. Packard advanced to third on Matt Kroon’s sacrifice fly to right field, but was stranded on third when Travis Moniot struck out looking with a full count.
Jakob Goldfarb saved a run from scoring in the fourth after a lead-off double from clean-up hitter Jean Ramirez set the table for the Redbirds. Ramirez advanced to third on a bunt, but Goldfarb hosed him at the plate for an inning-ending double play when he tried to tag up on a fly ball to right. Peterson escaped the inning unscathed.
“I went to back up but I could have walked right off the field,” Peterson said about Goldfarb’s double play. “That kid, he’s got an unbelievable arm. It’s just insane.”
Goldfarb batted in the go-ahead run in the sixth with a single through hole on the right side. Austin Grebeck, who got on base with a lead-off hit-by-pitch with two strikes, came around to score from second.
Packard tacked on his second RBI of the day in the eighth with a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Austin Grebeck from third for his second run.
“It’s good to get back on track,” Goldfarb said. “We wanted to get the series today; we didn’t want to split it. We came in and took care of business.”
Next up, the Ducks will take on UC Santa Barbara at PK Park on Friday, March 4.