Coming into the season, Oregon knew it had a strong defensive team and a solid pitching staff centered around an ace starting pitcher, All-American Jake Reed, and closer, All-American Jimmie Sherfy.
In the first game of the season on the road against Hawaii, Reed played six scoreless innings, giving up just four hits with seven strikeouts.
In his second start, against Loyola Marymount, he seemed electric, trying his career high in strikeouts with eight, but then gave up four runs in the fifth, leading to an Oregon loss. The loss to LMU seemingly put him in a slump.
Reed is currently third on the team in ERA (3.54), win/loss percentage (.571), and runs allowed (28).
While it can be costly to demote an ace, it was becoming clear that Reed wasn’t filling the role the team needed out of a Friday starter. Last weekend against Cal, coach George Horton moved him into the Sunday spot with Tommy Thorpe and Cole Irvin both moving up a day. All three got wins.
“Jake wasn’t that Friday guy that we need to match up with the other Friday guys around the Pac,” Horton said bluntly. “He’s been a guy who had a hiccup somewhere along the line, as good as his stuff is. When you give up four or five (runs) on Friday, it’s hard to win, so he got demoted.”
However, Horton said that the rotation of Thorpe throwing Friday, Irvin on Saturday, and Reed on Sunday is not set in stone. Originally, Horton wanted to move the freshman, Irvin, into the Friday spot starting this weekend against UCLA, calling him his most consistent pitcher. However, after the success Thorpe saw in his Friday start against Cal, Horton decided to keep the rotation the way it was for UCLA.
Reed was quite candid when asked about the demotion, admitting that he simply wasn’t performing to the expectations of a Friday starter and said he understood why Horton made the change. He expressed that picking up a win, regardless of what day it is, is the most important thing on his mind.
“I wasn’t really giving the team a lot of success,” Reed said. “Cole and Tommy have been throwing more consistent that I have. I don’t think it was (the coaching staff) losing confidence in me, they know I can still pitch, it was just a matter of changing things up and seeing the best way we could put the rotation to get a sweep or win a series. The ultimate goal is winning and sweeping series.”
Irvin, currently second in the rotation, has a good shot of moving into the Friday spot at some point this season because he has been so solid for Oregon, going 7-1 on the year.
Irvin admitted that he did, in fact, have aspirations for being named the Friday starter, but realizes it’s something that he has to work for.
“It’s been a goal since summer,” Irvin said of earning the coveted Friday slot. “Tommy pitched well last Friday and deserves to keep that spot, and I hope he does well the rest of the year.”
Irvin was modest, per usual, but did allude to some motivation to earn the Friday spot sooner rather than later. Irvin wants to take on the projected number one overall 2013 draft pick in Stanford pitcher Mark Appel.
“I pay attention to who is slated where and I want to see (Appel) pitch,” Irvin said. “I want to start against him.”