The Ducks opened up their marquee series with Stanford with a 2-1 walk-off win Friday night courtesy a bases loaded single from Aaron Payne.
“With two strikes I was just trying to put it in play hard,” Payne said before he took a celebratory shaving cream pie to the face. Payne acknowledged the Friday night win vs a high-profile opponent was a momentum builder for the Ducks, but it’s far from a completed job with two games left in the series.
Mark Appel was as good as advertised on the hill for Stanford, tossing an 8.1 inning complete game loss and striking out nine Ducks in the process, but the super-prospect got little help from his offense despite nine hits and even less help from the Cardinal defense, which committed three errors on the night including one to lead off the ninth.
“The errors probably had more to do with us winning than the hits,” George Horton said.
For his part, Tommy Thorpe was strong on the mound despite giving up nine hits through just 6.2, but he was able to tightrope out of danger almost every time thanks to a strong curveball that led to three of his seven strikeouts.
The Cardinal did lead, briefly, in the third inning on an RBI double from Danny Diekroeger, but Tommy Thorpe limited the damage and Oregon got the run back in the very next inning, this time on an RBI single from Ryon Healy.
“I thought that was critical,” Horton said, “just to break through off Appel.”
The Ducks got a strong outing from their bullpen without even having to call upon their best arm, with Darrell Hunter and Garrett Cleavinger keeping Stanford out of the hit column for the final 2.1 innings. Hunter had a particularly clutch outing, entering the game to face the heart of Stanford’s order in the seventh inning, but he quickly got Brian Ragira out to end the frame.
“Even in this park you’re walking on eggshells a little bit,” Horton said, “with their big, strong guys that can roll it a little bit. I thought Darrel was key, that’s kind of out of his role a little bit and he came in and certainly did his job.”
The Ducks will go for the series win tomorrow with freshman Cole Irvin on the hill for the Ducks. He’ll face Dean McArdale in a 2:00 start.