Last Monday, Oregon baseball’s Cole Irvin was ruled out for the 2014 season due to Tommy John surgery. The sophomore stater was named a 2014 Louisville Slugger and NCBWA Third-Team Preseason All-American prior to the surgery.
“It’s hard to replace the twelve wins and a potential All-American, but every coach and every program goes through some of those kind of things,” head coach George Horton told reporters this afternoon. “We’re moving on. We have no choice.”
Now, the Ducks will turn to junior Jordan Spencer and freshman Matt Krook to fill the weekend rotation spots.
“We’re testing the waters with Jordan Spencer being an everyday weekend starter,” Horton said.
In the Ducks’ four-game opening series this upcoming weekend versus Hawaii, Spencer is scheduled to get the ball in game two and Krook in game three.
Spencer made six weekday starts in the 2012 season and finished with a 4.26 ERA. Spencer, though, did throw the first no-hitter in Oregon history since the program was reinstated in 2009 and pitched two batters over the minimum in a nine-inning shutout against Portland.
“In spots, he (Spencer) has pitched awfully well,” Horton said.
Krook has impressed teammates like starting third baseman Scott Heineman, who said he’s faced the freshman about eight times. Heineman described Krook’s pitching as “filthy” and “disgusting.”
“His stuff is big league ready already,” Heineman said. “His slider’s been compared to the Jimmie Sherfy slider from the left side. And when a lefty’s bringing 94-95 with that kind of slider, it’s tantalizing.”
Krook, the 35th overall draft pick in the 2013 MLB draft, wants to pick up the workload that may be required from the injury to Irvin.
“I’ll have to try and do my best to pick up where he (Irvin) left off and do whatever I can to get innings,” Krook said.
Already the ace of the rotation, Tommy Thorpe feels that the loss of Irvin may require him to do more this season.
“Mentally I might put it upon myself to do even better,” Thorpe said. “But at the end of the day it is just how I perform and how the team performs.”
Thorpe said he trusts that Spencer or Jeff Gold will get the job done in the final weekend starting slot.
“I don’t expect anything different for this year after Cole going down,” Thorpe said. “I have a lot of confidence in Jordan and Goldy.”
The redshirt senior Gold pitched on the weekends in 2012 after an injury to Brandon Tessar and has a career ERA of 3.16. Even as the only right-hander in the rotation, he will likely do most of his starting pitching on the weekdays, which is perfectly fine to him.
“I’m just holding down the midweek (game) for us,” Gold said. “Whatever I can do to help the team win is all what I want to do.”
Tommy Thorpe will get the ball in the Ducks season opener on Friday in Honolulu against Hawaii at 8:35 p.m. PT.
Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @abant3