It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but Oregon edged out Hawaii by a score of 3-2 to earn its first win of the season on college baseball’s opening night.
Both teams showed their jitters early on, as they combined to commit five errors through the first five innings. Both teams would benefit in the form of unearned runs.
Oregon’s Kyle Garlick drew a one-out walk in the top of the fourth and later advanced to second on a passed ball. With two outs, freshman catcher Jack Kruger hit a routine pop up to second base that was dropped by Hawaii second baseman Steven Ventimilia. Running on contact, Garlick was able to score Oregon’s first run of the game.
The next batter, Nick Catalano, smacked a single to left field that bounced over the head of Hawaii’s Marc Flores, who overran the ball going toward the line. Garlick came home to score from first and Catalano motored into third, where he was promptly stranded.
Hawaii responded in the bottom of the fifth, as Kalei Hanawahine led off the inning with a single down the left-field line. The next batter, LJ Brewster, drew a walk to put runners at first and second with nobody out. Austin Wobrock followed by dropping down a sacrifice bunt to third base, but Scott Heineman’s throw pulled first baseman Mitchell Tolman off the bag, loading the bases. After getting Ventimilia to fly out to shallow right field, Oregon starting pitcher Tommy Thorpe issued a walk to Marcus Doi, forcing in Hawaii’s first run of the game.
Kaeo Aliviado tied up the score at 2-2 with a fielder’s choice to second base, beating out a potential double play by the slimmest of margins.
The Warriors threatened to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth, as Alan Baldwin roped a one-out triple down the left field line. Thorpe got Hanawahine to pop out to third and issued a walk to Brewster before inducing an inning-ending groundout by Wobrock to short.
That was the end of the night for Thorpe, who allowed two runs (zero earned) on three hits over six innings. He struck out two and walked four.
Hawaii came knocking on the door again in the seventh, as they had runners at first and second with out against Oregon reliever Trent Paddon. The Oregon right-hander got Jordan Richartz to fly out to right field before being lifted for southpaw Porter Clayton.
Up to the plate for Hawaii was Flores, also a lefty, who was looking to redeem himself after his miscue earlier in the game resulted in Oregon’s second run. However, Clayton got Flores to chase a 1-2 fastball outside the zone to squash the rally.
In the top of the ninth, Hawaii’s Eric Gleese reduced the first two Oregon batters of the inning to infield pop ups, but issued consecutive walks to Catalano and pinch-hitter A.J. Balta. Hawaii brought in Jordan DePonte who put Heineman in an 0-2 hole. DePonte got Heineman to chase on a breaking pitch in the dirt, which skipped past the catcher, Trevor Podratz. Despite striking out, Heineman reached first safely on the wild pitch and Catalano came all the way around to score to give Oregon the 3-2 lead.
Jake Reed made his debut at closer for the Ducks, allowing a lone two-out single before striking out Richartz to earn his first save of the season.
Getting the win for Oregon was Garrett Cleavinger, who struck out the side in a scoreless eighth inning. Gleese was saddled with the loss for Hawaii.
Oregon and Hawaii will square off in the second game of the series on Saturday at 8:35 p.m. PST.
Follow Chris Mosch on Twitter @Chris_Mosch