The Oregon baseball team had won nine straight games against Hawaii entering Sunday’s game and freshman Matt Krook was on the hill for the Ducks. The 35th overall MLB draft pick pitched 7.0 innings on Sunday, giving up two runs (zero earned) on five hits with eight strikeouts. Krook struggled at times, though, throwing seven wild-pitches past freshman catcher Jack Kruger. The Ducks also needed an extra inning to defeat Hawaii, winning 6-5.
The Rainbow Warriors would open up the scoring in the first inning when Marcus Doi reached first base on an error by third baseman Scott Heineman. Kaeo Aliviado would then strikeout but the ball got away from Kruger and Aliviado would reach first safely, while Doi would move to third base. Trevor Podratz would later score Doi on a groundout to Mark Karaviotis.
The Ducks would get that run back in the third when Karaviotis reached fist base after getting hit by the pitch. After getting moved over to second by a Heineman ground ball, Karaviotis would end up at third on an Aaron Payne bunt single. Then as Payne was caught trying to steal second base with one out, Karaviotis stole home on the play tying the game at one.
Later in the game tied at two, Oregon would take their first lead of the game in the eighth inning. After working a walk from Hawaii pitcher Jordan DePonte, Payne would move over to second base on a wild pitch. With one out, Tyler Baumgartner hit the ball hard to the first baseman Doi, who couldn’t handle the ball. Baumgartner then moved up to second base by another error from second basemen Stephen Ventimilia. Payne would scored on the double-error play.
The Rainbow Warriors wouldn’t let the Ducks keep the lead for long as they would combine for three runs in the bottom of the eighth. With sophomore Garrett Cleavinger now on the mound for the Ducks, Hawaii would have the bases loaded with two outs for Alan Baldwin. Baldwin, who was pinch-hitting for Ventimilia, singled to left field scoring a pair. Jake Reed would then replace Cleavinger on the mound and would soon give up a single to Doi scoring Hawaii’s third run of the inning.
In the ninth inning the Ducks were down by two. One-out senior Connor Hofmann would pinch-hit for Jack Kruger. Hofmann singled to left starting the Oregon rally. Freshman A.J. Balta was then called upon off the bench to pinch-hit for Austin Grebeck. Balta would connect for a double to left-center scoring Hofmann. The fourth pinch-hitter of the inning, J.B. Bryant, would single up the middle, scoring Balta to tie the game at five. This would unhook Cleavinger to the loss, which would have been the first of his career.
Reed would stay on the mound in the ninth and sent the game into extra innings after a 1-2-3 inning.
In the 10th, the Ducks would load the bases with no outs. With Payne as the go-ahead run on third, Kyle Garlick fouled out to the catcher on a 0-1 pitch. Steven Packard then hit a ground ball to the first baseman Doi, who threw out Payne at home with the force out. Now with two outs and the bases still loaded, Hofmann hit a ball to the shortstop Austin Wobrock, but Wobrock would commit another Hawaii throwing error, letting Baumgartner cross the plate on what would be the winning run.
Reed continued to pitch in the 10th for the Ducks and pitch a clean 10th inning for the Oregon win.
The Ducks would score six runs largely due to the five Hawaii errors. Reed (1-0) picked up his first win of the season after pitching 2.1 innings to end the game. DePonte (0-1) was stuck with the loss.
The final game of the series will be Monday at 3:05 p.m. Jeff Gold will start for the Ducks.
Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @abant3