After opening the season with eight straight wins, the Oregon baseball team hit its first bump in the road on Friday night. Led by the masterful pitching of Thomas Eshelman, Cal State Fullerton dominated Oregon by a final of 9-2, handing the Ducks their first loss of the season.
“I didn’t think we were going to go undefeated,” head coach George Horton said after the game. “I think it sets up (to be) even more interesting because this is our first speed bump of the year and we’ll see how we respond to a whooping because we got whooped.”
Coach Horton told reporters on Wednesday that this weekend’s series would be the club’s first good test of the season. An eight-game winning streak is impressive regardless of the opponent, but Oregon’s previous three opponents — Hawaii, Loyola Marymount and Portland — all finished below .500 last season. Friday’s game certainly had a different atmosphere.
“We weren’t ourselves tonight,” Oregon designated hitter Kyle Garlick said. “It didn’t feel like (when) we were at LMU. It had a different feel to it. “
Anytime a series takes place between two top-10 teams, there are naturally going to be a lot of eyes on it. This showdown between Oregon and Cal State Fullerton is even more hyped considering that Horton spent over a decade and a half coaching at Fullerton. Garlick admitted that the pressure may have affected the team.
“With so much history that these coaching staffs have together I think we kind of tried too hard tonight,” Garlick said.
Horton also recognized that the team wasn’t quite itself on Friday.
“We noticed some different personality with the guys,” Horton said. “We didn’t take a good infield. … There was some doubt and that’s disappointing to me. As much as we talk about we play the game, we don’t play our opponent. In this case some kids played the opponent.”
After jumping out to a big lead early against Portland on Tuesday, Oregon found itself on the opposite end against Fullerton on Friday. After the Titans scored five times in the fourth inning, the Ducks stared at a 6-0 deficit that widened to 9-0 after six innings.
“I think when things started spiraling, we got caught flat-footed. There wasn’t a lot of encouraging things coming from the dugout. When you’re getting thumped, it’s hard to have positive energy.”
The Ducks did manage to push across a pair of runs in the ninth to avoid the shutout, which Horton hopes the team can take into Saturday’s matchup.
“We won the seventh, eighth and ninth — if there’s a silver lining,” Horton said. “There’s no moral victories. We got thumped. But the fact that we got a little momentum and we still had that characteristic of not rolling over and quitting makes me a little bit less grumpy.”
Oregon will try to take that momentum into game two on Saturday, as freshman left-hander Matt Krook will take the hill in what will be the biggest game of his collegiate career.
“(Krook) can see with his own eyes that they got to some pretty good pitches with Tommy,” Horton said. “I think he’ll be confident and I hope he doesn’t start trying to nibble and make a perfect pitch.”
While Thorpe may have had a tough night on the mound for Oregon, he’s confident that Krook should be able to fair better on Saturday.
“He’s going to do really good,” Thorpe said. “I believe in him 100 percent.”
Follow Chris Mosch on Twitter @chris_mosch