The No. 19 Oregon baseball team went into its weekend road series against No. 14 Washington trailing the Huskies by two games in the conference standings. The Ducks (22-8, 7-3 Pac-12) would get a game closer to the top of the standings after their 10-3 Friday in Seattle, Wash.
Tommy Thorpe (3-3, 3.07 ERA) got the ball to start the very important conference series and he was up to the task.Thorpe pitched 5.2 innings, giving up just one run (earned) and striking out six hitters.
Both teams got on the board in the second inning with one run apiece. In the top of the inning, Kyle Garlick came up with one out, Shaun Chase on second and Mitchell Tolman on third. Garlick hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Tolman. In the bottom half of the inning, the Huskies (20-6, 8-2) answered quite quickly. After Thorpe hit the leadoff man Brian Wolfe, Wolfe advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Then Alex Schmidt singled through the left side to score Wolfe.
The very next inning two Ducks crossed the plate to take the lead, which they would hold for the remainder of the game.
It began with Mark Karaviotis reaching base via a walk and advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by Aaron Payne. After A.J. Balta flied out to right field, Karaviotis was gifted third base due to a balk by Washington starting pitcher Jared Fisher. Tyler Baumgartner then walked to give the Ducks a two outs, runners on first and third scenario for Mitchell Tolman. Tolman delivered, hitting a double to left to score them both.
In the sixth, Kyle Garlick was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out ahead of Nick Catalano. That walk ended up backfiring because Fisher promptly walked Catalano to scored Tolman from third.
Fisher was then replaced in the middle of the inning by Will Ballowe. Ballowe opened his night against Karaviotis in the bases loaded situation. Ballowe found the strike zone but also found Karaviotis’ bat as Karaviotis hit a sacrifice fly to left.
Darrell Hunter came in relief for Thorpe and pitched a clean 1.2 innings, including striking out the side in order in the seventh. Then in the eighth Hunter allowed a couple of hits and a walk to load the bases. Oregon head coach George Horton then went to the bullpen, bringing in Garrett Cleavinger.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Cleavinger walked Braden Bishop. Then, second baseman Andrew Ely stepped into the box representing the tying run. Like Bishop, Ely worked a walk. Robert Pehl, Washington’s three hitter who is tied for second in the conference for home runs (3), stepped in with a chance to take the lead with one swing of the bat. But Cleavinger would strike out Pehl to end the threat and the inning.
In the ninth, the Ducks made a statement scoring four runs on five hits in route to take the first game of the series. The Ducks won by a final of 10-3.
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