Oregon baseball (24-10, 7-5 Pac-12) hosts UC Riverside (14-14, 3-3 Big West) this weekend at PK Park for a three-game series. The Ducks are coming off a two-game sweep of Portland and play each of their next four games against non-conference opponents.
The major question that’s being asked around Oregon baseball is, “who will replace Matt Krook in the starting rotation?” The freshman injured his throwing arm in Saturday’s game at Washington and will not play against Riverside this weekend. He will receive an MRI Friday. Usual Sunday starter Jeff Gold will move to Krook’s vacated Saturday starter slot and freshman Trent Paddon will make his first career start on Sunday.
“It’s not everyday you her that as a freshman,” Paddon said before practice Thursday. “It’s exciting so we’ll see.”
In 11 relief appearances this season, Paddon is 0-2 with a 2.78 ERA in 22.2 innings pitched.
“He’s been in the long relief role so he’s conditioned in terms of number of pitches and the quality of pitches,” pitching coach Dean Stile said. “He’s got three good pitches that he has command of — fastball, changeup, slider … It’s just a natural move for him.”
Brando Tessar, who picked up a shutout win over Portland Wednesday, will start Oregon’s single game against San Diego on Monday.
“I think Brando Tessar, who threw really well yesterday, will come back and get the ball if he’s ready, willing and able on Monday,” head coach George Horton said. “It wasn’t like he was Roy Halladay when he was really good but he was good. That was one of his best starts in a couple years. He touched 90 miles per hour, all three of his pitches were better and he got better as the game went along so we hope that’s a spring board for him and it conitues to go that direction.”
With Krook out for the foreseeable future, the catcher position may go into more flux than it already was. Each of Oregon’s three catchers see playing time and freshman Jack Kruger had an especially strong rapport with Krook. Horton noted that Kruger and Shaun Chase have set themselves apart, but there’s no set rotation set in place in lieu of Krook’s injury.
“We’ll think about that,” Horton said. “Shaun Chase has said, ‘hey look at me, I’m the best catcher.’ He’s going from a guy with potential power to a hitter right before our eyes . He gives you some of the things that Kruger and (Josh) Graham don’t give you. He has a good rapport with pitchers and the guy that’s calling pitches. Shaun’s really developing, coming on and it’s going to be tough to keep him out of there … Kruger caught a shutout yesterday. The catcher’s job is to put zeros on the board.”
Chase is hitting .306 this season and leads the team with four home runs.
The Highlanders are led offensively by junior third baseman Nick Vilter, who’s hitting .366 with eight home runs and 24 RBIs. As a team, Riverside is hitting .286 and Vilter is complemented by Francisco Tellez (.386, 27 RBI, 11 doubles). The Highlanders are aggressive on the basepaths with 45 stolen bases, led by speedsters Joe Chavez (12 steals) and David Andriese (10).
Andrew Bantly and Victor Flores contributed to the reporting in this article.
Follow Madison Guernsey on Twitter @guernseymd