Oregon baseball made the most of its opportunities and deprived Washington of its chances in a 4-3 victory at PK Park Saturday night.
The Ducks scored four runs on five hits, while the Huskies left 12 runners on base in a game full of pivotal moments.
The first big play came in the top of the first inning, as Jakob Goldfarb robbed a three run home run to end the first frame.
“For me, that’s probably the play of the game,” interim head coach Mark Wasikowski said. Head coach Horton was suspended for two games by the university after arguing with an umpire during Sunday’s contest against USC. “It happened early and it happened so long ago that we all might have forgotten about it, but that was an awesome catch and that was clearly the difference in the game.”
Oregon’s starting pitcher Conor Harber got through the first inning unscathed, but struggled with command early in his outing for the third week in a row.
Harber walked four batters and allowed two earned runs on three hits in just 2.1 innings pitched. With this outing included, Harber has allowed 10 earned runs and has pitched just 5.1 innings in his last three starts.
“Believe me, he’s trying,” Wasikowski said. “He’s doing everything he can, and maybe that’s the problem. He’s trying so dang hard that it makes it a lot harder.”
Yet again, Oregon was forced to call on a long reliever to bail it out of trouble.
This week, Cooper Stiles (2-1) rose to the occasion. Stiles relieved Harber in the top of the third inning and pitched four scoreless innings.
“He just did what he does,” Wasikowski said. “He sinks the ball, it’s not overpowering velocity, but he pounded the strike zone, he got a lot of ground ball outs, he frustrated them.”
As Stiles settled into a groove, Oregon’s offense did its job against Washington’s starter Tyler Davis (5-5) in the fourth inning.
Mitchell Tolman worked a 1-out walk to lead off the inning, giving the middle of the Oregon lineup a chance to hit with a runner on base. Phil Craig-St. Louis delivered right away with an RBI triple after Washington’s right fielder whiffed on a diving attempt to tie the game at 2-2.
The Huskies worked around the newly reinstated Scott Heineman to put him aboard on a four pitch walk, then Cuddy cracked a 2 RBI double to left-center to give Oregon a 4-2 lead.
Both pitchers settled into the grooves over the middle innings, as Davis ended up racking a career high 14 strikeouts, but Washington’s offense couldn’t get anything going against Stiles and Stephen Nogosek, who relieved Stiles in the sixth and pitched 1.1 scoreless innings.
Garrett Cleavinger came in with 2 outs in the top of the eighth for a four-out save and got out of the eighth unharmed, but allowed a solo home run to Branden Berry (7) to start the ninth inning before shutting the door to pick up the save (6).
Oregon’s win will force another critical rubber match with the Ducks’ Pacific Northwest rivals on Sunday.
Follow Josh Schlichter on Twitter @joshschlichter