Before he even threw a single pitch this year, Cole Irvin grabbed all of the attention during Oregon baseball’s media day. Guaranteeing that the Ducks would reach the College World Series for the first time in their history, it was clear the senior wasn’t lacking any confidence.
And two starts into the 2016 season, Irvin is showing why. The senior yielded just two runs and struck out a career-high 12 batters in seven innings of work Friday, guiding the Ducks (5-0) to a comfortable 4-2 win over Illinois State.
The performance is Irvin’s second consecutive outing in which he’s lasted seven innings and aside from a third inning, in which the Red Birds tagged him for two runs, was virtually unstoppable all night.
“He was really special,” head coach George Horton said. “He got better as it went. Two run inning, tip your cap to them. After that it was his show.”
Horton added that the performance reminded him of Irvin’s ability as a freshman, when he ended the year with a 2.48 ERA. But, according to Irvin, it may’ve been better.
“I felt as locked in as I’ve ever felt in a Duck uniform,” Irvin said.
Which certainly made Oregon’s batters’ job easier. The Ducks needed just one breakout inning, which occurred in the bottom of the second due to a little bit of luck.
Matt Kroon drew a walk with two outs, but was eventually forced into a pickle after Illinois State pitcher Jacob Hendren caught him biting on his leadoff. However, Kroon found his way back to first base safely. Travis Moniot drew a walk thereafter, and Daniel Patzlaff secured Oregon’s first hit and RBI of the game with a liner to center field. Austin Grebeck then added to the damage with a base clearing triple to score two more and give Oregon an early 3-0 lead. Grebeck finished the night 2-for-3 with two RBI’s and one run.
Illinois State erased a five-run deficit Thursday, but against Irvin, three runs would prove to be too difficult of a task. The left-hander retired the side with ease in every inning except the third. And for most of the night, the Red Birds were caught swinging and missing. An example of how “locked in” Irvin was: The senior struck out six consecutive batters in the fifth and sixth inning.
“I think it was the first time that I remember striking out the side and then I did it two innings in a row,” Irvin said. “I was like, ‘this is a dream, I don’t do this in my sleep.”
The Duck added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth after Jakob Goldfarb singled to the left side to score Grebeck. Goldfarb, who entered Friday with just two hits on 17 at-bats this season, went 3-for-4 with one RBI.
“I was struggling at the plate a little bit,” Goldfarb said. “Maybe a little bit of mental stuff, just got up in the cage and figured it out, working back to just settling in my swing.”
As Goldfarb added too, it’s “easier to play when you got a pitcher throwing like that.”
In addition, Goldfarb halted a last ditch effort from Illinois State to get back into the game in the top of the eighth. With Stephen Nogosek pitching in relief of Irvin and a man at first and two outs, the Red Birds’ Daniel Dwyer hit a rocket to deep right field. Goldfarb tracked it down, though, and Nogosek struck out the side in the ninth for a save.
The night certainly showed just how manageable the game can become when Irvin’s pitching the way he did. Now, it’ll just be a matter of making sure both of his starts continue to stay consistent.
“We’ve gotten off to a pretty good start, it’s our job to keep him finely tuned,” Horton said. “Any good baseball player will tell you, it can go away in a hurry. Our obligation is to get better.”
Matt Krook will start tomorrow for the Ducks. Start time is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JustinFWise