Freshman pitcher Cole Irvin — who, with his third win in as many tries, is starting to look like Oregon’s most valuable pitching asset — took to the mound Sunday and pitched seven innings, allowing eight hits but only one run. His solid performance, along with some much needed hitting, helped the Ducks get a win in the final game of the series against Cal State Fullerton.

With the 9-1 win, Oregon improved to 8-3, while CSF received their first loss of the season and are now 10-1.

Oregon busted out of their hitting slump to tally 14 hits, leading to the nine runs. Ryan Hambright led the Ducks by going 3-of-4 from the plate with three RBI. He came into the season as one of Oregon’s top hitters but struggled in the first ten games, getting just two hits in 36 at bats.

Ryon Healy, Brett Thomas and Shaun Chase each had two hits, including a solo shot from Chase — his third career home run — in the eighth that acted as insurance.

Turning Point. Going into the sixth, the Ducks had a 3-1 lead before Thomas and Hambright both drove in runs to extend the lead to 5-1. From that point on, the Ducks were rolling. In the seventh, J.J. Altobelli led off with a double and eventually scored on an RBI by Aaron Payne. In the eighth, Chase went yard to push the lead to six runs. Payne and Scott Heineman also pushed in runs in the inning.

Jimmie Sherfy came on in the ninth to assure an Oregon win, giving up one hit and no runs.

On the Horizon. Oregon heads back to Eugene for a two-game series against Cal State Northridge. Game one is Monday at 6p.m.

The No.14 Ducks lost their second straight contest to No.17 Cal State Fullerton Saturday in a 5-2 game where, surprisingly, the Ducks finished with one more hit than the Titans.

With the loss, the Ducks retain a 7-3 record while the Titans remain undefeated at 10-0.

Contrasting with Friday’s game, the Titans went on a board early, in the first inning, when Michael Lorenzen hit a three-run homer off of starter Tommy Thorpe with two outs in the inning. It was the first home-run given up by a Ducks pitcher, save the inside-the-park homerun from Friday’s game.

Justin Garza took the mount for the Titans, going a full eight innings while facing just 30 batters while giving up six hits and two runs to improve to 3-0 on the season.

Ryon Healy continued his strong offensive season, going 2-4 from the plate. For the Titans, Lorenzen hit 2-3 with three RBI.

Turning Point. The Ducks made some noise in the sixth with a two RBI triple from Kyle Garlick. The run scored Healy and Scott Heineman and looked like it was going to spark a rally. Next up was Ryan Hambright who ripped one up the middle, only to be fielded by a tough, diving grab by Titans second baseman Jake Jefferies.

On the Horizon. Oregon has one last shot at the Titans, which will come Sunday at noon. Cole Irvin (2-0), the freshman who has impressed fans in the young season, will take to the mound to face Grahamm Wiest (1-0) for the Titans.

Friday night No. 14 Oregon lost the first of a three game series against No. 17 Cal State Fullerton 8-2. With the loss, Oregon falls to 7-2 while the Titans remain unbeaten at 9-0.

For the second-straight appearance, Oregon ace Jake Reed struggled in the fifth inning after a strong showing in the first four. Reed finished the game with 5.2 innings pitched, giving up four earned runs and eight overall.

Thomas Eshelman pitched a complete game for the Titans, allowing just four hits and two runs while striking out six.

Oregon, as they have most of the season, struggled to hit the ball. The Ducks only got four hits, and all came from the usual suspects. Ryon Healy went 2-4, leading the Ducks, while Brett Thomas and J.J. Altobelli both went 1-3.

Turning Point. Similar to Reed’s outing against LMU, he again have up three runs in the fifth inning to break the game open. After giving up a single and then walking Cal State Fullerton’s Clay Williamson. The Titans then bunted to advance the runners, who scored on a wild pitch.

The Ducks continued to give up runs in the sixth due to poor fielding, including an in-the-park home run on a ball Kyle Garlick had difficulty fielding. Aaron Payne also had trouble fielding a ball that lead to a Titans score.

On the Horizon. The Ducks won’t have to wait long for redemption as they play again Saturday at 6p.m. Tommy Thorpe will take the mound for the Ducks and face the Titans’ Justin Garza. Both are undefeated in two contests apiece.

After losing seven straight games to fall out of the playoff race to 10th in the competitive NBA Western Conference, the Blazers dealt the Boston Celtics a tough loss and looked again like the early season team surprising the league. A win last night against the Denver Nuggets would have been key, but the Blazers lost on a last second miss.

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Heading into tonight’s Civil War game, senior Duck E.J. Singler has played in every possible game during his collegiate career and has made his mark on the record books. The Register-Guard’s Bob Clark looks at what E.J. means to Oregon athletics.

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The Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry had a career high 54 points last night in a 109-105 loss to the New York Knicks. The 54 points were the most recorded this season.

Oregon baseball coach George Horton is taking his team back to his old stomping grounds this weekend for a series against No. 17 Cal State Fullerton.

Horton played for Cal State Fullerton as a student athlete before coaching there for 11 years. He took the Titans to six College World Series appearances, winning the title in 2004. Horton has faced his alma mater twice, the first in the opening game of the 2010 season when the Ducks beat the Titans 7-3 in Fresno, and the second coming last season when the Ducks beat the Titans 7-5 in NCAA Regional play in Eugene.

This weekend will mark the first series between the teams.

Horton told the media Wednesday that he was excited to face his former team and that he still has a lot of love for the Titans fans and coaching staff.

“It’s a great opportunity from some aspects,” Horton said of playing a top-tier team. “But you don’t like competing against your friends sometimes because one of us has to lose. The coaching staff there I love, so it seemed like a natural to get a home-and-home with them. The circumstances for the regional last year just sort of happened … It will be interesting.”

Aside from Horton’s relationship with the team, this matchup is intriguing purely because it will be Oregon’s first taste of a ranked team in a season where many games will come against ranked opponents, and it will be played in another team’s confines.

The Ducks (7-1) have gotten off to a successful start, but possibly not the most productive one. They have struggled to hit the ball and seem to have an uncanny ability to get wins regardless of poor offense. Take, for example, last Saturday’s matchup against Loyola Marymount when they managed to grind out six runs on only two hits.

However, it isn’t often that a team can count on five players reaching base from being hit by pitches, as was the case in the game against LMU. Teams are ranked because they limit their mistakes. Cal State Fullerton should act as a clear indicator of where Oregon stands nationally.

“This is going to be challenging and a little definitive of where you’re at, at least for a report card,” Horton said. “It’s not a finish line by any stretch of the imagination, but make no mistake about it, this weekend with Fullerton and then the following weekend here against Vanderbilt, sandwiched between a challenging comeback and play Monday-Tuesday with North Ridge, that will be a pretty good barometer of our pitching staff and how good we are.”

Those three series include eight games that will be stretched over just 10 days. Horton said that he has faced similar situations with the Ducks, and the outcome was less than desirable.

“We’ve done this before,” Horton said. “Quite honestly, we didn’t handle it well. It was on the road with Texas State. We kind of just showed up and weren’t very present and energized. These guys all want to eventually play major league baseball and minor league baseball and it’s a fairly good comparison of some of the challenges that brings about.”

Second baseman Aaron Payne has more familiarity with Cal State Fullerton. He grew up in the area and spent some time as a bat boy for some of Horton’s teams. Payne said the on-field ability of the Titans isn’t the issue the Ducks will face during the series.

“They draw some pretty big crowds,” Payne said. “It will be wild, it will be a fun place to play. They have some pretty good fans over at third base that will probably be all over (Oregon third baseman) Ryon (Healy).”

Oregon got a strong 6-1 win behind freshman pitcher Cole Irvin in the third and final game of their series against Loyola Marymount to win the series 2-1 and improve to 6-1 on the year.

Irvin, who was in command for the majority of the game, hit a rough patch in the fourth inning when he loaded the bases. After getting the first batter out, Irvin gave up three consecutive singles, allowing one run to score. After the run, coach George Horton went to the mound. After the conference, Tommy Cheek of LMU hit a line drive that Irvin fielded, then threw him out at first.

“I didn’t really change anything,” Irvin said of getting out of the fourth inning. “I just kept throwing strikes. They just hit good pitches and there isn’t anything I can do about that.”

Irvin battled out of the fourth and went on to pitch eight solid innings, giving up just one run on six hits with three strike outs in what was just his second collegiate start.

“I was asked to go out again in the eighth and I said, ‘Yeah, I feel good, I feel strong,” Irvin said. “I didn’t know what my pitch count was, I really don’t care, but the whole point was to throw strikes and leave it to Jimmie in the ninth.”

Turning Point. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Aaron Payne led off with a walk. Heineman then hit a ground ball to short, but LMU tallied an error trying to throw Payne out at second. Brett Thomas then bunted to advance both runners, then Ryon Healy was intentionally walked to load the bases. Tyler Baumgartner, a junior college transfer who got his second start Sunday, hit a long 3 RBI double to left field, his first hit, giving the Ducks the lead.

“It felt great,” Baumgartner said. “First collegiate hit, but good timing, you know.”

The hit came on a 3-2 count with the bases loaded and two outs while the Ducks were down 1-0.

“Yeah, there was a little pressure,” Baumgartner said of the at bat. “The crowd was there, pretty loud, pretty packed house. I took him to a good count my first two at bats, took him to 3-2, so I kinda got familiar with the pitcher and what his tendencies were, so I was pretty confident.”

The next batter was freshman Nick Catalano, who pinch hit for Steven Packard. Catalano hit a double to score Baumgartner. The Ducks have taken advantage of rarities so far this season, such as five hit by pitches and two walks on Saturday to win a game 6-1 when they only got two hits, but back-to-back doubles from two unexperienced players in pressure spots is rare for even them.

“Tyler having a good at bat there and hitting the double to kinda break loose was very significant,” Horton said. “Catalano coming off the bench … we preach and ask these guys to have the fortitude to stick with it and be ready when an opportunity presents itself, its pretty much the definition of that when Catalano takes his first at bat and does such a great job.”

Sherfy came in in the ninth and was a little shaky to start, giving up three straight singles and loading the bases before getting out of the inning. He finished with two K’s and three hits.

On the Horizon. The Ducks will take on Portland on Tuesday at PK Park. With Christian Jones getting to rest in Sunday’s game, coach Horton will try him as a starter against Portland. Horton says he will be on a pitch count of about 60 pitches in his first start and after that, hopes to move him into the regular rotation. With Jones starting, Tommy Thorpe will likely be moved into the set up role where he saw success last season.

The game will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday night at PK Park.

Oregon (5-1), after a 6-1 Saturday win against Loyola Marymount (3-3), heads into a rubber match game against LMU.

The Ducks will start LHP Cole Irvin (1-0) on the mount, who will face LMU’s Aaron Griffin (1-0). Irvin, a freshman, impressed in his Ducks debut in Hawaii, throwing seven innings. He gave up a run in the bottom of the first, but showed composer and was able to settle down and get a win. 

First pitch will be at 12 p.m. at PK Park.

Oregon, after losing on a last second shot against Cal, put together a convincing 77-66 win against Stanford, avenging their January 30th road loss to the Cardinal and giving head coach Dana Altman his 600th career victory. The Ducks shot 48 percent from the field and out rebounded the Cardinal 35-33. Point guard Johnathan Loyd led the Ducks in, assists, minutes and poise.

“It’s good for us,” Tony Woods said of getting production from the point guard position. “It’s good for all of us because it gets us going as well. Johnny is a leader every night and he stepped up for us tonight and it was good for us as a team.”

With freshman point guard Dominic Artis out with a foot injury, the Ducks have struggled to find production at the point guard position. Loyd is a strong defensive player, but struggles on offense, averaging a meager 3.4 points and 2.6 assists per game, playing just 21 minutes despite the Ducks having no other real option at point guard. Freshman Willie Moore can come in for brief stints (7.8 minutes per game), but generally if Loyd its out, the team has no true point guard on the floor.

Saturday, Loyd led that more closely resembled the Artis led Ducks from the start of the season rather than the team that put together a three game losing streak. He put up 15 points and 9 assists with three steals while playing 37 minutes, only turning the ball over once. The 15 points are a season high while the nine assists are a career high.

“It felt great,” Loyd said. “I need (a good game). My teammates have been putting faith in me, telling me they believe in me and trust me, and that I can do it, so I just stepped up.”

Generally, teams sag off of Loyd on defense due to his poor shooting. This allows them to basically play four on five and clog the paint, hindering Oregon’s post players and often bringing Oregon’s offense as a whole to a sputter. All too often, the Ducks find themselves taking ill-advised shots late in the shot clock, leading to inefficiency.

“He hit a couple jumpers and they had to guard him,” Altman said. “The two games where Johnny has hit shots, Washington and tonight, we had double figure wins in both those games. When they aren’t able to clog (the paint) up because he is being aggressive and making shots, it makes a big difference.”

With seven first half points from Loyd, the Cardinal were forced to respect Loyds jump shot. Defenders started crowding him, opening up passing lanes. Loyd quickly took advantage of this, setting up players in the paint or, often in the second half, opting to drive the ball for easy lay ups. In the closing minutes, Stanford was actually double teaming Loyd and trying to trap him at mid court. Prior to Saturday’s game, that was unthinkable.

Oregon’s drop in production without Artis has been glaringly obvious. Once a top ten team, the Ducks now look like they could fall to the middle of the Pac-12. Artis’ numbers were far from gaudy, 12.2 points and 3.8 assists, but he gave Oregon what they needed to win games. With Artis’ injury seemingly having no time table, solid production from Loyd is vital.

The Ducks, now tied with Arizona for lead in the Pac-12, don’t need Loyd to replicate Saturdays production each game to contend for the conference title and make a tournament run, but they do need him to improve on his season averages if they want to make noise come March. With solid point guard play, the Ducks can be a very dangerous team.

Oregon, fresh off a 4-0 start to the season, had their home opener spoiled by LMU despite their ace, Jake Reed, on the mound. Loyola Marymount beat up Reed to earn a 7-2 win.

The Ducks started off hot both on the mound and at the plate, loading the bases in both the first and second innings, only to leave all six runners stranded. Jake Reed seemed primed for a career night, tallying eight strike outs in the first four frames, tying a career high while regularly hitting 91mph on the gun.

Colin Welmon, the starting pitcher for LMU, was a little shaky to start the game, but got stronger as the game went on, throwing at 89mph fast ball and utilizing his off speed pitch. Welmon finished the game with six innings pitched, four hits, nine K’s, and a win.

“Tip your cap to Welmon, he did a good job,” coach George Horton said. “It seemed like every time he needed a key pitch, he went to his off speed stuff, his change up. We weren’t seeing it well, its a good change up.”

For LMU, most of the offensive damage came courtesy of Tanner Donnels (3-4). For Oregon, it was Scott Heineman (3-3) and JJ Altobelli producing at the plate.

Going into the season,  Horton frequently talked about catching being the vulnerable position, but was pleased with the effort in Hawaii. Friday was a different story as freshman catcher Josh Graham went 0-4 from the plate with three strike outs and a huge error at home plate allowing Zac Fujimoto to score, the first of four LMU runs scored in the fifth inning.

“Josh didn’t have a good day offensively but I thought defensively he did fine,” Horton said of Graham. “The error happened, and I am sure he wants that one back. Him and Chase are going to catch a lot of games so I’m not worried about the defensive side of that.”

Turning Point. After a strong start, Jake Reed’s composure   crumpled in the fifth inning. He started the inning by giving up a tripple to Fujimoto, then hit Brice Savage by pitch, sending him to first. Kevin Garcia then hits to third, but Graham bobbled the throw from third baseman Ryan Hambright, allowing Fujimoto to score. Reed gave up three more hits and as many scores before Lowenstein was caught stealing to end the inning.

“I’m not going to lie, that was a crucial play,” It would have been big after the leadoff triple to get that out at home, but it’s no excuse. I had eight K’s in the first four innings and I could have easily had a few more in that fifth inning to minimize things a bit but they did a good job of putting the ball in play. It’s tough.”

Christian Jones, who came in after a tumultuous fifth inning,  was again a bright spot for the Ducks. He only allowed one run in two innings pitched and could have gone longer but Horton said he wanted to save him for later in the series.

“That was a tough one,” Horton said. ” We could have left him in there. We have a long series so he possibly could be available Sunday. Really, the thought wasn’t we’re giving up, we were keeping the bullets available for either Sunday or possibly a start where we could extend him.”

The Ducks tried to mount a Techno Chicken-fueled comeback in the bottom of the seventh inning, getting a walk, stolen base, and two hits but only one run scored by JJ Altobelli before Ryon Healy grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Altobelli again scored in the bottom of the ninth to finish the game with two runs scored and, per usual, a few stellar defensive plays.

On the Horizon. The Ducks will have their shot at redemption against LMU Saturday at 2 p.m. Starting on the mound for the Ducks will be Tommy Thorpe (1-0) who will face Trevor Megil (1-0).

Oregon (4-0) looks to continue their hot start this weekend when they take on Loyola Marymount (2-2) at PK Park.

Oregon’s first series came on the road against Hawaii, where the team hit .293. Their starting pitching combined for a 2.50 ERA, including Jake Reed’s seven shutout innings in the season opener.

Jake Reed will again get the start in the first game of the series. Christian Jones, who showed good stuff in Hawaii, will come in to set up for Golden Spikes Award candidate Jimmie Sherfy.

Game one of the three-game series starts at 6 p.m. at PK Park.