— Lawyers representing Daniel Cook, who was an Oregon offensive lineman from 1971-73 , are suing the NCAA and Pac-12 for concealing information about long-term effects of concussions, according to The Oregonian.
The lawsuit is one of six filed against the NCAA and select athletic conferences by Edelson PC, based in Chicago. Former players from Auburn, Georgia, Penn State, Utah and Vanderbilt also filed suits.
The Emerald recently wrote about college football’s concussion problem, and how Oregon’s program is handling it.
— Oregon men’s golf sits in second as it prepares to begin the final day of the NCAA Regionals. Oregon needs to finish the tournament in the top five to make the NCAA Championships, which will be held at the Eugene Country Club. The Ducks are currently 12 strokes ahead of sixth place Wake Forest.
— Oregon baseball routed Portland 15-4 Tuesday in a non-conference matchup. The Ducks have won three of their last four heading into their final home series of the season against Arizona. Despite Oregon’s rollercoaster like year, the team is just three games behind first-place Utah with seven games remaining.
— Oregon softball heads into postseason play this Friday after winning its fourth consecutive Pac-12 championship last weekend. This year has been particularly unique for fans, who have had the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at the program because of a weekly documentary series.
— It appears that former Oregon quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. will sign with the Canadian Football League’s British Columbia Lions, according to TSN. Adams attended rookie mini camps with the Seahawks and Redskins, but was not signed by either team. Per the TSN report, Adams is expected to compete for the third-string quarterback position.
— Oregon women’s track and field earned its eighth consecutive Pac-12 title last weekend, and much of the success was a product of the sprinters’ dominance.
“For them to come here and put on display what we worked so hard for in Eugene is definitely special,” head coach Robert Johnson said to Pac-12 Networks. “This thing has been building for a while.”
Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JustinFWise
Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Former Oregon offensive lineman sues NCAA, men’s golf enters final round of regionals in second
Cole Irvin allowed just two runs in seven innings and Oregon’s bats came alive in the fifth and sixth inning to help give the Ducks a 7-4 win Friday night over Oregon State. And the victory proved to have short and long term significance.
It was the first time since Oregon reinstated baseball in 2009 that the Ducks recorded a conference win in Corvallis. The win also marked manager George Horton’s 1,000th career victory.
“I’m proud to have been coaching that long, and to have a thousand kind of puts a tear in my eye that I’ve been blessed with a career in making a difference in people’s lives and winning a few baseball games along the way,” Horton told GoDucks.com.
He also said the storyline about his 1,000th is a sidebar, which seems to serve as the perfect term considering current outlook for this group. After losing a series at Arizona State and then going winless in back-to-back games against Gonzaga earlier this week, the Ducks’ NCAA Tournament hopes look bleak.
But, a win Friday moved them ahead of the Beavers in the conference standings and into a fifth place tie with USC. The Ducks remain five games back of Utah with eight games remaining.
Now, it’ll just be a matter of replicating the outing they had Friday through the remainder of the season. That formula included a quality start from Irvin, as well as multi-RBI games from Daniel Patzlaff and Kyle Kasser.
With the Ducks trailing 2-1 in the top of the fifth, Kasser’s two-RBI single that scored Carson Breshears and Travis Moniot served as an offensive spark that the Ducks took into the sixth, one in which the Ducks scored three runs on a fielders choice. Steven Packard then added to Oregon’s lead in the seventh with a sacrifice fly that scored Kasser.
After Oregon State tacked on a pair of runs in the eighth, Stephen Nogosek weathered the damage and got the final four outs to secure the win and his 12th save.
“It’s one of the nine,” Horton said. “I challenged my team and told them we probably need to win all nine, is actually what I said. Easier said than done, but we haven’t been a good road team and we haven’t been a good road team here. But you can’t win all nine unless you win the first one, so I’m proud of them.”
Oregon plays Oregon State in the second of the three-game series Saturday at 7 p.m.
Oregon baseball’s bats exploded Sunday, and the Ducks avoided a sweep at Arizona State with a 12-2 win.
Five players had multi-hit games, and thanks to a bases-loaded, two-run double in the top of the first from Austin Grebeck, Oregon never trailed. The lead had stretched to 5-0 by the second, which likely helped freshman Matt Mercer settle into his first start.
Replacing Matt Krook in the weekend rotation, Mercer held the Sun Devils to just two runs on 10 hits over six innings. Mercer also struck out five and didn’t issue a single walk. Isaiah Carranza, also a freshman, then held Arizona State’s batters hitless during the final three innings.
AJ Balta topped what was a dominant week at the plate with two hits and two runs batted in. Nick Catalano added two RBIs as well, and Tim Susnara supplied a three-run double in a pinch hit role.
The offensive outbreak paired with strong pitching from Mercer and Carranza resulted in the Ducks’ first Pac-12 win on the road since March 25. The Ducks are now 10-11 in conference and tied for fifth with Oregon State, Stanford and UCLA.
Oregon will play a two-game series against Gonzaga Monday, before heading to Corvallis for a three game set with Oregon State.
Brady Hoke’s new 4-3 defense made a number of Oregon defenders feel like freshmen; everything was new and foreign again. There was a lot to learn too, considering several defenders this spring gave different analogies to illustrate how fat their new playbook is — most notably from defensive lineman Jalen Jelks, who compared it to a Harry Potter book, according to ESPN.
But it wasn’t just the playbook that took on added bulk this offseason: Four individuals switched from outside linebacker to defensive lineman, and because of it, were asked to pack on weight.
Easiest way to do it? Well, as Oregon’s Justin Hollins simply put it: “Eat more.”
And linebackers-turned-defensive-linemen Eddie Heard, Torrodney Prevot, Cody Carriger and Hollins certainly have had the resources in place to do just that. After the NCAA passed legislation that allowed for unlimited meals and snacks in 2014, the University of Oregon athletic department committed an additional $750,000 to its nutrition program. The program now includes two nutritionists, four full-time cooks, a few sports dieticians as well as several food services that are consistently operating throughout the day.
The services, which serve about 500 student-athletes at Oregon, include either breakfast or brunch options from 7 a.m. to noon at the Hatfield Dowlin-Complex or snack options from noon to 4 p.m. at their various fueling stations — in places such as the football locker room, at Matthew Knight Arena and at Hayward Field.
“Now we can do so much more for our athletes.” — Pratik Patel, UO director of sports nutrition
Oregon’s not alone in this regard either. Director of sports nutrition Pratik Patel says the field has “exploded” in the past few years due to the deregulation of meal services.
“Now we can do so much more for our athletes,” Patel said in his Casanova Center office, filled with memorabilia and boxes of Nutri-Grain bars and trail mix.
University of Oregon director of sports nutrition Pratik Patel ensures that the 500 student athletes at the university are eating healthy enough to thrive at optimal performance. (Ryan Kang/Emerald)
The athletes seem to be taking advantage of this too. Prevot gained 23 pounds this offseason and said he’s weighing in close to 245 pounds, despite being listed at 225. Hollins said he’s gained about 8 pounds and Carriger, thanks to “a lot of peanut butter,” has gained upwards of 12 pounds.
But the process for how they’re gaining weight isn’t like the old days, in which a heavy intake of milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and steaks was the common plan. As Patel notes, “A lot of what we want to do to is make sure they stay healthy.” In addition, a lot of it is based on each individual’s nutrition plan, and just as the defense had to adjust to Hoke’s new scheme, the converted defensive linemen had to adapt to a new diet.
Carriger knew this type of change might occur after Hoke was hired. Sure enough, Carriger was participating in winter conditioning one day when Oregon defensive line coach Ron Aiken approached him and said, “Hey Cody, you’re with me.”
It didn’t take long for Patel to approach him either.
“I think it was day of, [Patel] said, ‘Hey you’ve got to come see me, we’ve got to figure out a meal plan, get you all the stuff you need,’ ” Carriger recalled.
It set in motion what Carriger describes as an “eat, eat, eat” plan.
Carriger says his typical day consists of a breakfast at the facility — options include made-to-order omelets and eggs (with an omelet of the day), fresh baked pastries and breads, made to order waffles, a potato option of the day, pancakes and French toast, a breakfast entrée special, a non-breakfast entrée special, deli meat bar featuring meat cooked and sliced in house, fresh fruit and fruit smoothies and full salad bar — a lunch with a protein shake, a snack and a shake, dinner with a shake and a banana with peanut butter and a shake before he goes to bed.
“We did not have resources like this in the NFL.” — Ron Aiken, Oregon defensive line coach
Prevot’s plan this winter has looked similar. The senior said he’s kept to a regimen in which he eats about four meals with snacks in-between.
“Even if I don’t feel like eating, I know I have to have something consistently on me,” Prevot said.
The weight-gain plan hasn’t been as drastic for others. Hollins said it feels simple, that only his intake of protein shakes has increased. Regardless, the three are all hovering around 245 pounds now, and expect to inch closer to 250 by the time fall camp starts.
And while Carriger’s plan may sound like Patel merely asked him to eat as much as possible, the system in place is much more complex and defined. It consists of understanding the individual’s muscle mass and body fat percentage, which then helps Patel gauge how much weight a player can put on without gaining “sloppy weight.” It also includes weekly data Patel receives to ensure the player is heading in a healthy direction.
Individualized Recovery for @WinTheDayPosted in UncategorizedComments Off on The ‘eat, eat, eat’ plan, how some of Oregon’s converted defensive lineman are bulking up
The University of Oregon Public Relations Student Society of America’s chapter meeting in early April certainly had a unique appeal.
Oregon football head coach Mark Helfrich was there to talk about media relations, but when he began taking questions, the conversation shifted to perhaps the biggest issue facing the sport: concussions.
Helfrich compared head injuries to car accidents.
“They aren’t going to outlaw driving cars. They’re going to look for ways to make it safer,” Helfrich said. “That’s what we’ve got to do in football.”
In general, increased awareness, coupled with changes in rules, equipment and how the game is taught, has created a safer game. Protocol for how head injuries are treated has improved, and growing scientific research on the subject is leading to a better overall understanding of the injury.
Yet making the sport safer doesn’t address all the problems. At Oregon, 79 concussions from football were reported from 2013-2015, according to records received from the university.1 Hits like the one that knocked former Oregon quarterback Vernon Adams out of the Alamo Bowl in January display the violence that persists in the game.
***
When asked how football has changed since his heyday in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Oregon defensive line coach Ron Aiken smiled.
“[It] was taught you led with your nose,” said Aiken, who has coached at both the Division I and professional level for 24 years. “Guys wanted to stay on the field so much that they didn’t talk about what happened as far as a head-to-head collision. They just accepted it and went on to the next play.”2
Former Oregon linebackers coach Erik Chinander, who is now working under former offensive coordinator Scott Frost at the University of Central Florida, gives a similar assessment.
“When I was playing, guys were concussed, but you’d let them go,” said Chinander, who played offensive line at the University of Iowa from 1998-2002.
That’s not to say that concussions were somehow a foreign concept when Aiken and Chinander played. Rather, in Chinander’s words, “It just wasn’t relevant.”
The version of football they describe does not exist anymore.
Kenjon Barner retrieves a new pair of cleats during the Fiesta Bowl game on Jan. 3, 2013. He was knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion during a game against Washington State in 2010. (Michael Arellano/Emerald)
When incoming recruits arrive for summer session, Greg Skaggs, Director of Athletic Medicine, gives them a packet that lists the risks of a concussion, from what the symptoms are to how to correctly manage one.3 In 2010, the NCAA mandated that all member institutions have concussion management plans on file.
Skaggs, who has worked at Oregon since 2007, uses a formal and structured system when teaching and evaluating concussions. Skaggs and his team give baseline tests — known as SCAT 3 — to every player before the season, which gives them a distinct understanding of each individual’s normal cognitive skills should a head injury occur.
More critically, Skaggs has implemented a step-by-step process for monitoring players who’ve experienced head trauma — covering everything from when they’re allowed to return to school to when they’re permitted in the weight room and, finally, when they can hit the field. At the same time, most concussion testing still relies heavily on players’ honesty.
“We don’t have a magic test that will tell us for sure whether somebody has a concussion,” Skaggs conceded.
The issue of self-reporting remains perhaps the single biggest roadblock to the effective diagnosis and treatment of concussions. When a player sprains an ankle or twists a knee, he or she will almost always limp — it’s hard to fake walking on one good leg. As Skaggs and others have routinely pointed out, there is no objective way of pinpointing when a player has been concussed.
It has compelled some programs to shift some of the responsibility of identifying potential concussions on suspected athletes’ teammates. Oregon is one of 15 high-profile athletic programs that require athletes to report if they suspect one of their teammates sustained a concussion. It’s called the “snitch rule.”4
Oregon defensive lineman Canton Kaumatule, who has sustained multiple “freak” concussions during his playing career, said he would have no problem reporting a teammate whom he thought might be concussed.
“I’ve been through it, and it’s not fun,” Kaumatule said.
Kaumatule’s most recent concussion occurred on the final day of fall camp last year. He was pushed in the back and tumbled forward to the ground at the same time a teammate ran full-speed into the top of his head. The next moment he remembers is waking up to a light being shined in his eyes. Kaumatule then underwent treatment with Skaggs and the athletic medicine team before making his Oregon football debut against Michigan State about two weeks later.
While it’s common for individuals to return within one to two weeks after a concussion, UO biomechanist Li-Shan Chou has begun to question that practice.6
Chou began researching the effects of head injuries 12 years ago.7 In 2013, he and a team of researchers released a study concluding that concussed athletes’ executive function, which is the ability to perform multiple tasks successfully, was abnormal well after the injury occurred.8
“We found that two months after injury, they still walk differently under a multitasking environment,” Chou said.9
The study also showed that how individuals feel may not match up with their cognitive results. And perhaps most importantly, the point at which a concussed athlete returns to “complete recovery” is unknown, according to the team’s findings.
***
Kaumatule’s playing time last season was limited due to the concussion and other minor injuries. Since then, he has taken measures to prevent another severe head injury from happening. Medical trainers have been working to find the right helmet for him, trying out interior padding for his helmet, as well as different caps designed to reduce the impact his head receives when hit. They told Kaumatule if he were to sustain another couple of concussions, he would be forced to retire from football.
“I just hope it doesn’t happen again,” Kaumatule said.
It didn’t sway him to call it quits, though, which is the attitude of many current and former Oregon players. Tight end Evan Baylis has considered the long-term effects of concussions — such as depression, Parkinson’s disease and progressive dementia — but said, “You can’t be thinking about that. You become more tentative.”
Former offensive lineman Tyler Johnstone, who is expected to at least be signed as an undrafted free agent in the upcoming NFL Draft, admitted he’s heard the horror stories.
“It’s the most terrifying thing ever,” Johnstone said. “But you just have to do it and take the right precautions to protect yourself. ”
Yet concussions, like car crashes, continue to occur despite increased safety precautions.
The 37 reported concussions at Oregon in 2015 indicate that the injury remains just as much a part of the game as anything else. It’s the reason why Johnstone said that if he ever has a son, he may push him to play golf.
“This is an uncommon game for uncommon men,” Chinander, the former Oregon linebackers coach, said. “We’re trying to limit the risk, but it’s always going to be there.”
— Oregon baseball’s awakened bats were a major reason why the Ducks won consecutive weekend Pac-12 series. However, as manager George Horton noted last Saturday, a surge in hitting has coincided with struggles on the mound. Matt Krook exemplified this Thursday, giving up four runs in the first inning of a 6-3 loss to UCLA.
— Oregon men’s and women’s tennis didn’t have successful outings Thursday. The men lost in the Pac-12 second round to Stanford, 4-0. Oregon’s next game is dependent upon an NCAA Tournament bid. If the Ducks receive a bid, the NCAA regionals will be held May 13-14.
— All four Oregon women’s tennis players fell on the first day of singles play in the Pac-12 tournament, which has been a common theme for the second half of the season, after three players were removed from the team. Marlou Kluiving, Alyssa Tobita, Shweta Sangwan and Nia Rose each lost their singles matches in the championship bracket. Kluging, who was in the invitational bracket, was the exception.
“I’m raring to go right now, and I think the players are too,” head coach Mike White said before Wednesday’s practice. “Only time will tell whether this [weekend off] is a good thing or a bad thing.”
— Oregon club tennis finished 37th at the National Championships in Cary, North Carolina this past weekend. Kylee O’Connor writes about how the team fared in both the team and individuals competition, while also touching on the athletes’ experience.
— Devon Allen has dedicated this spring solely to track and field, and it has started out as a roaring success. The redshirt sophomore dominated at both the Pepsi Invitational and the Oregon Relays over the past two weekends, including a meet record in the 110-meter hurdles at the Pepsi Invitational and Oregon Relays. At both meets, he won the 110 and 400 hurdles, and helped the 4×100 relay teams to first place finishes.
— Devon Allen and Edward Cheserek are on the latest men’s watch list for The Bowerman, an award given to the best male and female track and field athlete.
Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JustinFWise
Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Oregon baseball’s struggles on the mound persist, men’s tennis ousted in second round
It wasn’t the ideal start Cole Irvin was hoping for, especially considering the circumstances. A week after giving up nine earned runs on 15 hits in a 12-2 loss to Cal, the left-hander put Oregon in an early hole after USC muscled three runs on four hits, including a two-run home run off the bat of Timmy Robinson, in the the first.
Not that it really mattered, though.
Oregon’s offense took advantage of an erratic pitching performance from USC starter Mitch Hart and jumped on the Trojans in a season-high seven-run second inning that paved the way for a 12-8 victory Saturday, which clinches the team its second consecutive series win.
“We had some huge at-bats, I tip my hat to my guys,” Oregon manager George Horton said.
USC’s Hart, who came into Saturday’s game with a 6.23 ERA, struggled with his command throughout his 1.0 innings of work, walking four and loading the bases on three separate occasions. In the first, Oregon couldn’t take advantage, though, and scored just one run off a sacrifice fly from Jake Bennett.
Then came the second inning, one in which Hart left after loading the bases again, leaving Bernardo Flores to take the pounding that ensued. A.J. Balta began the offensive tirade after his double to right field scored two.
After Jake Bennett walked to load the bases again, Steven Packard singled up the middle to score two more. Tim Susnara followed with a perfect bunt down the third base line and beat out the throw to first, setting up another bases loaded opportunity for Daniel Patzlaff. And Patzlaff didn’t disappoint, hitting a bases clearing double off the wall to punctuate the inning.
“Our offense has been hit or miss lately, and lately we’ve been finding our stride,” Balta, who finished with three RBIs, said. “The last two games, they’ve scored first and we’ve tried to bounce back from that. Our goal is to just win every inning and punch first.”
Oregon would tack on runs in the fourth and fifth, including a solo home run from Travis Moniot, to push the lead to 10-3.
And Irvin responded to the run support by ensuring that USC wouldn’t provide a real threat again. The senior lasted seven innings, and gave up just two hits and two earned runs after the first. The result marked Irvin’s first win since March 4, who had a mix of bad luck and performances like the one against Cal in the month leading up to Saturday’s contest.
“I don’t know what continues to get into Cole’s way to get started and get into his rhythm,” Horton said. “The fact that we were able to answer back was critical. The [seven-run inning] was huge.”
Horton added that the metaphorical monkey has begun to jump off the batters’ back lately, and individuals like Balta, who came into Saturday hitting just .200, are displaying that.
A.J. Balta (33) celebrates after a run. The Oregon Ducks face the USC Trojans at PK Park in Eugene, Oregon on Friday, April 16. (Samuel Marshall/Emerald)
Balta, Packard, Susnara, Moniot and Austin Grebeck combined for 10 of Oregon’s 13 hits, and Oregon scored in double digits for the second time this week.
Although USC’s bats lacked the pop they had in the first, they didn’t go completely silent. Robinson’s effective day against Irvin continued in the sixth when he double home one run. He then scored on a wild pitch from Irvin a couple batters later.
Things then got interesting after Irvin exited in the eighth. Jack Karraker gave up two hits and one earned run after AJ Ramirez hit a double with two on. His inning ended on a sour note after Patzlaff mistimed a grounder at third with two outs, though. Another run scored because of it and Brac Warren came to the mound. Warren gave up an RBI single to the first batter he faced, before striking out Reggie Southall to end the inning with the score 11-8.
Oregon added one more after Nick Catalano’s single scored Packard, and Stephen Nogosek, aside form one walk, made quick and easy work of USC’s batters in the ninth to secure the win.
Oregon moved to 6-5 in the Pac-12 with the win, and Horton appeared especially encouraged by the team’s offense as of late. However, the command from his weekend rotation hasn’t been what he’d like it to be, and he mentioned that the new trick will be to avoid the monkey jumping off the batters’ back and onto his pitchers.
“That monkey jumping on the pitchers back, that’s what we’re going to talk about,” Horton said. “And we’re not going to let him get on there.”
For now, Oregon will enjoy its fourth consecutive win and look ahead to the possibility of getting its first sweep of a Pac-12 team this season Sunday.
First pitch in the series finale against USC is at 12 p.m. Sunday.
Contrary to what defensive lineman Torrodney Prevot said about Brady Hoke, the new Oregon defensive coordinator deliberately stated he has “no swag” Friday when talking to the media.
Regardless, Prevot’s comments seemed to indicate the new type of intensity that the former Michigan head coach has brought to spring practices this year — rather than illustrate a picture of him with the clothing style of Oregon assistants Don Pellum and Gary Campbell. Several players have appeared encouraged by Hoke’s loud voice and sense of urgency on the practice field, which has translated to an energy level that head coach Mark Helfrich said he liked.
“He’s all in your face,” Prevot said. “He wants you to run. We’re actually running on the field, running off the field. When we go to warm up, we have to run on the field full sprint.”
But, the positive energy levels won’t quite matter if Oregon doesn’t experience progress on defense this year, and Hoke gave an honest assessment about the unit Friday.
“We’re long way from being the defense we imagine,” he said.
Hoke talked more about his first two weeks as the defensive coordinator, the gradual installation of his new 4-3 system and his time spent in Eugene — which he says has consisted of being on the turf fields and at the Hatfield Dowlin Complex.
“That’s about where I’ve been,” Hoke added.
What are you impressions after two weeks working with the team this spring?
We got a lot to get better at. We got a great staff. I really like all the coaches, terminology, just the whole one-gap, two-gap getting up the field. We got a lot of work ahead of us, the kids have been receptive.
Do you feel like you have the bodies to do the 4-3?
I think right now it’s too early to say. There’s some length, which is good, there’s some athleticism, which is good. You play the game, you have pads on, it’s a physical game and you’ve got to be physical up front.
The players say your loud voice has created the intensity that they maybe need. How have you seen them respond to you the past two weeks?
The kids have been great. We’re trying to hold each other accountable for everything, and really when we become what we want to become, it’s their voices. It won’t be mine, so it’s a transition and learning for everybody.
How is it going settling into your new role?
It’s fun. We’ve got a great staff and I love defense, that’s where my heart has always been.
What changes have you been trying to make your first few months here?
I’m just being who I am as a coach. We expect us to get better every day as coaches. If we’re not more competitive than the coaches at USC, we’re making a mistake. I think just the work ethic the guys have shown in what we’ve done, there’s a lot of positives. We’re still not the team we need to be.
Don Pellum didn’t really have a playbook, and the guys have been comparing your playbook to a Harry Potter book. Have you gotten much feedback about your playbook?
My skills in technology aren’t very good. I need paper and I need to see things that way. There’s a ton of defense we could run and put in. But, we’ve got to be smart enough as coaches to have so much in that from a mental stand point they can’t play the way we want them to play.
Canton Kaumatule came here with a lot of expectations. He said the other day he’s really excited to play in your defense. How do you see him fitting into your scheme?
Well, I think from a physical standpoint and what he looks like, he should be a guy who can be a three or a five. The one thing that’s held him back is he’s been beat up a little bit. If you’re not out there you can’t be evaluated, and if you can’t be evaluated you can’t play. Hopefully he’ll get back because he needs to progress a lot.
What do you try to get out in the practice field and what’s your coaching style?
There’s a lot of honesty and we told them that we’r going to coach you hard, and we’re going to be consistent. Personally, getting out on the field is my funnest time being with those kids. Mrs. Hoke doesn’t like that, but that really is. You can’t play the game if you don’t have energy, I don’t know how you could coach it if you don’t have it.
Based on preseason predictions, the three-game set between Oregon baseball and California expected to be a tightly contested tilt with potential conference title implications included. Cal was picked to finish third in the Pac-12, and Oregon followed right behind at fourth. The two were both in the top 20 of many national preseason preseason polls as well.
But the opener, a 12-2 win for Cal, simply displayed the different directions both teams are heading in midway through the season. Oregon was, as head coach George Horton described it, “dominated,” “thumped” and “crushed.” Cal remained atop the Pac-12 with the win, while Oregon stumbled to its 10th loss in 15 games.
After one inning Saturday, though, Oregon proved that the series wouldn’t be some overwhelming mismatch. Matt Krook forced three groundouts to start, and Matt Grebeck opened the bottom of the first with a shot over the left field fence, setting the pace for a 4-3 Oregon win.
“I think our guys are warriors, they understand that the conference race is a long grind,” Horton said. “They don’t like the way things are going either, and today was about opportunity.”
While it wasn’t a masterful outing, it didn’t provoke any of the aforementioned verbs that Horton used to describe Friday’s game either. It featured strong pitching from Krook, some muscle from Oregon’s bats and a win that sets up a rubber match Sunday with David Peterson on the mound.
It also included a tone setter from Grebeck that seemed extra important based on the result Friday.
“It was a good to get a run on the board, give Krook a lead and then let him go,” Grebeck said.
And with Krook on the mound, Cal learned quickly that its 21-hit performance from the previous night would be hard to duplicate.The redshirt sophomore, pitching on two weeks rest due to last weekend’s games against Michigan State being cancelled, allowed just two hits and two runs (one earned) in 6.2 innings of work. Only one hit got into the outfield, as Cal benefitted from some luck in the third when a slow chopper bounced over Krook’s head.
“We learned that they’re an unbelievably aggressive team,” Krook, who finished with nine strike outs, said of Friday’s outing. “They really want to swing the bat, so took advantage of that today and got ahead and tried to finish them.”
Krook pitched the majority of his outing with the lead too, thanks to timely hitting from Oregon’s lineup. Every time Cal responded with a run of its own, Oregon took the lead back in the bottom half of the inning.
It occurred in the third, after Cal’s Aaron Knapp hit a base hit up the middle that scored Robbie Tenerowicz from third. Oregon took the lead back after A.J. Balta’s flyout near the warning track scored Grebeck, who tagged from third.
In the fifth, Knapp’s groundout to second scored Preston Grand Pre and evened the score at two. Then, Balta put what would serve as the winning RBI into Oregon’s bullpen past right field. His two-run home run was his fifth of the season and gave the Ducks a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Cal would come close to tying the game once more in the eighth inning. Brac Warren gave up a pair of singles that put runners on first and third with two outs, before closer Stephen Nogosek entered the game. The first batter he faced, Nick Halamandaris, hit an RBI single to right to cut the lead to one.
But, Nogosek didn’t seem fazed and forced Tenerowicz to hit a grounder to Travis Moniot in the infield, who then tossed the ball to Daniel Patzlaff at second for a force out to end the inning. Nogosek then retired the side in the ninth to preserve the win.
“It wasn’t necessarily the Duck formula to win, we lost the seventh, eighth and ninth, but I sure like handing the ball to Nogo with the lead, it’s a pretty good feeling,” Horton said.
The win sets up a rubber match that could clearly give Oregon the right boost if the result is in its favor. The Ducks haven’t won a three or four-game series since taking two of three from UC Santa Barbara on March 6. Peterson will start, but Horton said he’ll be on a pitch count due to some arm tightness.
First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JustinFWise
Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Matt Krook stymies California’s hot bats as Oregon evens series with 4-3 win
Oregon’s struggles have continued in the midwest this week. The team dropped its sole game against Notre Dame Thursday, before falling, 3-2, to Michigan State on Friday in the series opener.
Jordan Zimmerman’s solo home run in the 10th inning broke a 2-2 tie and secured the Spartans a series opening win.
Cole Irvin allowed just one earned run in eight innings of work. However, Oregon managed just five hits in the game, and was trailing from the start due to poor defense. Michigan State’s first score was due in large part to a fielding error from Oregon’s Matt Kroon in the first inning.
The Ducks forced extra innings after Jake Bennett’s base hit up the middle scored Nick Catalano evened the score at 2. However, Oregon’s luck has run dry in the extra innings this season and Friday was no different. The Ducks are 0-3 in extra innings in 2016.
The second of the scheduled three-game series with the Spartans was cancelled Saturday due to snow. (Here’s a peak at what the weather was like East Lansing, Michigan).
Posted in Uncategorized
