Illinois State @ Oregon (Ducks win series 3-1)

[UOducksTK1]

Game 1: W 8-5
Game 2: W 4-2
Game 3: L 2-3
Game 4: W 3-1

[oregontrack]

it'll be interesting if jack karraker gets the ball on sunday. he only gave up 4 earned runs in 28 IP last year before getting hurt. his .208 opponent batting average was lower than josh graham's, who was our best starter. i think there's always the inclination of going with a younger arm, but he came back for his senior year. i want to see what he's got. you need four starters for the postseason.

illinois state (1-2) lost their season-opening series to belmont 5-7, 23-5, 10-13. it would appear they can hit a little bit, or at least they appear to be able to hit belmont pitching. this needs to be a four-game sweep.

random thoughts/observations from the san diego state series:

our 8-9 hitters (moniot/patzlaff) went 8/20 (.400) with 3 extra base hits and 4 rbis. moniot got 3 walks, patzlaff 1, meaning they combined for a .500 OBP. we're all aware about how awful our bottom of the order hitting has been through the years, so let's quietly appreciate the initial production and hope it lasts.

we have a jacob bennett (pitcher) and a jake bennett (outfielder). these are different human beings.

the aforementioned jake bennett, matt eureste, matt kroon, and kyle kasser combined to 3/8 pinch hitting over the weekend. not a bad mark.

mark karaviotis went 0/9, phil craig-st.louis 1/11, and jakob goldfarb 1/13. i could have made a compelling argument prior to the season that these were going to be our three best hitters (and they still might be!). but not a good weekend for some returning vets.

tim susnara is going to be big time. you could tell last year, and you could tell just from this weekend. he's already an elite defender, and his two doubles and a HR show his gap power. he's going to be a first rounder in the 2017 mlb draft. he might never be ryon healy at the plate, but he might end up passing healy for the best-ever duck since rebirth.

welcome back steven packard! he was a freshman on the 2010 team, and he's still going strong seven years later. he had a nice weekend at the plate, and his base running helped win game one with his hustle play in the 9th.

aj balta had two HR, a triple, and 7 rbis. welcome back to him, too. packard and balta missed all, or most, of 2015. as much as pitching messed us up last year, these two guys could have really helped us out at the plate. glad they're back.

#12 in baseball america's top 25. there's like 7 different college polls; i know some think baseball america is east-coast oriented, but i've always gone by their poll.

[oregontrack]

that got answered quick:

horton says freshman kyle robeniol will pitch thursday, and our usual irvin-krook-petersen rotation will go friday-sunday.

robeniol pitched five quality innings in relief saturday.

[cordy02c]

It's Carranza not robeniol who will start thursday

[oregontrack]

yeah horton changed his mind, citing robeniol's 96 pitch count last saturday. not sure what changed, it's not like either pitched in the interim.

[oregontrack]

3-0 oregon, bot 1

bases loaded triple for craig-st.louis.

[oregontrack]

4-0, bot 1

packard rbi single, drives in craig-st.louis.

still no outs.

[oregontrack]

5-0, bot 1

packard scores on a wild pitch.

[cordy02c]

5-2 bottom 3

[cordy02c]

Wasn't pretty but ducks win 8-5

[oregontrack]

oregon wins 8-5.

went up 5-0 in the first, didn't score again until the 7th. in the meantime, illinois state scored 4 off carranza, and tied the game on a routine single that grebeck badly misplayed, then got bobbled on the relay... and that routine single turned into an inside the park home run.

carranza was either lights out or struggled, depending on the inning. he was in line for the win when he left, but the defense failed after he left.

[cordy02c]

Ducks win 4-2 as Irvin strikes out 12 in 7 innings to get the win

[UOducksTK1]

Ducks win 4-2 as Irvin strikes out 12 in 7 innings to get the win

Impressive night for Irvin!

[cordy02c]

Ducks lose 3-2

[oregontrack]

well, that was a rough weekend at the plate. take out thursday's game, which featured illinois state's midweek guy, and we scored 4, 2, and 3 runs against their weekend rotation. illinois state is a good, but hardly great, mizzou valley team that got hit much harder by belmont a week prior. saturday's game -- the game we lost -- they threw a guy who's only noteworthy characteristic was that he was tall. average stuff, but he was tall. the ball came out at a weird release point. and this totally befuddled our hitters all game (he pitched all 9 innings). frustrating...

our pitching was amazing. irvin and peterson were spectacular, and krook was VERY GOOD. better than what he pitched against sdsu. he'll keep working to get his walks down, but he went 7 IP/1 run/2 hits. 8k/5bb. control can be an issue, but he totally pitched well enough to win. the offense just stunk.

it'll be 7-1 uc-santa barbara at 6-1 oregon this weekend. they swept san francisco in week one and went 3-0 at the tony gwynn san diego classic last weekend, beating kentucky, bryant, and san diego. they hosted a regional last year, though we did beat them down at their place 5-1, 11-3, 0-1.