#12 Oregon @ Washington (Huskies win series 2-1)

[oregontrack]

paddon's actually pitched remarkably well considering he had no idea he'd be pressed into this many innings, to say nothing of going up against washington's bats.

tyler davis (1.38) came into today second only to ben wetzler (0.47) in era in the conference. i can see why.

[oregontrack]

spencer comes in and gets washington to go 1-2-3, and we're on to the 8th.

6 outs left...

[oregontrack]

single by bryant to lead off the 8th, kruger gets him to scoring position with a sac bunt.

2 cracks at getting him in...

[oregontrack]

grebeck flies out, karaviotis forgets that he's already at 2 k's and watched the third whiz by him.

[cordy02c]

ducks lose 1-0 as ducks leave bases loaded in 9th

[oregontrack]

chase put a pretty good swing on that one, unfortunately hit it right at the left fielder.

anyone who's read my posts over the years probably knows i really don't get on the team for not scoring as many runs as others think they should. it's partly because i think the problem is overblown, partly because i don't really think it's the program's identity, and partly because i understand we've had a lot of flawed line-ups in the past and i guess i don't necessarily expect them to score a whole bunch. but i will never -- ever -- understand why we take so many strike three's. i've never seen a team, year after year, in any level of organized baseball, strike out with the bat on their shoulder as much as oregon does. there's just no urgency to protect the strike zone, and that's so weird because it completely contradicts everything else i've ever been taught, or learned, about the game of baseball. we have this really odd habit, season after season, of being really patient and choosing what pitches we're looking for, even when down in the count, even when conventional wisdom says you need to be fouling off pitches if they're even remotely close to your K zone. and we, as a program, swing away early in counts ALL THE TIME, so it's not like there's a fundamental thing being taught preaching patience. we go after pitchers very aggressively quite a bit. but we get those 2 strikes, and all of a sudden it's like screw it, this bat isn't leaving my shoulder unless the ball is coming straight down broadway. pitching is waaaaaaaaaaay too good in this conference, and our line-up is nowhere near good enough, to be throwing away so many at-bats.

[Duck07]

chase put a pretty good swing on that one, unfortunately hit it right at the left fielder.

anyone who's read my posts over the years probably knows i really don't get on the team for not scoring as many runs as others think they should. it's partly because i think the problem is overblown, partly because i don't really think it's the program's identity, and partly because i understand we've had a lot of flawed line-ups in the past and i guess i don't necessarily expect them to score a whole bunch. but i will never -- ever -- understand why we take so many strike three's. i've never seen a team, year after year, in any level of organized baseball, strike out with the bat on their shoulder as much as oregon does. there's just no urgency to protect the strike zone, and that's so weird because it completely contradicts everything else i've ever been taught, or learned, about the game of baseball. we have this really odd habit, season after season, of being really patient and choosing what pitches we're looking for, even when down in the count, even when conventional wisdom says you need to be fouling off pitches if they're even remotely close to your K zone. and we, as a program, swing away early in counts ALL THE TIME, so it's not like there's a fundamental thing being taught preaching patience. we go after pitchers very aggressively quite a bit. but we get those 2 strikes, and all of a sudden it's like screw it, this bat isn't leaving my shoulder unless the ball is coming straight down broadway. pitching is waaaaaaaaaaay too good in this conference, and our line-up is nowhere near good enough, to be throwing away so many at-bats.

One of my roommates in college always talked about how they held "hitting practice" and not "batting practice" and that the semantic difference mattered. Once you get two strikes you've got to protect the plate.

[cordy02c]

2-0 ducks after 2

[UOducksTK1]

Huge double play in the 9th!

[UOducksTK1]

Ducks lead 3-2 in the 10th!

[Everythingsducky]

Crappy way to lose the game. Cannot walk multiple batters if you are the closer.

[Phenom]

Damn.

[woundedknees]

Well, Carp!