Oregon @ Washington (Huskies win series 2-1)

[cordy02c]

ducks get it to 5-3 on garlick's home run and leave 2 on

[cordy02c]

ducks lose 8-3

[duckgrad99]

A poor pitching effort for a change. Let's bounce back and get the next two.

[oregontrack]

keudell certainly wasn't great, but the terrible defense was the most disappointing part. ah well, we can still take the series.

[cordy02c]

Huskies get 4 in 1st 4-0 after 1 in game 1

[cordy02c]

ducks lose game 1 5-0

[duckgrad99]

Ugh, are we really going to start fading after the great start? I know the pac-12 is tough, but I think Washington is a team we should beat.

[cordy02c]

ducks down 1-0 after 3 in game 2

[cordy02c]

2 run double by Jones 2-1 ducks bottom of 6

[oregontrack]

sherfy blows the save. we're going to extras.

[cordy02c]

ducks take the lead in the 13th on a error

[oregontrack]

alto caught stealing home. sherfy gets another crack at finishing off the huskies.

[cordy02c]

ducks win 3-2 in 13 avoiding the sweep

[oregontrack]

final washington musings:

i said before the season started that finishing anywhere near .500 would be a great accomplishment for this team, and i said after we started 10-1 that picking up all these wins in close games was so important because we were going to meet a bulldozer in the pac-12. if this weekend is anything like the remainder of the season, it looks like i was right. washington is not an upper division team by any stretch of the imagination, and their pitching is among the worst in the conference. yet we struggled to hit the baseball consistently all three games, and we were very nearly swept. we played a strong non-conference schedule, so our w/l record was legitimately impressive, but we're in for a dogfight each and every game from here on out.

i also said after we started 10-1 that jj altobelli just wasn't working in the leadoff spot, and i continue to stand by that statement. not only would i play brett thomas more than horton has, he would be batting leadoff for me. his BA, OBP, and SLG% are all infinitely better than alto's. alto is a decent hitter, but there's more to batting at the top of the order than knocking in the occasional double. aaron payne isn't a great hitter, but he's a great guy to bat in the 2-hole because he flat out knows how to get on base. his OBP is nearly .200 points above his BA. he takes walks, and he has a knack for getting plunked. he's a great table setter for our big bats. thomas would be a great table settler. alto belongs lower in the order.

our freshmen are starting to find that college baseball is steep upgrade to high school ball: shaun chase has been struggling with his bat for a couple weeks now, and after a wicked hot start scott heineman is down to .217. the bottom of our order just isn't producing at the moment. i would probably stick with both and hope they can work through it, but if you're wondering why our offense looked so presentable the first few weeks of the season and has been struggling ever since, look no further than a couple key early contributors going through some pretty wicked slumps.

that said, our young pitching remains strong. jake reed had a nightmare first inning saturday, but pitched very well the remainder of the game. a lot of young kids would have packed it in. reed battled. and tessar pitched his second excellent game in a row yesterday; he should have gotten the win, but sherfy blew the save in the 9th. washington can hit the baseball, tessar's performance was very impressive. our young hitters seem to be struggling, but our young arms are getting better.

i never, ever say that "we need to sweep (insert team here)", because getting sweeps in this game is as much about luck as playing good baseball. but i'm going to cross that line and say it here: we really need to sweep utah at home next weekend at pk. the utes aren't a very good team (though they did just take a series with southern cal; again, even the pac-12's bad teams are pretty good), and after utah we get three of the best pac-12 schools back-to-back-to-back: arizona state, ucla, and stanford. we're going to start collecting some pretty heavy L's here in the next month, so we need to win as many games as we can in the meantime (midweek games including) as to not circle the drain. the schedule eases up (a little) near the end of the season, but we're about to go into the lion's den at the end of march/beginning of april. if we want to come through on the other side with any postseason hopes, we need to get it together now.

[UOducksTK1]

Rough series, but at least we got a well earned win.