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The Portland Tribune
Thursday, April 11, 2013
By KERRY EGGERS
The Tribune
CORVALLIS — Oregon’s
6-3 win over Oregon State at
Goss Stadium could be a
harbinger of things ahead
for the Ducks.
That’s the goal of coach
George Horton as the Ducks
head into an important three-
game Pac-12 series at Califor-
nia beginning Friday.
“Hopefully this will create
some positive momentum so
we can get a series on the
road,” Horton said after the
Ducks’ non-conference victory.
The Bears have won series
against the Ducks in Berkeley
the last two times the teams
have met there. Horton said he
won’t soon forget his first UO
visit to Strawberry Canyon in
2009, when the Ducks won the
middle game shoehorned by
14-1 and 11-1 defeats.
“I’ve never been more disap-
pointed with a team than I was
with our team on that week-
end,” Horton says.
Oregon (24-8 overall, 9-3 in
Pac-12 play) is right there with
Oregon State (25-6, 7-2) atop
the conference standings.
“Even though we have one
more loss than the Beavs, it
says Oregon in first place,”
Horton says. “We’d like to be
undefeated, but we’ll take it.”
Horton’s fifth Oregon team is
much like its predecessors —
stocked deep with pitching tal-
ent and defensive prowess,
wanting in the hitting depart-
ment.
The Ducks own one of the
conference’s best pitching
staffs, sporting a 2.99 ERA
heading into the Cal series.
Freshman right-hander Cole
Irwin (6-1, 3.11 ERA) joins
sophomore left-hander Tommy
Thorpe (4-3, 3.35) and sopho-
more righty Jake Reed (3-3,
3.75) as the weekend starters.
Senior southpaw Christian
Jones (0-1, 0.59) and right-
handed junior closer Jimmy
Sherfy (2-0, 1.25,
nine saves) head-
line a deep bull-
pen.
Oregon enters
the weekend tied
for first national-
ly with a .988
fielding percent-
age. Outfielders
Brett Thomas and
Scott Heinemann
each made spec-
tacular defensive
plays against the
Beavers. Horton
considers senior
J.J. Altobelli as
good defensively
as any shortstop in the country.
Offense has been the Achil-
les’ heel since the restoration
of Oregon’s program in 2009,
but the bats showed signs of
awakening in a 16-3 win in the
series windup at Arizona State
last Sunday.
“Our offense caught a stride
in Tempe,” junior second base-
man Aaron Payne says. “We
were putting good swings on it
all weekend.
“There are a lot of places
easier to hit than in (Eugene’s)
PK Park, so maybe being on
the road helps. A lot of our hit-
ters are feeling good right now,
and we’ve been able to put up
some runs.”
Oregon’s money man is 6-5,
215-pound junior first baseman
Ryon Healy, who is hitting .349
with five home runs and 31 RBIs
in 32 games. Freshman third
baseman Mitchell Tolman out
of Lake Forest, Calif. (.356) is the
only other Duck hitting better
than .300.
The Ducks play
plenty of small
ball, taking pitch-
es, working for
walks, bunting
and working hard
to score their
runs. They bene-
fitted from six
walks, four hit
batsmen and four
wild pitches Tues-
day against the
Beavers.
“We’re not the
type of team that
comes out and
bangs it all over
the field,” Horton says. “We
have to find the right pitches.
That takes patience.”
Horton was buoyed by his
club’s performance in a hostile
environment Tuesday at Goss
Stadium, where the Ducks had
gone 1-9 in their four previous
seasons.
“We showed maturity and
professionalism through some
of the negativism you get” at
Goss, the UO coach says.
“There’s some real tough stuff
that comes out at times, be-
cause (the OSU fans) are pas-
sionate about their team. Our
guys handled it with more ma-
turity than when they’ve come
in here in the past.”
There are four more Civil
War meetings this season —
the Pac-12 series at PK Park
from May 17-19 and another
non-conference matchup at
Corvallis on May 21.
“We have at least four more
games with them,” Horton
says. “I’m looking forward to
that, because of the respect we
have for them.”
The Ducks hope they’ll put it
together well enough to make a
run at a league championship.
“We have a good shot at it,”
Payne says. “We have a lot of
experience, great pitching and
solid defense. If our offense gets
rolling, we should be tough.”
kerryeggers@portlandtribune.com
Twitter: @kerryeggers
played well.”
At times during the first four
matches, it felt to many of the
players as if the club was not be-
ing rewarded.
“We’ve worked really hard to
progress quickly with a lot of
new players in the club,” de-
fender Michael Harrington says.
“We felt like we’ve been pro-
gressing quicker than the re-
sults have shown, and we’re all
just elated that it came to frui-
tion (on Saturday), and we got
those three points.”
Says striker Ryan Johnson:
“We worked really hard just to
get the ties.”
During the next two weeks,
Portland will face the San Jose
Earthquakes on Sunday at
home and on April 21 in San Jo-
se. The Earthquakes had the
league’s best regular-season re-
cord last year, and striker Chris
Wondolowski tied the MLS re-
cord for goals scored (27).
“They’re a good side,” Har-
rington says. “We’re going to
have to focus on (Wondolowski)
and shut him down. We’re ex-
cited for the challenge of push-
ing us up (in the standings) and
bumping them down.”
Porter says that playing the
Earthquakes back-to-back won’t
affect how the Timbers prepare.
Every game “we’re getting
better at something,” Timbers
striker Darlington Nagbe says.
Jewsbury says the Timbers
mostly need to be more consis-
tent.
“Consistency is something
you continue to get throughout
the year,” he says.
Johnson says that would
translate into more wins.
“We’re up there at the top of
the league with shots, we’re up
there with possession, we’re up
there with crosses,” he says.
“All those little detail things,
we’re at the top of the league. As
long as we keep doing those
things and keep knowing our
identity as a team, we’ll do fine.”
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From page 8
Timbers:
Players gain confidence
Thursday, April 11
MAIN EVENT:
Baseball — The
Portland Pilots (4-5 West Coast
Conference) open a league series
at BYU (5-4), 5 p.m. PT.
Friday, April 12
MAIN EVENT:
Blazers —
Portland has four games left in
the NBA season. Tonight’s oppo-
nent at the Rose Garden is
Oklahoma City. Tipoff is 7 p.m.
(CSNNW, NBA TV).
Baseball:
Oregon State plays
host to Utah at 5:30 p.m. The
Beavers, ranked sixth in three
national polls and seventh in
another, are 7-2 in Pac-12 play,
while the Utes are 4-8. ... Oregon
kicks off a Pac-12 series at Cal
with a 6 p.m. game. The Ducks
(9-3 conference) are ranked
ninth in three Division I polls and
16th in another. Cal is 5-7 in
league. ... Game two of the
UP-BYU series in Provo, Utah, is
at 5 p.m. PT. ... Concordia (9-11
league) welcomes Menlo (14-6)
to Porter Park for a 6 p.m. game.
Softball:
Both of the state’s
Pac-12 teams are at home this
weekend. ... Oregon, leading the
conference at 10-2, launches a
series against Arizona (4-5) at 3
p.m. The Ducks are ranked sev-
enth and ninth in the national
polls, while the Wildcats are
17th and 22nd. ... Oregon State
(1-8) takes on Utah (3-9) at 3
p.m. (Pac-12 Networks). ...
Concordia (10-4 Cascade
Collegiate Conference) is at
Delta Park against Southern
Oregon (10-6), with games at 2
and 4 p.m.
Saturday, April 13
MAIN EVENT:
Thorns —
Portland’s entry in the eight-team
National Women’s Soccer League
opens the inaugural season on
the road, playing the FC Kansas
City Blues at 5:30 p.m. PT. The
game will take place on a multi-
purpose high school field at
Shawnee Mission District Stadium,
capacity 6,150, in Overland Park,
Kan. It’s the third-largest venue in
the NWSL.
Baseball:
OSU’s second game
of the weekend at home against
Utah begins at 2 p.m. .... The mid-
dle game of the Oregon-at-Cal
series starts at 6 p.m. ... UP’s final
game at BYU is at noon PT. ... ...
The Northwest Conference has
Puget Sound (6-9) at Lewis &
Clark (5-10) for a noon double-
header. ... Concordia is at home
against Menlo for a 2 p.m. twinbill.
Softball:
Arizona is at Oregon, 2
p.m., and Utah is at OSU, 1 p.m.
... Lewis & Clark (9-15) has a
home doubleheader at noon with
NWC foe Pacific (10-10). ...
Oregon Tech (14-4 league) plays
CCC rival Concordia at 11 a.m.
and 1 p.m. at Delta Park.
Sunday, April 14
MAIN EVENT:
Blazers —
Portland is at Denver’s Pepsi
Center for a 2 p.m. game
(CSNNW).
Baseball:
OSU wraps up its
Pac-12 series with visiting Utah at
noon. ... Oregon concludes its
weekend set at Cal with a 1 p.m.
game. ... Lewis & Clark plays host
to Puget Sound at noon. ... The
Menlo-Concordia four-game
series ends with an 11 a.m. game
at CU.
Softball:
Oregon finishes its
series with Arizona with a noon
game in Eugene; OSU has a final
game with Utah at noon in
Corvallis. ... Lewis & Clark plays at
Pacific; it’s a noon doubleheader.
Monday, April 15
MAIN EVENT:
Timbers
Reserves —Portland’s reserve
squad (2-1) faces the San Jose
Earthquakes Reserves at Jeld-
Wen Field, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, April 16
MAIN EVENTS:
Baseball —
Oregon has a 3 p.m. game at Joe
Etzel Field against the University
of Portland. ... Softball — The
Ducks visit Erv Lind Stadium for a
4 p.m. doubleheader against
Portland State.
Blazers:
Portland’s final road
game of the season takes the
Blazers to Staples Center to meet
the Los Angeles Clippers at 7:30
p.m. (TNT).
Softball:
Concordia goes to
Northwest (2-12) in Kirkland,
Wash., for a 2 p.m. Cascade
Collegiate Conference double-
header.
Wednesday, April 17
MAIN EVENTS:
Blazers —
Portland heads into the NBA draft
lottery with its season finale, a
7:30 p.m. tilt at the Rose Garden
against the playoff-bound Golden
State Warriors (KGW 8). ...
Baseball — Oregon State plays at
UP, 3 p.m.
PDX
Sports
Ryon Healy has
been one of the
top producers
for the
offensively
challenged
Oregon Ducks,
who have rode
strong pitching
to a high
national ranking
and Pac-12
contention.
COURTESY OF ERIC
EVANS
Ducks’ win in hostile
park buoys prospects
■
Civil War match just a preview to coach’s plan for the season
“We’re not the
type of team
that comes out
and bangs it all
over the field.
We have to find
the right
pitches. That
takes patience.”
— George Horton,
UO baseball coach