Ducks Can't Rally Late In Loss To Hawai'i

Saturday, March 21

Portland, Ore.

2:30 PM

University of Oregon

9-10

Hawaii

12-7

Hawaii

Oregon

Photo by: Tod Fierner

03/22/09 | Baseball

Box Score

By: GoDucks.com

PORTLAND, Ore. - Oregon had plenty of opportunities to put runs on the board Saturday with its 10 hits, but it only happened on one occasion, and the Ducks fell 3-1 to Hawai'i in their third game of the inaugural Rose City Invitational at PGE Park on Saturday.

Oregon(9-10) will now play Washington at noon on Sunday in the third place game of the Invite. It will be the fourth non-conference meeting between the two programs this season.

Hawai'i and host Portland will play for the tournament title at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Oregon outhit Hawai'i 10-7, but stranded 12 batters on the base paths, including two different crucial moments in the eighth and ninth innings.

Leading off the bottom of the ninth, Hawai'i reliever Josh Slaats walked Kenny Bartz, and Caleb Tommasini singled just under the glove of shortstop Greg Garcia to bring Curtis Raulinaitis - representing the game-winning run - to the plate. The junior outfielder sacrificed both runners into scoring position, but a batter later, Mitch Karraker's fly out to left wasn't deep enough to score Bartz from third.

With one out remaining, Slaats coaxed Colby Sokol to groundout to Garcia to end the game.

Slaats earned his second save of the season for the ?Bows (12-7), while Matt Sisto improved to 2-1 after allowing just one Oregon run on seven hits.

The Ducks also had an opportunity to add runs with a two-out rally in the bottom eighth, but that ended when Danny Pulfer got caught looking at his third strike from Slaats with the bases loaded.

Senior Andrew Schmidt and junior Josh Hogan hit back-to-back singles into center field with two outs on the scoreboard to start the rally in the eighth. Slaats then issued a walk to pinch hitter Antony Kreitz to load the bases, before striking out Pulfer to escape the inning.

Oregon had a 1-0 lead after two innings thanks to some small ball. Schmidt led off the bottom of the second with a single to center and stole second, before a well-placed sacrifice from Hogan moved Schmidt to third. Pulfer then drove a ball to right field for the RBI single.

Hawai'i quickly answered scoring three in the top of the third as Ryan Morford led off the inning with a single to right. A wild pitch moved him into scoring position before Greg Garce doubled down the right field line for the RBI.

The ?Bows scoring continued as Kolten Wong singled right back up the middle to score Garcia. The third run was scored on Kevin Macdonald's sacrifice fly to center scoring Wong.

Bennett Whitmore (1-3) took the loss for Oregon, surrendering three runs on seven hits in 3 and 1/3 innings of work.

Alex Keudell, Ryan Fleckenstein, Chris Garrison and Zack Thornton all appeared in relief.

Tommasini (3), Schmidt (2), Hogan (2) and Pulfer(2) all had multiple hits for the Ducks.

Notes: Zack Thornton made his first appearance on the mound for Oregon this season...Tommasini had his third game of the season with at least three hits.