Oregon Ducks baseball coach Mark Wasikowski’s arm might have been tired of waving runners home in the first inning.
A total of 10 Ducks scored in that initial frame as Oregon went on to cruise past San Francisco 15-5 in the first game of a brief two-game midweek series with the Dons.
With the win, Oregon moves to 17-7 overall, while USF out of the West Coast Conference fell to 14-13.
In the previous series with USC, the Ducks fell victim to a lot of hard-hit outs. But in baseball, things tend to even themselves out a bit. Oregon didn’t exactly pound the ball off of USF starting pitcher Weston Lombard. The Ducks had eight hits, all singles, in the first inning.
Brennan Milone had two hits and drove in four in the first where Oregon led 10-1. But unfortunately, Duck starting pitcher Jacob Hughes couldn’t stand the prosperity as he gave up three runs in the second and was pulled from the game.
The bullpen restored some order and the combination of Stone Churby, RJ Gordon, Christian Ciuffetelli and Rio Britton allowed just one run in their 7 2/3 innings.
Meanwhile, Josh Kasevich belted his third home run of the season, a two-run shot in the third to make it 12-4. Oregon scored three more in the fourth with the big blow coming from Sam Novitske’s double into the left-center field gap.
These two teams will finish out the series Wednesday afternoon with a 1 p.m. scheduled first pitch at PK Park. Neither Oregon nor USF has announced a starting pitcher.