It’s always fun to beat the Huskies, especially in Seattle.
Anthony Hall belted a two-run homer in the first and Kolby Somers held Washington off in the eighth and the ninth for a 7-5 win over the Dawgs.
Oregon is now 22-11 overall and 8-5 in league play. The Ducks broke a three-game losing streak in Pac-12 action. They are also tied for fourth place with UCLA. Meanwhile, Washington’s struggles continue as they fell to 16-16 overall and 6-10 in conference play.
The Ducks got off to a good start right away in the first off of Huskies starting pitcher Jared Engman. Oregon cracked the scoreboard with a two-run single from Jacob Walsh on an 0-2 pitch. Then two batters later, Hall smashed a homer to right field that might have landed in Puget Sound. It was his eighth home run for the season.
From that point, it was Duck pitcher RJ Gordon, who might have had his best start since being moved to the Friday night spot. Gordon pitched into the sixth inning before being pulled. He gave up three runs and five hits, but more importantly, he kept Washington playing catch-up all night long.
Matt Dallas and Andrew Mosiello came in from the bullpen and pitched the sixth and seventh before Somers was summoned in the eighth and he wriggled out of a huge jam in that inning.
Oregon was up 5-3 and Washinton had runners on second and third with one out. That was when Huskies shortstop Cam Clayton lined out to Somers for out No. 2. Somers then proceeded to hit the next batter, but whiffed Sam Brown to end the threat.
Thankfully, the Ducks scored two insurance runs in the ninth on another two-run single from Walsh because the Huskies got to Somers with two runs and had the tying run at the plate. But Somers wriggled out of the jam and preserved the win.
The two teams are back at it today at 2 p.m. on the Pac-12 Network.