While there’s a huge celebration down in Las Vegas with the men’s basketball team’s upset over Arizona, the exact opposite feeling is occurring at PK Park.
California’s Caleb Lomavita set the tone with a two-run homer in the first and the Bears blew out Oregon 13-1 in the weekend series opener.
With the loss, Oregon drops to 11-6 overall and 4-3 in league play. The Golden Bears improved to 12-3 overall and a perfect 4-0 in Pac-12 action.
Things didn’t get any better for Duck starting pitcher RJ Gordon as he gave up three more runs in the third to fall behind 5-0. The Ducks were able to dent the scoreboard in the fourth on a run-scoring single from Ryan Cooney to score Drew Smith.
But that was all the offense the Ducks could muster. California put the game away with three insurance runs in the eighth and four more in the ninth off of Oregon’s young relievers.
A bright spot on the mound for the Ducks was Brock Moore as he struck out six straight batters. Unfortunately, he might have been left too long as he was touched up for those three runs in the eighth.
All is far from lost for the Ducks. In their first Pac-12 series, they dropped the opener to Arizona State before coming out on top Saturday and Sunday to take the series. Oregon is hoping to repeat the feat this weekend as well.
Game 2 is scheduled for 2:05 pm Saturday afternoon.