As the kids would say, things just got real.
The Oregon Ducks crushed four home runs, including a Drew Cowley grand slam, in an 11-5 over No. 12-ranked Arizona State inside a packed PK Park.
With the victory, Oregon pulled itself to within 1.5 games out of first place. The Ducks are now 29-12 overall and 12-7 in conference play. The Sun Devils dropped to 28-14 overall and 13-5 in Pac-12 action.
Cowley opened the scoring off in the first inning with a solo shot to give Oregon a 1-0 lead. ASU tied it up in the third, but the Ducks quickly gained the advantage in the bottom half of the frame with Colby Shade’s solo homer to left-center.
Those two home runs were just the appetizer of what was to come in the fourth inning.
Oregon blew its lead wide open in that fourth with seven runs which was capped off with Cowley’s grand salami to make it 9-1 Ducks. Rikuu Nishida just missed a grand slam two batters before Cowley, but he had to settle for a ground-rule double to center that made it 5-1.
Shade walked to load the bases back up and set the stage for Cowley. He jumped all over an 0-1 fastball and deposited it over the left-center field wall.
ASU scored a run in the sixth, two more in the eighth, and one in the ninth, but the Sun Devils couldn’t sustain a meaningful rally to threaten the Ducks. Shade’s RBI double in the sixth and Jacob Walsh’s bomb in the seventh rounded out the scoring for the home team.
Perhaps lost in the offensive explosion was another great outing on the mound for Jace Stoffal. The Friday night ace went 6.2 innings, allowing just two runs, one earned, on four hits and he struck out seven. He is now 6-2 for the year.
The two teams will get together once again Saturday afternoon at 3 pm after the Oregon football Spring Game at Autzen Stadium. The Ducks are scheduled to send Logan Mercado (3-0, 6.15 ERA) and Arizona State will counter with Khristian Curtis (4-2, 5.59 ERA).
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