Oregon Ducks baseball coach Mark Wasikowski probably didn’t think he would need his closer to come into the eighth inning to preserve a slim one-run lead considering the last time the Ducks played Portland, they won 18-2.
Kolby Somers was up to the task and earned his seventh save of the season as Oregon defeated the Pilots 5-4. With the win, the Ducks improved to 25-11 on the season and have won six straight.
After six innings of play, it looked like Oregon would cruise as it held a nice 5-0 lead. They scored one in the first and two more in the second. Anthony Hall extended the Ducks’ lead with a mammoth two-run home run in the sixth. It was his ninth homer of the year and the Ducks’ 56th home run as a team, equalling the number of round-trippers they hit last season. The next homer will be a program record.
Once it was 5-0, the Pilots managed to finally cross some runners home. They have threatened numerous times in the early innings, but the Ducks were able to leave runners on base. Portland was able to crack the scoreboard in the seventh with three runs off of reliever Matt Dallas, who just didn’t have it for the first time in quite a while.
Logan Mercado gave up a triple and a double and saw the lead cut to one at 5-4 and that was when Wasikowski went to his closer to shut down the Pilots and get out of Portland with a win.
Now the Ducks will come back home and host Washington State (13-21, 5-13) for a three-game weekend set beginning on Friday at 6 p.m.