Tag: oregon ducks baseball

Oregon routs Lafayette in 2024 home opener at PK Park

Oregon baseball had an easy time of it in its home opener with a 17-3 rout over Lafayette at PK Park.

Perhaps the worst thing Lafayette could have done was to hit a home run in the top of the first because that solo blast woke the Oregon Ducks baseball team up.

The Ducks answered with three homers of their own en route to a 17-3 win over the Leopards in the 2024 home opener at PK Park. Oregon improved to 3-1 on the young season while Lafayette is still looking for its first victory on the year. They were swept at East Tennessee State last weekend and if this game was any indication, the Leopards are going to have a long stay in Eugene.

Drew Smith, Jacob Walsh and Ryan Cooney all smacked the ball out of the ballpark after the Ducks went homerless last weekend at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. The Ducks scored in every inning of the contest. Their biggest frame came in the first, third and fourth where the Ducks scored three runs in each of those innings.

Chase Meggers and Walsh drove in three runs and Jeffrey Heard added a double and a triple with two runs scored. Bennett Thompson also hit a double and triple.

On the mound, RJ Gordon earned his first win of the year as he went six innings, giving up just one run on three hits while striking out four.

These two teams have a quick turnaround with a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch of Game 1 is scheduled for 12 pm. Oregon and Lafayette will end the four-game series on Sunday with a single game also at noon.

Texas Tech hands Oregon baseball its first loss of the season

Oregon’s rally comes up short and the Ducks suffer their first loss of the baseball season to Texas Tech 11-7.

Seven runs will usually be enough to come out on top of a baseball game, but in the last day of the Shriners Children’s College Baseball Showdown, that offensive output for the Ducks wasn’t against Texas Tech.

The Red Raiders handed Oregon its first loss of the year with an 11-7 victory. The Ducks are now 2-1 as they come home to host Lafayette for a four-game series with a doubleheader next Saturday.

It was an uphill battle for Oregon nearly the entire game. The Ducks found themselves down 6-0 after two innings. Starter Turner Spoljarik just didn’t have it on this day. He went just 1 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on four hits.

The big blow of the inning came off of freshman reliever Toby Twist as he was greeting rather rudely with a three-run home run from Austin Green. After that bomb, however, Twist was effective in his college debut. He struck out six in his 3 2/3 innings of work. His efforts also allowed the offensive to do their best to climb back into the game, which it did in the fifth inning.

Oregon managed to put up four runs in that frame. Drew Smith got the Ducks on the board with a two-run single up the middle to make it 6-2 before Jeffrey Heard and Bennett Thompson each brought home runs with singles.

Unfortunately, whenever Oregon would make a dent into the deficit, the Ducks couldn’t get an all-important shutdown inning. Texas Tech added a run in the bottom half of the fifth to make it 7-4.

But back came the Ducks with two more runs in the sixth on Smith’s single to score Bryce Boettcher. Left fielder Damian Bravo booted the ball that allowed Carter Garate to also score to make it a one-run game once again at 7-6.

The Red Raiders had an answer in the bottom half of the sixth with a solo homer and later an RBI single and it was 9-6. To their credit, the Ducks never threw in the towel. They scored once in the seventh on Garate’s single and it was 9-7. But that was all Oregon could muster and Texas Tech put the game away with insurance runs in the seventh and eighth.

Garate reached base five times with two doubles, two singles and a walk. He also scored twice. Smith also had four hits and drove in three.

Oregon’s home opener with Lafayette is on Friday with a scheduled first pitch at 4 pm. The Leopards are 0-3 on the season after being swept at East Tennessee State.

Ducks bullpen dominates once again in victory over Baylor

Oregon scored seven unanswered runs to hand Baylor a 7-4 loss in the Shriners Children’s College Baseball Showdown Saturday morning.

Teams are going to learn very quickly that if they enter a battle of the bullpens with Oregon, it’ll be a losing proposition.

The Ducks scored seven unanswered runs and held Baylor off the scoreboard for the final five innings to take a 7-4 win over the Bears in the Shriners Children’s College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, Texas.

Oregon is 2-0 with the bullpen dominating so far. The pen has thrown 9 2/3 scoreless innings in the games against Oklahoma and Baylor. Bradley Mullan earned the victory and veteran Logan Mercado earned the six-out save.

Baylor jumped on the Ducks in the second inning when Mason Greer hit a two-run homer to right field. Fans in Texas are used to watching a player named Greer hit home runs. Mason’s father, Rusty, played for the Rangers for nine seasons.

The Bears added to their lead with single runs in the third and fourth off of Oregon starter Kevin Seitter. On the other side of the field, Baylor starting pitcher Colin McKinney was having his way with the Duck lineup through the first three frames.

Oregon finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth on Bennett Thompson’s RBI single to left to make it 4-1.

McKinney was losing his stuff in the fifth and once Baylor went to its bullpen and brought in left-hander Grant Golumb, the Ducks made them pay with three runs to tie the game at 4.

Jacob Walsh lined a double to left-center to score two runs to make it 4-3 Bears. Oregon tied the game on Jeffrey Heard’s single to center.

It was a brand new game in the sixth and took control with three more runs. Mason Neville led off the frame with a double down the right field line. He scored on Ryan Cooney’s single to give the Ducks their first lead of the game 5-4.

Carter Garate followed with a perfect drag bunt down the first base line that Baylor mishandled and threw down the line. Cooney scored on the bad throw to make it 6-4, and Garate advanced to third.

Oregon was tacked on one more insurance run on Drew Smith’s single to left and it was 7-4.

That was more than enough for relievers Mullan, Jaxon Jordan and Mercado. Jordan found himself in some trouble when the Bears loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh, but he whiffed Cortlan Castle to end the threat.

Oregon attempts to leave Globe Life Field unscathed Sunday when the Ducks face No. 18 Texas Tech. The scheduled first pitch is 12:30 pm PT.

Oregon baseball takes 2024 season opener from Oklahoma

The Oregon Ducks baseball team got the season off on the right (web)foot with a 4-2 win over Oklahoma Friday afternoon.

This is how you begin a season.

The Oregon Ducks baseball team defeated Oklahoma 4-2 in the 2024 season opener in the Shriner’s Children College Baseball Classic in Arlington, Texas.

Reliever Greyson Grinsell was the winner on the mound and new closer Michael Freund earned his first save.

No one will consider this a defensive masterpiece, however.

Oregon scored two runs on wild pitches and another run on a double play, but at the end of the day, the Ducks aren’t going to complain. They also saw the return of starting pitcher RJ Gordon, who missed the entire 2023 season due to Tommy John surgery.

Gordon was effective as he gave up just two runs in his 4.1 innings on the mound. After that, the Sooners had little chance. The combination of Grinsell and Freund gave up just one hit in their 4.2 innings.

Oregon took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Dominik Cassella lined a single to right that scored Drew Smith. It was then 2-0 Ducks in the third due to a wild pitch that scored Bryce Boettcher.

Oklahoma tied the game in the bottom half of the inning on two sacrifice flies. The Sooners managed just three base runners from that point forward, one reaching on an error. But that runner, Easton Carmichael, was promptly thrown out as he attempted to advance on a ball in the dirt.

Oregon catcher Bennett Thompson was able to corral the pitch in the dirt and pick off Carmichael by a good 15 feet. Freund ended the inning on a third-called strike to Kendall Pettis.

The Ducks took a 4-2 lead in the eighth on a double play grounder the top half of that frame that scored Jacob Walsh and then a wild pitch that brought Justin Cassella home.

Fortunately, there were no fireworks in the bottom half of the ninth as Freund retired the Sooners in order to secure the victory.

The Ducks will have a short turnaround as they will play Baylor on Saturday morning at Globe Life Field. The Bears fell in their opener to Nebraska 4-1 earlier in the day.

Former Duck Spencer Steer is a driving force behind Reds’ 2023 success

Cincinnati has given former Duck Spencer Steer a chance to play every day and he’s making the most out of his opportunity.

It wasn’t a trade that made many headlines last summer, but now the Tyler Mahle-for-Spencer Steer transaction between Minnesota and Cincinnati changed the direction of a division.

Steer, who played third base for the Ducks from 2017-19, was a prospect in the Twins organization before being trade to the Reds in 2022 for Mahle. Minnesota needed another starter in their bid to win the AL Central. In exchange for Mahle, the Twins handed over Steer who was having an okay minor league career.

But Steer’s chance of making the Twins’ big league roster was going to come later rather than sooner. Cincinnati, who was thought to be in the midst of rebuilding, made Steer a regular in the Reds lineup and he has never looked back.

Playing nearly every day in 2023, Steer has hit .287 with 14 home runs and 51 runs batted in. Steer began the season at first base for an injured Joey Votto, but he has also seen time at third, left field, and as the designated hitter.

Cincinnati is currently in first place in the National League Central Division with a 50-40 record, two games in front of the second-place Milwaukee Brewers.

As for the other part of the trade, Mahle got hurt in late April and hasn’t pitched since for the Twins. Steer may have been “the other guy” when this trade was made, but without Steer, Cincinnati may still be in a rebuilding mode instead of playing for a post-season spot for the first time since 2020.

Oregon baseball finds itself ranked prominently in all season-ending polls

Oregon baseball finished the season as high as No. 12 and as low as No. 19 in all of the college baseball polls.

With the College World Series ending with an LSU dogpile on the mound, all six college baseball polls have been released one final time and the Ducks are squarely in the middle of all of them.

According to these polls, Oregon baseball finds itself ranked as high as No. 12 and as low as No. 19.

D1Baseball.com was the poll that gave the Ducks their highest ranking and well … USA TODAY Sports gave the lowest.

Baseball America ranked Oregon 13th and the National College Baseball Writers of America said the Ducks were No. 14 in the country.

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper also gave Oregon a No. 13 ranking as did Perfect Game.

All in all, it’s a solid ending for the Ducks, but obviously it’s not where Oregon or its head coach Mark Wasikowski envisioned at the start of the season. The goal is and always has been to reach Omaha and the CWS, a goal that’s still elusive for the Ducks.

For the 2024 season, Oregon is expected to field another strong team that will contend for its first Pac-12 regular season title and hopefully its first trip to Omaha since 1954.

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Oral Roberts denies Oregon its trip to Omaha with Game 3 victory

Oral Roberts took full advantage of Oregon miscues, both forced and unforced, to win 11-6 and punch its ticket to Omaha and the CWS.

Oregon can’t say it didn’t have its chances.

Unfortunately, the Ducks had too many unforced mistakes and Oral Roberts didn’t make hardly any and it’s the Golden Eagles who will be going to Omaha for the College World Series with an 11-6 win in Game 3 of the Eugene Super Regional.

At the end of the day, the Ducks will look at the 11 walks, an error, and baserunning blunders and see those are what cost them a ticket to the CWS. The Ducks used a grand total of nine pitchers, four in the ninth inning alone, trying to piecemeal the entire game and it didn’t work.

They can even go back to the night before when a potential double-play grounder to win the game that wasn’t made. At this level and at this point in the NCAA tournament, teams will take advantage and Oral Roberts took full advantage.

Everything looked to be going Oregon’s way in the first inning with Tanner Smith’s three-run homer to put the Ducks up 3-1 early. But Oral Roberts cut into that lead with one in the third and three more in the fourth, chasing Oregon starter Jackson Pace from the ballgame

Logan Mercado, pitching on one day’s rest, held down the fort as best he could. He went three innings and gave up just one run.

Sabin Ceballos made it a one-run game in the sixth with a homer to center to make it 5-4. But that was when the wheels started to come off.

Oregon went to the bullpen and brought in Grayson Grinsell and after just two batters, he went down with what looked like a serious arm injury and couldn’t continue. Matt Dallas came in and thanks to a walk, a wild pitch, a hit and an error, Oral Roberts extended its lead to 8-5.

Heading into the ninth, with their offense, the Ducks still had a reasonable belief that they could still pull this one out. But the top of the frame turned into a complete disaster. Ian Umlandt began the inning harmlessly enough and he got two outs and there was a runner on second. Just one more out to let the bats get to work.

The decision was made to bring in Dylan McShane, a freshman that struggled mightily on Friday and it was the same story here. With his first pitch, he plunked a batter and proceeded to walk the next hitter. The Baes were loaded and Oregon had to go to two more freshmen who hadn’t pitched in more than a month. By the time Jacob Hughes restored order, it was 11-5 Eagles and those rally hopes were dashed.

So were the hopes of going to Omaha for the first time since 1954. The Ducks will have to wait for another season to make that happen.

Oral Roberts forces a Game 3 with ninth inning rally to beat Ducks

With the game on the line, Oral Roberts scores two in the bottom of the ninth to beat Oregon 8-7 and extend the Eugene Super Regional.

Oregon was three outs away from having its ticket punched for Omaha, but Oral Roberts had other plans.

The Golden Eagles scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth off of closer Josh Mollerus to shock the Ducks 8-7 and extend the Eugene Super Regional to a deciding Game 3 Sunday afternoon at 3 pm.

The usually reliable Mollerus was quite as sharp as he was in Game 1 and ORU’s Justin Quinn lined a ball down the left field line that landed on said line to score two and win the game.

It was eerily similar to how Oregon lost the last time they hosted a Super Regional against Kent State. The Ducks also lost on a ball that landed on that very same line and it happened again.

Unlike in Game 1, this contest went back and forth. Oral Roberts led 3-1 after two innings of play, but in the fourth, Sabin Ceballos broke out of his slump with a two-run home run to left-center field to tie the game.

The Golden Eagles grabbed the lead right back in the bottom of the inning, but it could have been a lot more. They had the bases loaded and no out. but Oregon pitcher Ian Umlandt coaxed a double play to end the threat.

Oregon was the “visiting” team due to NCAA Super Regional rules and grabbed the lead for good in the top of the fifth on Drew Cowley’s run-scoring single and Ceballos’ double to left-center for the 5-4 lead.

Reliever Austin Anderson came in and held the powerful ORU offense off the board for two straight innings, allowing the Ducks time to socre some insurance runs.

Those came in the seventh off of All-American closer when Drew Smith crushed one to the wall that found its way into the glove of Jonah Cox and then out of the glove of Jonah Cox for a triple.

Up 7-4 and nine outs to go, Oral Roberts didn’t make it easy.

Single runs in the seventh and eighth made it 7-6, including a homer run from Cox that extended his 46-game hitting streak.

Now the Ducks have to somehow forget this game, move on, and win Sunday afternoon. The Golden Eagles managed to move on from blowing an 8-0 lead and now it’s the Ducks’ turn to put a major disappointment behind them.

Photo Gallery: A wild night at PK Park ends with a Duck walk-off win

Photo Gallery: Oregon rallies from an 8-0 deficit and wins the game 9-8 on Drew Cowley’s single off of All-American closer Cade Denton.

It’s a night anyone associated with the Oregon Ducks baseball team, players, coaches, fans, and even administrators, won’t soon forget.

The Ducks pulled off an epic comeback where they were once down 8-0 in the third only to claw and scratch their way back and eventually win the game in the ninth inning off of All-American closer Cade Denton.

A crowd of 4,476 fans, the second-largest crowd in PK Park history, was sent into a frenzy where shirts were being taken off and flung around and drinks flying up in the air.

And this was just Game 1.

What do the Ducks have in store for Game 2? It’s hard to believe it could top the dramatics of this win. But a win tonight would send Oregon to Omaha and the College World Series for the first time since 1954. That’s been the goal since the very first day the program was brought back in 2009.

That alone could top what happened Friday night. Here are the pictures that illustrate the craziness on and off the field.

Oregon rallies from eight-run deficit to stun Oral Roberts

Down 8-0 in the third, Oregon manages a comeback for the ages to stun Oral Roberts 9-8 in Game 1 of the Eugene Super Regional.

The Oregon Ducks baseball team knows how to keep things exciting.

They spotted Oral Roberts an 8-spot in a top of the third inning that took 36 minutes. Teams that have fallen behind by eight runs in the Super Regional round of the NCAA baseball tournament were 0-96.

Now they’re 1-96.

Although there was a snowman on the scoreboard, Oregon didn’t throw in the towel. The Ducks chipped away and were propelled by two Bennett Thompson homers and stunned the Golden Eagles 9-8 to take Game 1 of the Eugene Super Regional Friday night in front of a packed PK Park of 4,476.

With the win, the Ducks are just one win away from Omaha. It’s a position they haven’t been in since 2012. The victory also happened to be Oregon’s 10th straight and broke Oral Roberts’ 21-game winning streak. Before tonight, the Golden Eagles hadn’t lost since April 22.

After Oral Roberts’ big inning, Oregon was able to respond right away thanks to back-to-back homers from Jacob Walsh and Bennett Thompson.

But the Ducks’ sophomore catcher from Medford was far from finished. Thompson then made it 8-5 in the fifth with a three-run homer that landed in the Golden Eagles bullpen. Before this game, Thompson had two homers the entire season. He doubled that total.

Oregon’s power was on display again in the sixth with Drew Smith’s solo homer to make it 8-6. Then in the seventh, the Ducks scored two more runs to tie it 8-8 on run singles from Drew Cowley and Tanner Smith.

The rally couldn’t have happened if the Duck bullpen didn’t step up in a big way. Pitchers Ian Umlandt and Logan Mercado held the Golden Eagles off the scoreboard for 4 1/3 innings before Matt Dallas and Josh Mollerus closed things out.

Tied at 8-8 and heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Golden Eagles decided to leave reliever Dalton Patten in the game instead of bringing in All-American closer Cade Denton to start the inning.

Patten proceeded to walk both Gavin Grant and Rikuu Nishida to runners on first and second and no one out. This was when Denton came in, but for Oral Roberts, it was too late.

Denton did retire Bryce Boettcher, but Drew Cowley hit a 2-2 pitch into right field to score Nishida and send PK Park into a frenzy.

Now Oregon will look to punch its ticket to Omaha for the first time since 1954 Saturday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6 pm PST and will be televised by either ESPN or ESPNU.