Oregon finally ran into a bullpen that might be just a little better than its own.
The USC relievers threw four scoreless innings against the best offense of the Pac-12 in the Ducks, which allowed the Trojans to scratch an eighth-inning run to win the game 6-5 Saturday afternoon at PK Park.
With the loss, Oregon falls to 15-7 overall and 6-2 in conference action. It also ended the Ducks’ winning streak at five. USC managed to improve its record to 14-7 overall and 4-4 in league play.
Although the Trojans lost the series opener, their relievers threw five scoreless and were able to back that performance up today with the combination of Carson Lambert and Matt Keating.
Lambert threw three innings and got the win and Keating earned his third save of the season by getting the final five outs of the game.
It was 5-5 in the eighth when the Trojans used two walks and a single off of Oregon reliever Matt Dallas to load the bases with just one out. The Ducks almost squirmed out of the jam after a failed safety squeeze. But Dallas plunked D’Andre Smith to force home Nick Lopez.
USC was up 3-1 in the fourth inning thanks to a home run from designated hitter Tyler Lozano. Ironically, however, the fireworks occurred after the homer. Lozano stomped on home plate, said something to the Oregon dugout and that prompted umpire Mark Buchanan to throw out the Trojan DH.
Obviously fired up, the Ducks didn’t wait long to answer.
In the very next half-inning, catcher Jack Scanlon belted a three-run homer to right field to give the Ducks the 4-3 lead. USC tied the game up on Adrian Colon-Rosado’s home run and then managed to take the lead back later in the sixth to go up 5-4.
Colby Shade’s double to left-center scored Sam Novitske to tie the contest up once again 5-5 in the sixth. But Oregon wasn’t able to score after that.
These two teams will go at it one more time on Sunday with the weekend series on the line. Oregon will call upon Caleb Sloan (0-1, 3.48 ERA) to start on the mound and the Trojans will counter with Charlie Hurley (3-1, 2.19 ERA).
First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m. and will be streamed on goducks.com.