Another postseason game, another tight contest for the Oregon Ducks.
Fresh off winning the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, No. 2-seeded Oregon began the Nashville Regional against the No. 3 seed, Xavier, at Hawkins Field on Friday. The game had the makings of a slugfest in the early going, with Oregon nabbing the early lead. But the Ducks’ offense fell silent in the middle innings, and the bullpen — which was a major factor in their tournament championship — settled in to keep them in the game.
Oregon wound up finding the offense it needed in the seventh inning, scratching out a rally to regain the lead and never look back, beating the Musketeers 5-4. The Ducks’ top three hitters combined to record six of the team’s nine hits. The victory kept them in the winners’ bracket, where they’ll play the winner of Vanderbilt vs. Eastern Illinois on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Starter Logan Mercado came out nibbling at the strike zone, and he got a little too fine as he walked two of the first three hitters. He got a soft popout on a 3-2 count, with the Musketeers struggling to square up his pitches that actually stayed in the zone.
But with two outs, Matt McCormick poked an RBI single to give Xavier the early lead. Garrett Schultz added an RBI double on a slider that didn’t slide, pushing Oregon’s deficit to 2-0.
The Ducks’ offense wasted absolutely no time with a response. Three straight singles from Rikuu Nishida, Colby Shade and Drew Cowley got them on the board, and a Tanner Smith sacrifice fly tied it up. It was a two-spot against Brant Alazaus, who Oregon roughed up for nine runs in 3 1/3 innings back in February.
The Ducks went on to take lead in the second inning thanks to some Xavier ugliness. Jacob Walsh doubled, then advanced to third on a passed ball. Bennett Thompson reached on a fielding error by third baseman Grant Stephenson, and mere seconds later, Stephenson committed another error by mishandling a throw from the catcher. Walsh scored, and Oregon led 3-2.
But that lead didn’t last long. Left-hander Grayson Grinsell replaced Mercado after two innings of work. He struck out the first batter, but then threw eight straight balls. Both walks came around to score on a single, putting Xavier up 4-3. All four of the Musketeers’ runs were generated by walks that came around to score.
Grinsell settled down, striking out three in the inning. He walked another in the fourth, but for the first time, it never crossed home plate.
Also settling in was Alazaus, who didn’t let his disastrous February performance and early-game struggles phase him. T. Smith and Drew Smith hit two-out singles in the third — with D. Smith extending his school-record hitting streak to 20 — but the only Duck to reach in the next 12 batters was Thompson on yet another error by Stephenson.
Oregon right-hander Dylan McShane threw the first 1-2-3 inning of the day in the fifth. But he joined the free pass party in the sixth, hitting a batter and issuing a walk. That brought the Ducks’ total to seven free passes on the day.
Austin Anderson entered with two outs and took just one pitch to end the inning. He went on to retire all four batters he faced, lowering his season ERA to 0.36 and giving Oregon a chance to come back.
On Alazaus’s 110th and final pitch, Nishida sent one over left fielder Andrew Walker’s head for a double. That broke Oregon’s 0-for-12 stretch, and knocked Alazaus out of the game after 6 1/3 solid innings.
Facing reliever Jonathan Kelly, Shade got tied up on a 1-2 pitch that ran inside. But he somehow muscled it all the way to the left field wall, getting Walker off balance for the second straight batter and tying it up with an RBI double. Cowley, fresh off his All-American honors, smacked Oregon’s third consecutive double to give the Ducks a 5-4 lead.
Matt Dallas pitched a perfect eighth, which extended the team’s streak to seven straight retired. Closer Josh Mollerus allowed a leadoff single in the ninth, but ended the game with a strikeout and a double play.
Oregon, now the winner of seven consecutive games, will look to keep this hot streak alive Saturday at 6 p.m. It’ll likely be against Vanderbilt, barring an upset from the No. 4-seeded Eastern Illinois Friday night.