Oregon was an out away from being sent back to Eugene with another quick Pac-12 Baseball Tournament exit Thursday night. The Ducks fought so hard, refusing to let a brutal first inning dampen their spirits. But it looked like their efforts were going to come up just short.
Colby Shade would have none of that.
Shade smacked a ball to right field, and immediately got on his horse. He made a gutsy bid for third base, which, with a good throw, might have had him. But second baseman Drew Bowser’s throw was not just bad — it sailed out of play, over the Oregon dugout and against the netting. After a brief moment of confusion, the umpire awarded Shade the extra base.
“I guess I ran through a stop sign,” Shade said. “That’s what everyone was saying. [Coach Marcus Hinkle] was pretty adamant about it. But it worked out. I don’t think he’s gonna be upset in the long run. He was laughing about it.”
Shade went ballistic as he stormed towards home plate. He spun in a circle before flailing his hands around and jumping while motioning to the dugout. It was a moment of pure elation — Shade had just tied the game with two outs in the ninth on a Little League home run. Every kid’s dream.
“That’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had in a baseball game,” Shade said.
From there, the momentum was in Oregon’s favor. Sabin Ceballos completed the dramatics with a towering go-ahead bomb to left-center in the 10th, and Josh Mollerus recorded the final eight outs of a thrilling 8-6 victory over No. 1 seed Stanford on a warm night at Scottsdale Stadium. The win sent Oregon to the semifinals of the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament.
“It was the biggest moment in my baseball career, for sure,” Ceballos said. “I was pumping to my team. As soon as that ball went out, I knew we just won.”
The Ducks overcame a rough Turner Spoljaric start, one that saw him face 10 batters and surrender seven hits. The reigning Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week got hit hard, though catcher Bennett Thompson — who also stayed magma hot at the plate with another four-hit game — thought the Cardinal were just barreling up good pitches.
They are the No. 3 team in the country, after all.
A Carter Graham two-run homer fueled a four-run first inning. The Ducks cut the deficit in half in the second against Ty Uber, who entered with a WHIP over 2.00. Tanner Smith singled, narrowly stole second and scored on a Jacob Walsh bloop single. Thompson smacked a double into the left field corner, making it a 4-2 game.
Spoljaric came back out for the second, but he gave up two hits and didn’t record an out. Logan Mercado replaced him.
The rest of the inning saw an eventful set of incidents. Tommy Troy hit a routine ground ball to shortstop Drew Cowley, but Oregon tried to retire Eddie Park, who was running to third. Third baseman Ceballos missed the tag, and everyone was safe. There was a brief discussion over whether Ceballos made the tag and whether the runner left the baseline, but the call stood.
Mercado got the first out of the inning on a sacrifice fly, making it 6-2. Braden Montgomery followed with a soft nubber that Thompson fielded, then threw to second. Gavin Grant was unable to hold onto the ball, and everybody was safe once again.
With the bases loaded, and Oregon on the brink of disaster, head coach Mark Wasikowski made a rare visit to the mound. Mercado stayed composed, inducing a 4-6-3 double play to keep the game within reach.
“You’ve got a bunch of guys who were really trying hard, and I just felt like they were probably overtrying,” Wasikowski said. “We weren’t playing clean defense, and I felt like emotions could be getting away from some guys.”
Mercado settled in, helping calm the storm of the ugly beginnings to the game. He retired eight in a row, and went on to give up just one hit in 4 1/3 innings.
The Ducks, meanwhile, struggled to get much going against reliever Nick Dugan and his 8.86 ERA. Drew Smith extended his hitting streak to 17 with a single in the fourth, but they came up empty in the third and fourth.
They scratched one out in the fifth on a Rikuu Nishida single, driving in Thompson.
The Ducks couldn’t turn that run into any kind of momentum boost, as they went down meekly against Dugan in the sixth and seventh. They got just one run against him in his first five innings, unable to fully capitalize on the subpar pitching Stanford was trotting out there.
Mercado’s streak of eight in a row ended on an Alberto Rios double in the fifth, but he got through his fourth inning of work unscathed. He finally ran out of gas in the sixth, walking back-to-back hitters with one out.
Austin Anderson entered and got a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. He pumped his fists as he stormed off the mound.
Anderson stayed in for the seventh and displayed much sharper command than he has in the past. Graham hit a leadoff double, but Anderson won tough battles with Malcolm Moore and Drew Bowser to strand a pair.
With Dugan still pitching, Oregon chipped away for one more in the eighth. T. Smith came through with a clutch two-out RBI single, scoring Shade after his leadoff hit. D. Smith reached on an infield chopper, setting up a prime opportunity for Walsh.
With the crowd rocking, Walsh worked a 3-2 count after an extremely close call went his way. Stanford fans groaned in disbelief. Dugan caught Walsh looking on the next pitch, going with the hook to freeze Oregon’s first baseman.
Dylan McShane allowed a leadoff single in the bottom of the eighth, then came out after a sacrifice bunt. Wasikowski had a short leash with McShane and elected to bring in closer Josh Mollerus.
“You’re going to your best guy right there,” Wasikowski said. “Dylan’s pitched really well down the stretch for us, but Josh has been our best guy throughout the year.”
Mollerus walked Eddie Park, but recorded massive strikeouts of Tommy Troy and Montgomery to strand the bases loaded — sandwiched by an intentional walk to Graham. He let out a roar after the last swinging strike.
“They’re a good-hitting team, and they’ll get after it,” Mollerus said. “And so just letting that aggressiveness play a little bit and then making my pitches is what I need to do.”
Dugan finally exited after six innings. During the regular season, he never pitched more than four.
Then Oregon made the magic happen against Brandt Pancer.
Thompson’s fourth hit led off the eighth inning, and he came around to score on a sacrifice fly. Shade walked up in a 6-5 game, looking to avoid making the last out.
“I was trying to tell myself to relax and just get something up and barrel it,” Shade said. “Luckily, baseball happened, basically. And it all worked out.”
Mollerus worked around two baserunners in the ninth to send Oregon to extra innings for the first time this year. Ceballos’s bomb led off the inning, and the Ducks scratched out an insurance run on three consecutive walks and a wild pitch.
With a two-run lead, there was no hesitation to go back to Mollerus once more. Park hit a leadoff single, and on an 0-2 count with two outs, Mollerus hit Montgomery. That brought up Stanford’s best hitter, Rios, who hit one well to center field — but Shade was there to make the catch, capping off the victory of a lifetime.
“The team that wins the most the next month calls themselves champions,” Thompson said. “So that’s our goal is to just win one day at a time. It’s fun when everyone’s all bought in on the same thing.”
Oregon will play in the semifinal round of the tournament against Washington on Friday at 2:30 p.m.