Spoljaric steps up, Ducks even series

Friday, May 19

Salt Lake City, Utah

10:00 AM

University of Oregon

32-20, 15-14

Utah

22-31-1, 9-19-1

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Oregon	2	0	2	0	1	0	2	1	1	9	15	1
Utah	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	8	1

Photo by: Hudson Downard

05/19/23 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score: Oregon 9, Utah 1

SALT LAKE CITY – Oregon needed a good start on the mound and Turner Spoljaric gave it to the Ducks.

The Ducks' freshman allowed just one run on five hits through seven innings to lead Oregon to a 9-1 Pac-12 Conference win at Smith's Field on Friday.

Spoljaric (5-0) held Utah without a run through the first six inning before finally surrendering one in the bottom of the seventh with Oregon (32-20, 15-14 Pac-12) already leading 7-0.

Making just his fourth career start and first in a weekend series, Spoljaric excelled with runners on base stranding 10 including seven in scoring position.

How It Happened: Oregon jumped out early with a pair of first inning runs. After a Colby Shade one-out single, Drew Cowley lined an RBI double into the left-center field gap scoring Shade. After another out, Tanner Smith delivered an RBI double of his own scoring Cowley.

Oregon tacked on a pair of runs in the third to make it 4-0. Shade once again started the rally reaching on a hit-by-pitch before moving to second on a Cowley walk. Sabin Ceballos drove in Shade with a hot shot past the third baseman that moved Cowley to third. The Ducks' shortstop then scored on a wild throw on a failed pickoff attempt.

Cowley continued to torment Utah starter Merit Jones (2-4) in the fifth with a one-out double. Ceballos added his second RBI of the game driving in Cowley with a single to center.

Oregon added a pair of runs in the seventh with both scoring on wild pitches before Utah finally got on the board with a run in the bottom of the seventh.

The Ducks tacked on insurance runs in both the eighth and ninth with Bennett Thompson contributing to both runs. The Ducks' catcher led off the eighth with a walk and scored on a Shade fielder's choice, before ripping a double off the top of the left-center field wall in the ninth scoring Jacob Walsh from first.

Box Score Notes: Oregon's consecutive games streak with a home run ended at a school-record 21 games … Drew Smith's seventh-inning single extended his hitting streak to an Oregon season-high 14 games, which moved him into a tie with Brennan Milone (2022), Colby Shade (2022) and Tyler Baumgartner (2013) for the sixth longest hitting streak in Oregon modern era history … Cowley tied Kenyon Yovan (2021) and Spencer Steer (2019) for the Oregon single-season RBI record (57) with his first inning run-scoring double … Cowley and Smith's first-inning doubles gave both 17 for the season, tying them for seventh on the single-season doubles list with Anthony Hall (2022) … Cowley added his 18th two-bagger in the fifth to move into a tie for fifth with Jacob Walsh (2022) and Mitchell Tolman (2014) … Cowley scored a career-high three runs to move his season total to 51, tying him with Rikuu Nishida (2023) for seventh on the single-season list … Ceballos' third-inning RBI moved him into sole possession of seventh on the single-season RBI list, while his fifth-inning RBI moved him within three of sixth … Spoljaric set career highs for innings pitched (7.0) and pitches (90) … His former highs were 5.1 innings and 79 pitches against Washington last Saturday.

On Deck: The Ducks and Utes wrap up their three-game series on Saturday with a 10:05 a.m. (PT) first pitch.