Matthews Lifts Ducks to Series-Opening Win

Friday, March 24

Eugene, Ore.

7:00 PM

University of Oregon

14-5, 3-1

Washington

13-8, 3-1

Washington

Oregon

03/24/17 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Derren Iha

EUGENE, Ore. – Gabe Matthews doubled twice and drove in three runs, including the go-ahead runs in the fifth inning, in a 4-3 conference win over No. 22 Washington on Friday night at PK Park.

How it Happened: Matthews laced the second of his two doubles into the right field corner to drive in Morgan McCullough and Jake Bennett to put the Ducks in front for good.

Jack Meggs gave Washington (13-8, 3-1) a 1-0 lead in the first inning scoring on a sacrifice fly after singling and advancing to third on an error by Oregon starter David Peterson.

McCullough answered for the Ducks in the bottom of the inning with a run-scoring triple to tie the game. Matthews followed two batters later with an RBI double to drive in McCullough and put Oregon in front 2-1.

Willie MacIver helped the Huskies reclaim the lead in the fourth inning with an RBI triple before scoring on a sacrifice fly.

Peterson (5-1) battled through seven innings with seven strikeouts and no walks while allowing three runs, one earned, on six hits to pick up his fifth win of the season. Kenyon Yovan earned his seventh save, pitching two shutout innings with one strikeout.

Box Score Notes: Matthews finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and two doubles, recording his fifth multi-hit game … McCullough went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, a triple and an RBI, extending his reached base streak to 10 games … Bennett turned in a 1-for-3 night at the plate, scoring one run while walking once.

Notable: Peterson has struck out 46 batters while walking just two over the last four games … His 46 strikeouts are the second most over a four-game span in school history, trailing only Tyler Anderson who had 49 strikeouts in a four-game stretch in 2011 … Peterson had his streak of 22.1 straight scoreless innings snapped after allowing an unearned run in the first inning … He extended his streak to 29.1 consecutive innings without giving up an earned run … Peterson moved into a tie for fifth with Cole Irvin on the all-time strikeouts list with 197 … He also tied Tommy Thorpe for sixth in Oregon history in career starts with 33 … The Ducks won a game in which they committed four or more errors for the first time since a 10-5 win at Hawaii on February 15, 2014.

On Deck: Oregon (14-5, 3-1) and Washington will play game two of the weekend series tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Matt Mercer is scheduled to pitch for the Ducks while the Huskies will counter with Chris Micheles. The game will be televised live on Pac-12 Network.