University of Oregon
27-23, 10-16
USC
20-30, 7-19
Kasser's five hits not enough for Ducks
05/20/17 | Baseball
How it happened: Oregon (27-23, 10-16 Pac-12) batted around and scored four runs in the second to take the early lead. Tim Susnara hit a two-run home run to start the rally. He drove in Matthew Dyer, who started the inning with a single, with his team-best fifth home run. After a walk and hit by pitch, Kasser made it 3- with an RBI single. Morgan McCullough drove in the fourth run on a hard hit ball that shortstop Frankie Rios couldn't handle.
USC (20-30, 7-19 Pac-12) climbed right back into the game scoring five runs in the bottom of the second to take a 5-4 lead. The Ducks answered with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth to retake the lead. Kasser singled home A.J. Balta who led off the inning with a base hit to tie it, before Jake Bennett scored on a Spencer Steer sacrifice fly.
USC regained the lead with a four runs in the fifth, before Oregon got within one with a pair of runs in the sixth. Bennett and Kasser had back-to-back hits before McCullough walked to load the bases. Steer got an RBI when he was hit by a pitch, before Gabe Matthews hit into a run-scoring double play to make it 9-8 USC.
The Trojans responded with two unearned runs in the sixth and three in the seventh. Oregon cut the lead to five in the eighth with a Matthews sacrifice fly scoring Kasser.
Box score notes: Kasser singled five times for his first career five-hit game … His career high before Saturday was three hits in a game … Kasser became the first Duck with five hits in a game since Feb. 20, 2012 when J.J. Altobelli had five hits at Hawaii … Kasser, who is 7-for-10 in the series' first two games, has upped his batting average from .330 to .349 … His 22 multi-hit games this year is tied for fourth all-time with Mitchell Tolman (2015) … He also picked up his 33rd career multi-hit game, tying Scott Heineman (2012-15) for the 10th most in Oregon history … Kasser tallied his 14th multi-RBI game … Kasser ran his hitting streak to 10 games, tied for ninth longest since baseball returned in 2009 … Bennett had his 12th multi-hit game tying Steer for second on the team … Steer was hit by his 13th pitch tying Tolman (2015) and Mark Karaviotis (2015) for seventh most in a season … Steer also had his ninth multi-RBI game.
On Deck: The Ducks and Trojans play game three of the series on Sunday at 2 p.m. on the Pac-12 Network.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Stubbs, CJ (1-5)
L: Mercer, Matt (5-7)
S: Wegman, Brad (1)
Batting:
2B: Steer, Spencer 1
HR: Susnara, Tim 1
RBI: Kasser, Kyle 2 ; McCullough, Morgan 1 ; Steer, Spencer 2 ; Matthews, Gabe 1 ; Susnara, Tim 2
SH: Balta, A.J. 1
SF: Steer, Spencer 1 ; Matthews, Gabe 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kasser, Kyle 2 ; Dyer, Matthew 1 ; Susnara, Tim 1 ; Yovan, Kenyon 1 ; Balta, A.J. 1 ; Bennett, Jake 3
SB: McCullough, Morgan 1
HBP: Steer, Spencer 1 ; Bennett, Jake 1
Batting:
2B: Nootbaar, Lars 1 ; Dempster, Corey 1
3B: Rios, Frankie 1
HR: Dempster, Corey 1
RBI: Perez, Brandon 2 ; Carrillo, Adalberto 3 ; Sabol, Blake 3 ; Dempster, Corey 3 ; Paulson, Dillon 1 ; Shockey, Brady 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nootbaar, Lars 2 ; Perez, Brandon 1 ; Carrillo, Adalberto 1 ; Rios, Frankie 2 ; Sabol, Blake 2 ; Dempster, Corey 2 ; Paulson, Dillon 2 ; Acosta, Matthew 1 ; Shockey, Brady 1
SB: Carrillo, Adalberto 1
CS: Nootbaar, Lars 1
HBP: Paulson, Dillon 1
