Deja Vu, Diodati walks off Xavier

Friday, February 17

Eugene, Ore.

3:05 PM

University of Oregon

1-0

Xavier

0-1

Xavier

Oregon

Photo by: @EricEvansPhoto

02/17/23 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score: #20 Oregon 3, Xavier 2

EUGENE – For the second straight season, Owen Diodati sent the Xavier Musketeers home heartbroken on opening day.

A year after hitting a walk-off home run for Alabama to beat Xavier, the Ducks' right fielder delivered a no-out, walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth to give Oregon a 3-2 win over the Musketeers on opening day at PK Park in front of 1,488 raucous fans.

How It Happened: Heading into the bottom of the ninth tied at two, Oregon leadoff hitter Rikuu Nishida sparked Oregon's game-winning rally with a leadoff single before moving to third on back-to-back walks to Drew Cowley and Tanner Smith.

With Xavier playing with five infielders and two outfielders with the bases loaded and Diodati at the plate, Nishida sprinted home on a fly ball and beat the throw to score the winning run after center fielder Garrett Schultz caught the ball in shallow left-center field.

Diodati's offensive heroics were set up by a spectacular play that he made in right field to end the top of the eighth inning. With a runner on first and two outs, Matthew Deprey lifted a ball down the right-field line that Diodati made a diving catch on to keep the Ducks within a run at 2-1

The Diodati catch sparked Oregon's offense with Josiah Cromwick lacing a double into the left-field corner to lead off the bottom half of the inning and put the tying run at second. After an out, designated hitter Towns King crushed a ball that second baseman Jared Cushing could not handle allowing Cromwick to score from second and tie the game.

Oregon jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first. After a Smith walk, Diodati doubled into the left-field corner driving in Smith from first.

Logan Mercado was dominant in the early innings striking out seven over the first three innings, besting his old career high for Ks of five. The only hiccup for Mercado was a solo home run by Carter Hendrickson. He tied a career high tossing 4.0 innings while allowing just one run on two hits with the seven strikeouts.

Xavier (0-1) took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth. Jacob Hughes struggled with his control after coming out of the bullpen walking the bases loaded with no outs, but he battled his way out of trouble allowing just one run on a ground-ball double play.

Box Score Notes: Josh Mollerus, a transfer from San Francisco, picked up a win in his Ducks' debut pitching a scoreless ninth … Oregon's pitching staff combined for 11 strikeouts while allowing just three hits … Diodati had his team-best 26th multiple-RBI game … Six players made their Ducks' debut with three – Diodati, King, Nishida – starting … Mollerus was joined by fellow bullpen arms Austin Anderson and Ian Umlandt making their first appearances on the mound for the Ducks.

On Deck: Oregon and Xavier play a doubleheader on Saturday with a 12:05 p.m. first pitch for game one. The Ducks will send true freshmen Leo Uelmen and Matthew Grabmann to the hill as starters in the twin bill.

Quotes:

Logan Mercado:

Q: What did you have working today?
A: "Fastball, the report on their hitters was very aggressive, free swingers, so fastball was playing today. Changeup was working well too, so I kind of had those in the bag and they kind of did the work for me in terms of how many I struck out."

Q: What was your pitch count? Did you have a set one?
A: "Yeah I had a set one. 50-70, I hit 69. I wanted to go back out there, I was begging him for 10 more pitches, you know just to give me one more inning. We hit it today and we showed a lot of what the staff is capable of today, which was awesome. Ian Umlandt coming in in that situation was huge. I think (Jacob) Hughes definitely struggled in the beginning, but it was a huge one run inning that he got out of. Mollerus closing the door, big time for us, that was awesome.

Owen Diodati

Q:This is two straight years with walk offs against Xavier, how much do you think the city of Cincinnati hates you?
A: "I guess it's kind of fate that I have been put in that situation twice. Kind of stressed the same thing in both situations, just to try not to do too much, know the situation. A little bit different there, obviously today bases loaded with no outs, a bit of a different situation last year. Here you know two strikes, they had been slider heavy on me in the last couple of at bats and in that situation it was like get the ball in the air. They had five infielders going, just don't try to do too much. I didn't need to hit a home run to win the game. A sac fly with Rikuu (Nishida) on third base, if I put it out there anywhere he's probably scoring."

Q: You had the walk off, but also the maybe more important diving catch in right, which one means more to you?
A: "I think the diving catch was big because maybe it gave our offense a spark. We scored in the next inning and then in the ninth as well. It's something I worked really hard on, to kind of try and improve my defense and I know any of our outfielders would have made that catch right there. It feels good to make a play for your team and maybe spark us a little bit and we were fortunate enough to get the win."

Head Coach Mark Wasikowski:

On Owen Diodati's impact against Xavier

"That's two years in a row that he's gotten these guys. Last year, when he was at Alabama, he hit a home run to beat these guys, I think on opening day. What about the catch in the outfield? You know that saved a run right there when he makes that type of catch. Originally a lot of the scouts talked about, 'Well he's just an average defender' and he's really worked hard to get his defensive game up. Excited about the game winning sacrifice fly and equally if not more excited for the kid when he goes ahead and improves his defense the way he did to make that game saving play."

On Towns King getting the start at DH
"That was the toughest decision we had to be honest with you. Towns, (Sabin) Ceballos and the freshman, (Dominic) Hellman, depending on the week of intersquads those guys were just smashing baseballs. And last week, King was just the guy that was on fire and so it was just probably because he was on fire the most recent, he got to start and that we wanted another left-handed batter in the lineup today and an older guy, whatever he is, 23 years old, so we figured on opening day be able to help you a little bit more, that turned out to not be the answer in terms of older guys being able to get a million hits. But, nevertheless, he came up at the end of the game and hit a ball 100 something miles off the bat, whether it was a hit or an error, he absolutely just murdered the ball and he gave us a great at-bat when he needed it."