Three solo homers and 3-hitter by pitching staff wraps up sweep

Sunday, March 5

Eugene, Ore.

2:05 PM

University of Oregon

8-3

San Diego

5-5-1

San Diego

Oregon

Photo by: Deborah Mundorff

Three solo homers and 3-hitter by pitching staff wraps up sweep

03/05/23 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score: Oregon 5, San Diego 1 Photo Gallery

EUGENE – Oregon hit solo home runs in each of the first three innings while six Oregon pitchers combined on a three-hitter in a 5-1 win over San Diego on Sunday at PK Park.

The win clinched a series sweep for the Ducks (8-3), who outscored the Toreros (5-5-1) 25-6 in the four-game series.

How It Happened: For just the third time this season, Oregon put a run on the board in the first inning. Rikuu Nishida hit his first career homer to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead.

San Diego tied it in the second on a sacrifice fly, but the Ducks answered right back when Colby Shade hit Oregon's second one-out solo homer in as many innings.

In the third, Oregon did not wait for an out to add its third homer. Gavin Grant led off the inning with his second of the season, a towering shot that stayed just fair down the left-field line for a 3-1 lead.

USD threatened in the sixth and seventh innings but Oregon's pitching staff kept the Toreros off the board. San Diego loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth, but Matt Dallas got out of the jam with a ground out to second base. In the seventh, USD had runners at first and second but Dallas got a strike out to end the innings.

The Ducks added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh. Grant reached on a hit-by-pitch and moved to second on a Tanner Smith bunt single. After a line out and strike out, Drew Cowley delivered a clutch two-out, two-RBI single to give Oregon a four-run lead.

Oregon closer Josh Mollerus came in and got the last six outs, four on strikeouts to end the game. Austin Anderson, who pitched two scoreless innings before being removed after the fifth-inning delay, picked up his first career win after not allowing a hit and striking out two.

Box Score Notes: After moving first pitch back two hours because of an overnight snow storm, the game was stopped for 36 minutes with a rain/snow delay in the bottom of the fifth … Shade's home run was his second in as many at-bats dating back to his sixth-inning home run on Saturday … The homer was also his fourth consecutive extra-base hit with a pair of doubles coming in the two at-bats before yesterday's home run … Carter Garate got his first career base hit in the bottom of the eighth.

Series Notes: Oregon's four starting pitchers in the series combined to give up four runs (3 earned) in 18.1 innings (1.47 ERA) … The Ducks pitching staff combined for a 1.25 ERA allowing just five earned runs in 36.0 innings … Cowley had an RBI in all four games of the series, including a pair of RBI in games one, two and four … After hitting no home runs in the UC Santa Barbara series, Oregon hit seven against the Toreros … Jacob Walsh led Oregon batting .500 (6-for-12) in the series with a home run and three RBI … Shade batted .385 (5-for-13) with two homers, two doubles and a team-high seven RBI (tied with Cowley) … Shade slugged 1.000 while reaching base at a .385 clip …

On Deck: Oregon opens Pac-12 Conference next weekend against No. 14 UCLA at PK Park. Games are schedule for 4 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 12 p.m. on Sunday.

Quotes:

Head Coach Mark Wasikowski:

Overall feeling about the San Diego sweep:
"It was good. You know, I thought we played well again and we're continuing to grow as a team and it was a really good weekend."

Austin Anderson pitching two scoreless innings:
"Well, he did really well and then he got caught in the rain delay. And you know, instead of running back out there after an extended length, coach (Jake Angier) decided to go to the bullpen."

8th inning substitutions:
"Trying to find the right mix. Trying to see I mean, you know, do we leave Rikuu (Nishida) and take (Gavin) Grant out? There's plenty of options. There's a lot of different pieces that are really good here. So our job as coaches is to try to figure out what's the right thing to do at different times of the game. I don't think it's a slap in anybody's face. You know Bryce Boettcher, he's good. He flies. He's an athlete. He's out there on the football field running down guys that are, you know, world class speed guys and plays with the right mentality and will crash into the wall. I mean, the guy's a fierce competitor. I want him in the game every single time. I wish we can play 15 guys and start 15 players because we've got at least 15 guys that can go out there and start for any team in the country. I wish we had a game where we could start 15 to 18 guys, that'd be a lot of fun for me and take a lot of stress away."

Rikuu Nishida:

How hitting a home run felt:
"So good, so good. Yes, it was my first time hitting a home run since I came here. It was fun."

Home runs in Japan:
"When I was in high school, I hit seven."

Josh Mollerus:

On what was working best today:
"I thought you know, both my fastball and slider worked really well today. Changeup felt good, just didn't use it today. You know, it's the work in progress pitch obviously, but I mean I located the fastball overall and got the slider down and away from barrels when I needed to. So overall, just keep sharpening those."

Thoughts on performance today:
"Felt pretty good, I mean few misses that I know I can clean up. Overall, definitely better improvement over Thursday and then this past weekend so on. I'm happy with what happened out there."

Austin Anderson:

Thoughts on today's pitching:
"Just throwing strikes, I mean executing with my slider that's my best pitch and then I throw so many sliders I can just kind of throw my fastball in there and they're sometimes late on it."

Relationship between Anderson and (pitching coach Jake) Angier:
"Awesome. Yeah, anytime I have any questions I never feel scared to go talk to him about anything."