Ducks return to winning ways

Tuesday, April 11

Eugene, Ore.

5:05 PM

University of Oregon

21-9

San Francisco

13-14

San Francisco

Oregon

04/11/23 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score: Oregon 5, San Francisco 3

EUGENE – Drew Cowley and Sabin Ceballos combined to drive in four runs and Jackson Pace gave Oregon a solid start on the mound to lead the Ducks to a 5-3 nonconference win over San Francisco on Tuesday night at PK Park.

The Ducks (21-9) scored three runs in the third and two more in the fourth and then held off the Dons (13-14) late to pick up their 12th win in the last 14 games.

How It Happened: After Rikuu Nishida reached on a hit-by-pitch and Colby Shade followed with a perfect bunt down the third base line to put two runners on, Cowley singled into right field to score both runners and give the Ducks a 2-0 lead. Cowley moved to second on a Ceballos walk and to third on a Tanner Smith sacrifice bunt before scoring on a Jacob Walsh RBI ground ball that the second baseman through away.

Oregon pushed the lead to five in the fourth inning. Grant led off the inning with a single before moving to second on Shade's second hit of the game. Both runners advanced on a Cowley ground out to put runners on second and third. Ceballos delivered a clutch two-out single to plate both runners.

While Oregon was building the 5-0 lead, Jackson Pace returned to his early season form holding the Dons scoreless through five innings. Pace got 1-2-3 innings in the first and the third, while not allowing a runner past second base in his other three innings pitched.

San Francisco scored three runs in the top of the seventh while leaving two runners in scoring position.

Oregon closer Josh Mollerus wouldn't let the Dons finish the comeback. The senior pitched two scoreless innings to pick up his sixth save.

Box Score Notes: Mollerus' outing, which came against his former team, matched his longest of the season … Pace hasn't allowed a run in his last six innings … It was his longest outing since he tossed 6.0 scoreless innings vs. San Diego (March 4) … Cowley (2-for-4, 2 RBI, R) had his 11th multi-hit game of the season tying Smith for the team high … It was the 31st of his career … His two RBI gave him a team-high eight multi-RBI game the season ... Ceballos (1-for-3, 2 RBI, BB) had his seventh multi-RBI game … Shade (2-for-3, 2 R, HBP) recorded his eighth multi-hit game of the season and the 29th of his career … Grant (2-for-3, R) registered his seventh multi-hit game of the season and the 33rd of his career.

On Deck: The Ducks and Dons wrap up their two-game series on Wednesday at PK Park. First pitch is scheduled for 12:05 p.m.

Quotes:

Head Coach Mark Wasikowski
On what you need to do to get back to how you were hitting during the winning streak
"Yeah, it would be nice but that's just not hitting. Hitting doesn't happen where you hit .600 every weekend or .500 every week, it usually comes and goes. We're really trying to get the pitching consistent to where your offense isn't going full tilt."

Jackson Pace
On today's start
"I felt like I was mentally a lot better today than I have been in the past. I thought I was more aggressive and I think that led to a better outcome."

On mental performance
"Mentally finding the spot I needed to perform was my overall focus. It's trial and error to find that and you look at your old outings and what was good about them and see what was good about where you were then and try to repeat that and most of the time you get a better result."

Josh Mollerus
On today's outing
"I was not very happy with how I was out there. We did get the outs and the win, so in the end that is what matters but I have to get way better than what I put out on the field today."

On changes from last season
"This year I haven't focused on my numbers as much. I'm just trying to get better every day between outings and removing distractions that I might have had previously to focus more on getting better at practice as well as off the field."

Drew Cowley
On overcoming a slow start to the season
"We try to stay confident and have confidence. We talked about that with everybody on the team and in baseball you need to ride the rollercoaster. You can play free and have fun and it just goes back to our work and if you put in the work, the game will reward you."