Ducks Take Friday Battle of Ranked Teams

Friday, April 28

Eugene, Ore.

5:05 PM

University of Oregon

29-12, 12-7

Arizona State

28-14, 13-5

Arizona State

Oregon

Photo by: Molly McPherson

04/28/23 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score: No. 20 Oregon 11, No. 12 ASU 5 UO Season Stats (4/28)Photo Gallery

Oregon opened its series against first-place Arizona State with a win Friday at PK Park.

By: Rob Moseley

EUGENE, Ore. — Drew Cowley's two-homer night included a grand slam and Jace Stoffal put together the fifth quality start in his last six outings as the No. 20 Oregon baseball team opened its series against No. 12 Arizona State with an 11-5 win Friday before 2,150 fans at PK Park.

The Sun Devils came into the weekend atop the Pac-12 standings at 13-4, with the Ducks lurking 2.5 games behind. Oregon (29-12, 12-7) moved within 1.5 games of ASU and remained two games behind Stanford, which now leads the conference after beating UCLA to open their series Friday.

"We like our ball club," said UO coach Mark Wasikowski, who won his 200th career game as a head coach. "We've liked our ball club the whole time. Arizona State's played well for the whole season … and they're a good team. We showed up ready to play today, and tomorrow's a new day."

Cowley has nine homers and 43 RBIs this season after driving in a career-high-tying five Friday. Colby Shade and Jacob Walsh also homered for the Ducks in support of Stoffal (6-2), who won despite lacking feel for his breaking pitches Friday.

"I didn't have any curveball or slider; I think I threw like maybe 10 of the two combined total," Stoffal said. "It was just fastball-changeup. As the Friday guy, even if you aren't on, you suck that day or whatever, you got to grind it out for the team."

How It Happened: Cowley gave Oregon an early lead with a two-out solo home run in the first. The Sun Devils tied it with an unearned run in the third, but Shade gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead with his fifth homer of the season in the bottom of the third, also a solo shot.

It was a mammoth blast to left field, but Shade said he didn't see how far it traveled because he was sprinting around the bases, as the Ducks have been wont to do this season.

"That's just something in our culture that we've kind of (embraced)," Shade said. "You get hit by a pitch, you hustle. Everywhere, even practice, we don't really see guys walking around or anything. And then in the game, there's no reason to walk to first; might as well sprint. And home runs, you might as well sprint around and come to the dugout and celebrate with your teammates. That's probably a lot more fun than show-boating on the field or anything like that."

After both Cowley and Shade homered with two outs, the Ducks got it going again in the fourth with one on and two outs. Josiah Cromwick got some momentum going by dropping down a bunt single, and Anson Aroz followed by blooping an RBI single into left-center. After Gavin Grant walked to load the bases, Rikuu Nishida laced a double over the center fielder that bounced over the wall for a two-run double.

It was 5-1 at that point, and Shade walked to reload the bases. Cowley followed with his second homer of a game, a grand slam to make it a seven-running inning and a 9-1 lead.

"It's definitely nice to give our pitching a little support with some runs," Cowley said. "Especially a guy like Jace, or anybody in our rotation, get them some runs, helps them go out there and compete. And it was nice to keep adding."

The only earned run Stoffal allowed with a solo homer in the sixth, and the Ducks got it back in the bottom of the inning. Nishida singled with one out, took second on an error and scored on a ground-rule double by Shade. Stoffal got two outs in the seventh before giving the ball to freshman Grayson Grinsell, and Walsh's solo homer in the bottom of the inning made it 11-2.

ASU connected for two solo homers in the eighth, and added another run in the ninth off Oregon's third pitcher of the day, Jacob Hughes.

Notable: Oregon's seven-run inning was its second of the week, after a seven-run seventh against Gonzaga on Tuesday. … The Ducks have homered in 11 straight games, tying the school record set last season. .. The Ducks hit at least four homers in a game for third time this year. … Oregon's 69 homers are six shy of the school record set last season. … Stoffal now has wins over No. 9 Stanford, No. 12 ASU and No. 22 Oregon State, using this week's rankings. ... UO football quarterback Bo Nix threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Quotable:
Senior infielder Drew Cowley on Oregon's mentality facing first-place ASU
"We just try to keep the same process. At the end of the day it's just another game. Don't want make any game too big or too small, so we kind of just prepared the same way. Just kept doing our work this week leading up to it, and excited to (play) game two tomorrow and finish it off on Sunday."

UO coach Mark Wasikowski on getting young relievers some Friday night work
"The more you get pitchers out there and people in the games, usually the better that they get; at least the more comfortable they get. When you get a chance to be able to get people in there, you do. And you got to try to balance that because it's the Pac-12 and man, these teams are good. That's one heck of an offense right there."

Up Next: The Ducks host the Sun Devils in game two of the series Saturday at 3 p.m.