
Ducks drop series, will look to salvage a game Sunday
05/13/23 | Baseball
The first nine Huskies that batted scored with nine-hole hitter Sam DeCarlo capping the first-inning with a two-run home run.
How It Happened: The first four batters reached on singles against Oregon starter Jackson Pace (2-3) before the next four got on base with a hit-by-pitch, double, walk and double that ended Pace's outing. DeCarlo, the next hitter then homered off of Ducks' reliever Turner Spoljaric to plate the final two runs of the inning.
Spolaric settled in and put together a solid outing to keep the Ducks within contact. After retiring the first three hitters in the first inning after giving up the homer, the Ducks' freshman reliever held the Huskies (31-14, 15-10 Pac-12) to just one more run in the next four innings.
The Ducks' (31-18, 14-12) offense responded scoring five runs from the third to the fifth inning to pull within five-runs.
Gavin Grant got Oregon on the board in the third hitting a solo home run over the right-center field wall.
After UW added a run in the top of the fourth, Oregon put three on the board in its half of the inning. Jacob Walsh started the rally with a bunt single and moved to second on a Bennett Thompson infield hit.
Grant picked up his second RBI of the day with a base hit to left field scoring Walsh and moving Thompson to third. Rikuu Nishida picked up a pair of runs batted in with a double that dropped in shallow center field between three defenders.
Oregon added a run in the fifth to get keep the pressure on the Huskies. Drew Cowley led off the inning with a double and came around to score on a Sabin Ceballos single.
After retiring the leadoff hitter in the sixth, Spoljaric ran into trouble allowing a single and a run-scoring double. The Ducks went to Matt Dallas out of the pen, but Washington greeted him with five consecutive batters reaching base which led to a seven-run inning.
Washington added a run in the eighth, but Oregon countered with a run of its own. Drew Smith singled and moved to third on a Walsh double before scoring on a Grant ground out.
The Ducks tacked on two in the ninth. Carter Garate, who pinch ran for Cowley after he walked, scored on third on a wild pitch before Tyler Ganus, running for Tanner Smith, scored on a Drew Smith RBI single.
Box Score Notes: Oregon extended its consecutive games with a home run streak to a program-record 19 games … Turner Spoljaric fanned a career-high five in season-high 5.1 innings of work … Drew Smith (2-for-5, 2B, RBI, R) had his sixth multi-hit game of the season in just his 10th start … Ceballos drove in his 50th run of the season, tying him with Josh Kasevich (2021) seventh on the single-season list.
On Deck: Oregon and Washington will wrap up the series on Sunday at 12:05 p.m. at PK Park. It will be the final home game for nine Oregon seniors.
Quotes:
Head Coach Mike Wasikowski
What is the message after a game like tonight?
"Well, you're trying to create positives, right? Because the start of that game is as bad as I've ever experienced. And so, what you're trying to do is create positives based off of a really negative beginning to a day. So, if you can create any positive momentum to try to carry into an inning, the next inning, the next inning, and into another game tomorrow, that is what you're trying to do."
On what he's telling the team moving forward after a few tough results?
"You just have to control what you can control. You're not into looking at whatever scenarios people want to talk about, that doesn't matter. What (matters) is what you can control when you get to the ballpark and specifically each and every at bat, each and every defensive rep and each and every pitch. You're just focusing on that, you're not focusing on the scoreboard."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Lord, Kiefer (6-3)
L: Pace, Jackson (2-3)
S: Cunningham, Grant (3)
Batting:
2B: Guerrero, AJ 1 ; Morales, Coby 1 ; Simpson, Will 1 ; Ybarra, Jeter 2 ; Snyder, Michael 1
HR: DeCarlo, Sam 1
RBI: Clayton, Cam 2 ; Morales, Coby 2 ; Simpson, Will 2 ; Ybarra, Jeter 4 ; Snyder, Michael 4 ; DeCarlo, Sam 3
SF: Snyder, Michael 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Clayton, Cam 1 ; Guerrero, AJ 3 ; Morales, Coby 2 ; Simpson, Will 2 ; Tincher, Johnny 2 ; Ybarra, Jeter 3 ; Arquette, Aiva 2 ; Snyder, Michael 2 ; DeCarlo, Sam 1
HBP: Tincher, Johnny 1

Batting:
2B: Nishida, Rikuu 1 ; Cowley, Drew 1 ; Walsh, Jacob 1
HR: Grant, Gavin 1
RBI: Nishida, Rikuu 2 ; Ceballos, Sabin 1 ; Smith, Drew 1 ; Grant, Gavin 3
SH: Smith, Tanner 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cowley, Drew 1 ; Garate, Carter 1 ; Ganus, Tyler 1 ; Smith, Drew 1 ; Walsh, Jacob 1 ; Thompson, Bennett 1 ; Grant, Gavin 2
SB: Shade, Colby 1
HBP: Shade, Colby 1