Ducks advance to Pac-12 Tournament Championship

Friday, May 26

Scottsdale, Ariz.

2:30 PM

University of Oregon

36-20

Washington

34-18

Oregon

Washington

05/26/23 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score: Oregon 12, Washington 7 Photo Gallery

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Sabin Ceballos led a potent Oregon offense with a home run and six RBI while Oregon's bullpen led by freshman Grayson Grinsell came up big for the third straight tournament game as Oregon handed Washington a 12-7 loss in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon.

Ceballos (3-for-6, HR, 6 RBI) was one of six Oregon hitters to finish with multiple hits as the Ducks finished with 20 hits in the game. Grinsell tossed 3.2 innings of scoreless relief matching a season-high six strikeouts. He led an Oregon bullpen that allowed just two runs in 6.1 innings with seven strikeouts and just two walks.

How It Happened: Oregon didn't waste any time jumping on the Huskies scoring three runs in the top of the first. Colby Shade started the rally with a one-out hit before moving to third on a Drew Cowley single and an error on the UW center fielder that put two runners in scoring position.

Sabin Ceballos drove both Shade and Cowley in with a base hit between short and third giving Oregon a 2-0 lead. After Tanner Smith reached on an error moving Ceballos to second, Drew Smith extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a RBI single to give Oregon a 3-0 lead.

Oregon tacked on three more in the top of the second inning. After getting a runner thrown out at the plate with no outs, Oregon recovered with two outs as Cowley drove in Rikuu Nishida to make it 4-0. Ceballos followed with a 2-run homer to right-center to make it a six-run lead.

Washington cut the lead to a run with a five-run third inning but Oregon responded with a five spot of its own in the fifth. The Smith's combined for the first run, Tanner singled and scored on Drew's triple to make it 7-5.

Bennett Thompson pushed the lead to three with a sacrifice fly scoring Drew Smith. Oregon then strung together five consecutive singles from Gavin Grant, Nishida, Shade, Cowley and Ceballos with Cowley driving in one run and Ceballos adding two more RBI to his total for a 11-5 lead.

Grinsell (2-1) entered the game with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the fifth. He enticed a fly ball to center field that turned into a sacrifice fly double play when Washington's Sam DeCarlo was thrown out at second while trying to tag up.

After getting out of the fifth, Grinsell tossed three more innings striking out six of the 11 batters he faced including the 3-4-5 batters in the Huskies order in the sixth inning.

Oregon tacked on an insurance run in the ninth inning when Colby Shade (4-for-6, 2 RBI, 2 R) drove in Gavin Grant (4-for-5, 2 R), who led off the inning with a double.

Ceballos matched his career high with six RBI while going 3-for-6 with two runs scored. Cowley (3-for-6, RBI, 2 R) and Drew Smith (2-for-5, 2 RBI, R) also had multiple hits for the Ducks.

Box Score Notes: The Ducks' bullpen has allowed just two runs in 21.1 innings of work in the Pac-12 Conference Tournament … Freshman Drew Smith has at least one hit in all 17 of his starts, nine of those multi-hit games … Smith has recorded a hit in 18 consecutive games, matching Spencer Steer's run in 2019 for the program record … Ceballos is the first Duck to homer in back-to-back games since he did it in the USC series … The home run was his 15th, tying him with Drew Cowley (2023) for second on the single-season list … He ran his RBI total to 61, moving him into a tie for first on the single-season list with Cowley.

On Deck: Oregon advances to Saturday's Pac-12 Championship game against the winner of the second semifinal between No. 4 Stanford and Arizona. Game time is 7:05 p.m. on ESPN2.