Stars Shine As Ducks Clinch Series Win

Saturday, May 10

Eugene, Ore.

2:05 p.m.

University of Oregon

37-13, 18-8

Washington

27-24, 15-11

Washington

Oregon

Photo by: Rob Moseley/GoDucks.com

05/10/25 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score: #5 Oregon 6, Washington 4 Overall Stats Photo Gallery

Mason Neville and Jacob Walsh provided highlight-reel moments as Oregon beat Washington on Saturday, 6-4.

By: Rob Moseley

EUGENE, Ore. — With four games left in the regular season, the Oregon baseball team is within striking distance of first place in the Big Ten, and reasons for the Ducks' late-season surge abound.

Consistent starting pitching. A resurgent bullpen. Elite defenders all around the infield. And a couple of historically prolific left-handed hitters.

Those two stars — Mason Neville and Jacob Walsh — shined brightly Saturday as the Ducks clinched a series win over Washington with a 6-4 victory before a sellout crowd of 4,130. Each homered, Neville to pad his UO single-season record and Walsh adding to his program career record, and each was involved in a play seldom seen at PK Park.

Walsh caught a foul pop-up in the sixth inning that was only recorded as an out because he had the presence of mind to jump into the Oregon dugout and make the catch before letting his feet hit the ground. And Neville homered in the bottom of the inning to beat a UW defensive shift that put four players in the outfield and three to his pull side between first and second — nobody on the infield between second and third.

"I mean, maybe the analytics say that it's gonna work," Walsh said of the UW shift, "but it doesn't matter how many outfielders you have if you just hit it over the fence — which he did. So that's pretty cool to see."

Neville and Walsh were two of five Ducks with two hits each Saturday, as they rallied back from an early deficit and took the lead for good on their stars' solo homers. And the bullpen provided four more shutout innings to help Oregon win its sixth straight game, and its 10th out of the last 11.

No. 5 Oregon (37-13, 18-8 Big Ten) moved within 2.5 games of first-place Iowa — the team that hosts the Ducks for the final series of the regular season next week.

"The best time to make a run is right at the end of the year," Walsh said. "The bats are hot, we're pitching well and we're playing good defense, so it's exciting to see moving on to the playoffs."

How It Happened: After being shutout by the Ducks on Friday, the Huskies struck first Saturday. An error, a single and a walk loaded the bases with one out of UO starter Collin Clarke (5-2), who struck out the next hitter before allowing two unearned runs on a single.

The Ducks got one back in the second, when Drew Smith hit a leadoff double and two batters later Maddox Molony brought him in with a single. Clarke faced the minimum for the third straight inning in the top of the fourth, and in the bottom of the inning Oregon got him the lead.

It all came with two outs, when Chase Meggers singled and Ryan Cooney was hit by a pitch. Carter Garate then reached on an infield single, and an errant throw brought Meggers in with the tying run. Up came Neville, who stroked a double to right that scored Cooney and Garate and made it 4-2.

"Mason Neville is one heck of a hitter, you know," UO coach Mark Wasikowski said. "And I hope he wins the Golden Spikes Award. … We've seen it throughout history, when a hitter gets (in the zone) it just looks like a huge beach ball coming in there, and it seems like that's kind of where Mason's at right now at the plate."

Washington tied it with a pair of solo homers in the top of the fifth. But Walsh gave Oregon the lead back at 5-4 in the bottom of the inning, stroking his UO record 57th career home run.

Then, in the top of the sixth, Walsh made his acrobatic play on the foul ball toward Oregon's dugout. Had he let his feet touch the ground before making the play, it would have been a dead ball.

"He's going to win a Gold Glove at first base, and if he doesn't it's crime," Wasikowski said. "I mean, the guy's ridiculous at first base."

Neville hit his UO single-season record 25th home run in the bottom of the sixth. With one out he worked a 3-0 count, at which point UW shifted into its odd defensive alignment. Which didn't matter, when Neville crushed the next pitch for a homer.

"Immediately when I saw that, I knew maybe I was going to get a good pitch to hit," Neville said. "And so I just tried to put a good swing on it. Hopefully try and beat them, but at the same time you can't try and do too much and swing and miss or whatever. It was pretty cool."

That sent Santiago Garcia out to the mound for the seventh looking to protect a 6-4 lead. The UO left-hander had walked the first batter he faced in the sixth before retiring the next three in a row, and he threw a 1-2-3 seventh before getting the first out of the eighth and giving way to right-hander Cole Stokes.

Garcia matched his season high with 2.1 innings, getting all seven outs after a mound visit from UO pitching coach Blake Hawksworth following the leadoff walk in the sixth.

"It felt really good to get out there and just freaking throw, man," said Garcia, whose previous six appearances all had been one inning or less. "I've been wanting to do that for the past couple weeks, and I'm glad Hawk gave me the chance to get out there and go do it."

After Stokes got the final two outs of the eighth, Seth Mattox pitched around a two-out hit by pitch in the ninth for his fifth save of the season.

Notable: Walsh reached 246 hits in his career, tied for second in UO history with Gabe Matthews (2017-21) behind only Tanner Smith (306, 2019-23). … Mattox is up to 100 career collegiate strikeouts. … Garcia matched his season-long appearances against USC on March 8 and Portland on April 2.

Up Next: The team meet in the series finale Sunday