On a warm Tuesday evening, PK Park celebrated Star Wars night as the No. 5 Oregon Ducks (34-13, 16-8 Big Ten) defeated the Saint Mary’s College Gaels (26-21, 10-8 WCC ) 6-3 in the first of a two-game midweek series. This was the beginning of a five-game homestand that will run through Sunday as the Ducks look to close out the regular season on a winning note in hopes of hosting a series in the postseason.
Toby Twist opened the game with his first trip to the mound since March of 2024. Twist made four appearances last season before suffering a season-ending arm injury that kept him on the bench until Tuesday. Twist began with a strikeout before allowing a walk and a pair of hits to put Saint Mary’s on the board early. A sac fly brought home another run to make it 2-0 in the top of the first.
The Ducks took the lead right back with a first-inning rally of their own. Coen Niclai got things going with a one-out double. He advanced to third on a groundout from Jacob Walsh. Drew Smith got on base via a walk to set the table for Anson Aroz, who struck a long fly ball that just barely cleared the fence in left field for a three-run homer.
“We had a lot of guys rolling into the dugout after that first half inning just saying, ‘win the inning,’” Aroz said. “So they scored two, we need to score three or more, and to have the opportunity to do it was huge. That situation is just a competitive at-bat. You know, a hit is big, getting a run in. I got a couple changeups early. I had a feeling he would go back to it a third time and ended up running into it pretty well.”
Ian Umlandt took over on the mound in the second. The Gaels made noise with a couple two-out hits, but Umlandt pitched through it and got the ground ball to escape the inning without surrendering a run. He lasted 6.2 innings where he threw 89 pitches and allowed one run on five hits and a walk and recorded two strikeouts.
“I knew I had the game after Twist was done,” Umlandt said. “So that was nice ahead of time, I was able to plan the last couple days. Just the opportunity and having a true enjoyment in that and just being grateful that it’s an opportunity and doing my best to run with it.”
The Ducks’ offense was quiet in the second, but they tacked on another run in the third on a solo shot to right field from Mason Neville, his nation-leading 24th homer of the season.
Saint Mary’s cut into Oregon’s lead in the fourth. A lead-off double off the bat of Jared Mettam got things going. He came around to score on a pair of ground balls, but Umlandt was able to limit the damage to just the one hit.
Oregon got a pair of base runners for free in the bottom half of the fourth on a catcher’s interference and a walk, but could not capitalize. It was given another free rally in the fifth inning with a pair of two-out walks, but the Ducks still could not take advantage of the RBI opportunity.
The bottom of the sixth opened with yet another free opportunity for the Ducks. Maddox Molony and Parker Stinson led things off with another pair of walks before Ryan Cooney was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. This time, the Ducks were able to take advantage. A fielder’s choice ground ball from Carter Garate and a sac fly from Neville extended it to a 6-3 Oregon lead without the Ducks recording a hit.
“We need to get the offense really going,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “We didn’t really swing the bat great tonight. Maybe tomorrow will be the night. I don’t know, maybe a little bit of a hangover. You know, long trip getting back from Michigan. East Coast time zone and now we play on Tuesday. I hope that’s probably the case.”
Both offenses were quiet in the seventh inning. The Ducks led off the bottom of the eighth with their first hit since the third inning on a single from Molony. It didn’t go anywhere as the inning ended on a double-play ground ball, but it didn’t matter.
Cole Stokes and Santiago Garcia combined to record the final four outs on Tuesday. The two faced a total of five hitters, used 11 combined pitches, fanned one and didn’t allow a single hit.
The Ducks and Gaels will play again on Wednesday night at PK Park with first pitch set for 6:05 p.m.
