You never know what you’re gonna see when you show up to the baseball field.
Prior to Sunday, Rikuu Nishida had gone 506 plate appearances in the United States without a home run between Mount Hood Community College, two summer teams and Oregon. On a podcast before the season, scout David Seifert said he had 20-grade power.
All that changed with one flick of the bat.
Nishida, who regularly switches bats, came up to the plate in the first inning using a beige wooden bat, instead of the red metal one he used Saturday. As usual, he took his right-handed warmup swing before settling in the box. He swung on a first-pitch fastball, hitting one in the air to the left field. The ball kept carrying, and carrying, and to the shock of everyone in attendance — including the Oregon dugout — it flew over the wall.
“So good,” Nishida said of how he felt. “First time I’ve hit a home run since I came here… I thought it was a triple or double.”
As for why he takes a right-handed warmup swing and squats down with two strikes?
“No reason. Just feeling,” he said.
Nishida was mobbed by his teammates in the dugout, who swarmed a green mass of energy around him after he rounded the bases.
“He just has the heart of a helper,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “However he wants to help a baseball team win or a person get better, he’s all in. He’s just such a unique person. It’s neat.”
Colby Shade and Gavin Grant joined the home run party, and once again the Ducks’ pitchers quieted a potent San Diego offense. Oregon completed a four-game sweep of the Toreros, beating them 5-1 Sunday afternoon.
“Improving,” Wasikowski said of the offense. “Not there yet, but improving. We’re seeing trends that are going in the right direction. And my prediction is as we want to play more and more team baseball and team offense, we’ll see the best offense we have.”
Matthew Grabmann got the start and only lasted three innings. His command issues continued from his previous outings as he issued two walks in the first inning. San Diego’s Kevin Sim overslid the bag trying to steal second base, helping Grabmann navigate through the inning unscathed.
Following Nishida’s miraculous moment in the bottom of the first, the Toreros tied it in the second. After a pair of singles and a sacrifice bunt, they knotted it up on a sacrifice fly, though a putout at third base helped limit the damage.
It wasn’t tied for long. Shade hit a mammoth shot to left-center field, homering in his second consecutive plate appearance dating back to Saturday’s three-run bomb. After a slow start, Shade has burst out in a monumental way.
Grant followed suit in the third inning, squeezing one just inside the left field foul pole to make it 3-1.
Austin Anderson came in in the fourth to replace Grabmann, who gave up one run on two hits and two walks while not recording any strikeouts. Anderson utilized his deceptive diagonal arm angle to throw two perfect innings with a pair of strikeouts.
“Executing with my slider,” Anderson said of what was working. “That’s my best pitch. I throw so many sliders I can just kind of throw a fastball in there, and they’re sometimes late on it.”
With the Ducks batting in the bottom of the fifth, there was a 36-minute rain/snow delay. A wave of darkness and gloominess swarmed heavily over PK Park, but it passed quickly and the sun peeked out through the gray clouds.
Three Oregon pitchers combined to issue three consecutive walks in the sixth, with Oregon playing the matchups by sandwiching lefty Ian Umlandt between righties Dylan McShane and Matt Dallas. Dallas induced a ground ball to Nishida to strand the bases loaded.
Dallas escaped another jam in the seventh, as he hit two batters but got Sim swinging for his third strikeout of the inning.
“I didn’t think he pitched his best, but I thought he competed his best,” Wasikowski said. “The guy’s an animal on the mound. He’s an unbelievable competitor.”
Oregon followed with some valuable insurance in the bottom of the seventh. Drew Cowley came through with a two-out, two-run single – the fourth time he’s had a key hit in this series.
Closer Josh Mollerus came in and dominated over the final two innings, striking out two and reaching 94 miles per hour. The Ducks allowed just three hits in the 5-1 win.
“He was sharp today. Yeah, he was the real deal today,” Wasikowski said of Mollerus. “In our terminology, that’s what it looks like at the end of the game. That guy was good today.”
All three of the Ducks’ series this season have been sweeps, with two of the three going in their favor.
Oregon (8-3) will open Pac-12 play at home against UCLA (8-2) with a three-game series starting Friday at 4 p.m.
