The Oregon baseball train kept chugging Tuesday evening.
The Ducks’ offense had another fine day at the office in a home matchup against Portland, beating the Pilots 9-1 and extending their winning streak to 10 games.
“Seeing this offense hit its stride and start to really put things together, I think it’s really special,” Oregon left fielder Tanner Smith said.
Sabin Ceballos got the Ducks off to a frolicking start, crushing a three-run homer to left-center in the first inning. There was no doubt about it, with Ceballos pummeling a fastball right down the middle from Curtis Hebert for his sixth bomb of the year.
Jackson Pace got the midweek start after struggling badly in his last couple turns in the weekend rotation. He worked through the first two innings unscathed, allowing just a two-out single in the first. Pace cracked in the third, giving up a solo shot to leadoff hitter Jake Holcroft.
“I thought Jackson gave us a really good start,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “For Jackson to do what he did and hand the ball over to Turner [Spoljaric], it was fantastic.”
Portland went with a bullpen game, bringing in right-hander KJ Ruffo for the third inning. After he walked Drew Cowley, the Pilots elected to intentionally walk Ceballos. They curiously brought in another right-handed pitcher, Zach Johnson, to face lefties Tanner Smith and Jacob Walsh.
The strange decision did not pay off. Smith poked an RBI single to the opposite field — extending his hitting streak to 10 games — and Walsh walked to load the bases. Bennett Thompson drove one down the left field line for a two-run double, extending Oregon’s lead to 6-1. Owen Diodati drew yet another walk, but Gavin Grant flew out to strand the bases loaded.
Pace labored in the fourth inning, loading the bases on a single sandwiched by a pair of walks. The Ducks brought in Spoljaric for his first game action since March 15. He induced a scathing line drive, which was caught by Grant and swiftly flipped to Cowley for a fortunate inning-ending double play.
Oregon tacked on another in the fourth. For the second consecutive inning, Cowley and Ceballos both walked, and Smith hit an RBI single. Cowley and Ceballos each walked three times and reached base four times on the night.
“You just stay to the middle,” Ceballos said of his approach. “That’s just a process we have. No matter if you went yard in the first AB, you go back to your work again and trust your process and trust your work… Every time I’m in the box, I try to make damage. If I don’t see a pitch to make damage, I just take it.”
Working with a 7-1 lead, Spoljaric settled in with his 12-6 curveball working nicely, as he retired eight consecutive batters before giving up a two-out single in the seventh. Cowley made a nice play at shortstop to end the inning, fielding a ball to his backhand and making a long throw with a scoop by Walsh.
“I’ve been working on everything,” Spoljaric said. “Just trying to throw with a little more intent, work on being in the zone more, attacking hitters and just showing them that I can pitch. If you put me out there, I’ll let the defense work and I’ll pitch to contact.”
Spoljaric wound up going 3 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up only two hits and not walking anybody.
“Unbelievable. He was fantastic,” Wasikowski said. “That’s why he pitched for Team Canada. That’s what he showed on Team Canada when he was with them, and he showed it for the first time in a Duck uniform in front of fans and stuff like that tonight.”
The Ducks scored two more in the seventh. After Jackson Jaha came through with a pinch-hit single, Walsh scored on a balk. Rikuu Nishida chipped in with an RBI double for Oregon’s ninth run.
Dylan McShane and Jacob Hughes each threw a scoreless inning to finish the game out. Hughes, albeit in a brief outing, showed perhaps the best control he’s had in an Oregon uniform.
“He got out there tonight, and he was on it from the first pitch,” Wasikowski said. “Really competitive, unbelievable kid and a real worker.”
The Ducks (19-7, 6-3 Pac-12) have scored 118 runs during this 10-game winning streak. They’ll look to keep the hot bats going in a critical rivalry series against Oregon State (18-10, 5-7 Pac-12) this weekend. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday.