After Oregon received two outstanding pitching performances in the first two games of the series against No. 7 Stanford, Sunday wasn’t so pretty.
The Ducks took an early 4-0 lead and seemed well on their way to completing a sweep. But they had an erratic day on the mound, issuing 10 walks and falling 6-4 in the series finale at PK Park. The offense fell silent after the second inning and was unable to stage a comeback.
“When you’re walking 10 guys against a team like Stanford or anybody here, you’re probably gonna have a tough time,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said.
Freshman starter Leo Uelmen had an adventurous first inning for Oregon. He walked three consecutive batters, teetering on the edge of disaster. Oregon quickly got the bullpen stirring. But Uelmen buckled down and recorded two huge strikeouts to escape unscathed, as the Ducks’ dugout grew louder with every pitch.
After a deflating moment for the Cardinal, Sabin Ceballos made them pay with a three-run homer in the bottom of the first. It started the game off on the right foot for the Ducks.
Uelmen walked another batter in the second inning, but also struck out two more in a hitless frame. He induced swings and misses with his slider, keeping the Cardinal hitters tied up and off balance.
Right fielder Bryce Boettcher went deep for Oregon in the second inning. The two-sport athlete, who hit his first career home run earlier this week, smashed a hard, long line drive for his second career bomb. It extended the Ducks’ early lead to 4-0.
But things got dicey in the third. Shortstop Drew Cowley made a two-base throwing error to lead things off. Uelmen then issued his fifth walk, and with a fully rested bullpen, Oregon took him out.
Uelmen had a strange outing. He walked five and recorded six outs, but didn’t allow a hit.
“We’d like to see a better start,” Wasikowski said. “We’ve got two great starts on the weekend, and then one not-so-great start, and it’s disappointing.”
Matt Dallas entered and walked the first two batters he faced, forcing in a run. The Cardinal got two more on a sacrifice fly and a double — their first hit of the game — as they cut Oregon’s lead to 4-3.
Dallas, despite a shaky inning, recorded a clutch strikeout and flyout to hold the one-run lead. He bellowed a loud expletive before the final out was even caught, letting the whole stadium know how he felt about his performance. Ultimately, Stanford scored three runs in the inning on just one hit. Uelmen was charged with two runs (one earned).
Dallas pitched a scoreless fourth, aided by Josiah Cromwick catching a runner stealing. But Braden Montgomery tied the game in the fifth inning on a solo shot to right-center. The Cardinal successfully erased what was once a four-run deficit.
“He was inconsistent today,” Wasikowski said of Dallas. “Not his best outing.”
The Ducks’ offense, meanwhile, fell stagnant against right-hander Joey Dixon. Nine straight Oregon hitters were retired as the game remained knotted at four apiece.
Ceballos broke that stretch with a one-out triple in the sixth, knocking Dixon out of the game. But Tanner Smith, with a chance to break Oregon’s all-time RBI record, grounded into a force out at home.
The Cardinal took their first lead of the series in the seventh. The first two batters reached, knocking Dallas out of the game after four-plus innings. Austin Anderson came in to face Montgomery, who made the Ducks pay once again. This time it was a go-ahead RBI single, with Cowley falling down on the wet turf before he had a chance to make the play.
Anderson walked two of the next three batters, forcing in another run. With Oregon trailing 6-4, left-hander Grayson Grinsell got the final two outs of the inning to keep the game within reach.
Grinsell went on to pitch a scoreless eighth, and Josh Mollerus extended his scoreless inning streak to 18 with a clean ninth. But the Ducks’ hitters couldn’t get anything going against left-hander Drew Dowd, who threw the final 3 2/3 innings. They fell 6-4 and ended a strong overall series with a whimper.
“You can’t throw the entire weekend out over today,” Wasikowski said. “You won two out of three off of a very good team. And so it was a good weekend. We had a chance to make it a great weekend, and we didn’t play good enough today to do it.”
Oregon (24-10, 9-6 Pac-12) will go on the road this week, playing Portland (19-15) on Tuesday at 5 p.m. and then Cal (15-16, 4-13 Pac-12) this weekend.
