Just like two weeks ago against Stanford, Oregon was so close to completing a sweep.
But things just haven’t come easily on Sundays.
The Ducks brought a no-hitter into the sixth inning and led 5-0, but their bullpen had a complete meltdown in the sixth and seventh innings. The usually dominant Josh Mollerus got rocked for back-to-back homers to give Arizona State a lead Oregon could never recover from. The No. 20 Ducks (30-13, 13-8 Pac-12) still took the series, but they faltered in the finale, losing 9-6 to the No. 12 Sun Devils (29-15, 14-6 Pac-12).
“The momentum of the game can change really quick,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “Today was a situation where I just felt like Arizona State did a nice job. We did everything we could to put the bullets out there that we had to win the game, and they ended up beating us today. I tip my hat to them.”
The Ducks rallied for three hits with two outs in the first. The Smiths — Drew and Tanner — each poked one by an Arizona State fielder for a pair of seeing-eye singles, which drove in Rikuu Nishida. Jacob Walsh then squared one up a little better, hitting a line drive into right-center field to put Oregon on top 2-0.
In the second inning, Nishida swatted one to left-center field that carried for his fourth home run of the year — a two-run shot that extended the lead to 4-0. It was the first time Nishida has gone deep with a metal bat.
Matthew Grabmann got his second consecutive Sunday start for Oregon. After walking the leadoff hitter on four pitches, he retired the next nine — seven via fly balls. Grabmann has been a ground ball pitcher this year, but Arizona State had a fly ball-oriented approach all weekend.
He hit the first batter in the fourth, then induced a groundout that moved the runner to second. Despite being at only 42 pitches, and not having allowed a hit, Grabmann was taken out. Wasikowski has had a short leash with Grabmann despite his recent effectiveness.
“He pitched well. He did a good job with what he did,” Wasikowski said. “His effectiveness was there. But we felt like he did his job and it was time for the next man up.”
Leo Uelmen came in and stranded the runner at second, getting through Oregon’s fourth hitless inning of work. He pitched a hitless fifth inning as well, helped by great catches from Colby Shade and T. Smith.
The Ducks added another on an RBI single by D. Smith in the bottom of the fifth, driving in Nishida after he lined a double down the right field line. It was Smith’s ninth hit in his first 16 college at-bats. He got the start at third base, batting cleanup, with Sabin Ceballos still “day-to-day” after leaving Saturday’s game early.
With one out in the sixth, Luke Hill ended Oregon’s no-hit bid by pummeling a two-run homer to left-center. Uelmen walked the next batter on four pitches, which brought an end to his day.
Left-hander Grayson Grinsell came in with a 5-2 lead and surrendered a ground rule double and a walk. After issuing seven consecutive balls, he beared down and got Nu’u Contrades to pop out to Walsh in foul territory. The runner tagged up and scored to cut Oregon’s lead to 5-3.
Grinsell issued another walk to reload the bases, but froze Isaiah Jackson looking to weasel out of the jam. The Ducks still led by two despite quite a rocky inning.
Oregon handed Turner Spoljaric the seventh, but it didn’t last long. He gave up a single and another ground rule double to bring in a run. With the lead down to 5-4 and a runner on second, Mollerus came in to attempt an eight-out save.
“We felt like Turner was our best option available for us to be able to try to get through the seventh,” Wasikowski said. “We were just trying to get the ball to Josh with our best chance to win. That’s all we were trying to do.”
Mollerus’s efforts were short-lived. He gave up a go-ahead two-run homer to former San Francisco teammate Luke Keaschall, and Jacob Tobias made it back-to-back with another bomb. Tobias went deep in all three games of the series — each time in the final three innings.
“Josh has been effective in a three-out situation, and on occasion a little bit more,” Wasikowski said. “But when you start going to, really early in the game, trying to get him to go that long, that’s not what his speciality is.”
The Ducks made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh, continuing a wild couple of innings. They loaded the bases on a Nishida single, a Shade hit by pitch and a D. Smith walk, bringing up T. Smith. Oregon’s left fielder hit a routine ground ball to second baseman Keaschall, but a moment of indecision allowed Smith to reach safely. It went down as an E4.
With Walsh batting and the Ducks trailing 7-6, Shade tried to steal home in a desperate attempt to tie the game. After being called out, he and the rest of the team were adamant he was safe, but he was confirmed out after a replay review.
“Shoot, when they don’t even have anybody standing at third base, we went for it,” Wasikowski said. “And it didn’t work out. If it does work out, you’re feeling great about it.”
Mollerus stayed in until the ninth, when he gave up another two-run homer. He was pulled with two outs. Logan Olson faced two batters and didn’t retire either of them, but Jacob Hughes came in and recorded the final out on a line drive to Shade.
Gavin Grant led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk, but Nishida grounded into a double play as the Ducks couldn’t complete their comeback effort.
Oregon will go on the road to play Oregon State (29-13, 13-10 Pac-12) on Tuesday and USC (25-16-1, 11-9 Pac-12) this weekend.
“It was a really good week. That’s what I told them,” Wasikowski said. “Make sure that you don’t get disappointed out of the outcome of one game when you had a really, really good week.”
