Oregon chose a great time to play its best baseball.
For the second straight day, an Oregon pitcher threw a complete game. This time it was Logan Mercado, holding a potent Stanford offense to one run while striking out seven and walking only one on Saturday at PK Park.
“Oh man. I can’t even comprehend it right now,” Mercado said. “I’ll get there when I get there, but right now, I’m pretty freakin’ happy. I’m just glad it’s done. Got it over with. I’m super tired, so I just gotta go do some recovery after this.”
And, for the second straight day as well, the Ducks’ offense got to one of the best pitchers in the Pac-12. This time it was right-hander Matt Scott, whose ERA rose from 2.08 to 3.15 as Oregon knocked him around for eight hits and six runs. The offense was powered by a pair of homers from Jacob Walsh and a two-run shot from Sabin Ceballos.
Everything came together for an 8-1 defeat of the No. 7 Cardinal, clinching the series win and setting up a potential sweep.
“Great pitching. Timely hitting. Team wins,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “The energy has been fantastic. The guys have been pure with their thoughts, it seems, in the dugout. It’s just been fun to be with these guys.”
Mercado mixed in a high dose of sliders and changeups against a dangerous Stanford lineup. He commanded his pitches well and retired the first 12 batters, picking up where Jace Stoffal left off on Friday.
“I think they’re just really aggressive. They expand the plate a lot,” Mercado said. “That has helped them; that’s why they mash. You’ve gotta realize who you’re playing, who your opponent is, and you have to maybe approach them a different way.”
The Oregon offense missed a big scoring opportunity in the second. Ceballos singled and Tanner Smith doubled to lead things off, but Walsh, Josiah Cromwick and Bryce Boettcher all made weak outs, with Ceballos being thrown out at home on a force play.
The Ducks had another opportunity in the third, and this time, they didn’t waste it. Drew Cowley came through with an RBI double, driving in Rikuu Nishida. With two in scoring position, they added another on an RBI groundout from Ceballos to go ahead 2-0.
And then Walsh, wearing No. 42 for Jackie Robinson Day, led off the bottom of the fourth with an opposite-field solo shot to make it 3-0. Wasikowski said Walsh was wearing a size medium since it was the only 42 jersey they had. But it clearly didn’t bother him.
“It’s a huge day in baseball history, and it’s great to be able to just go out,” Walsh said. “Not a lot of people get to play on this day, so it’s a privilege to be able to go out there and play today.”
Braden Montgomery began the fifth inning with a double for Stanford’s first hit. But Mercado got out of it, ending the inning on a fortunate lineout right at center fielder Colby Shade.
Sabin Ceballos, whose bat has relatively cooled off lately, showed off his flare in the bottom of the fifth. He smashed a two-run homer to left field, one he knew was gone right off the bat. It grew Oregon’s lead to 5-0.
“Today I was just telling myself, ‘Back to that process, back to that Sabin everyone knows about,’” Ceballos said. “And then try to do big things in the field, just be back to enjoy the game and be free to play.”
The Cardinal’s offense finally did something in the sixth inning, with a walk and two singles to bring in their first run of the series. But Carter Graham made a critical baserunning mistake, getting nabbed at second, which helped Mercado limit the damage to one run.
Walsh responded with his second opposite-field bomb of the game. It was his third of the series and 11th of the season, making it a 6-1 game.
Scott hit Bryce Boettcher and Gavin Grant back-to-back, which ended his uneven outing. The pitch to Grant hit his jaw, making a loud “Smack,” but Grant shook it off and sprinted to first. Wasikowski hustled over to check on him.
“I can’t repeat what he said, but he made it very clear that he was staying in the game,” Wasikowski said.
The Ducks tacked on two more in the seventh, with Walsh collecting his third RBI on a groundout after Smith doubled. Cromwick followed by legging out an infield hit, and Oregon extended its lead to 8-1.
Mercado allowed a leadoff hit in each of the eighth and ninth innings, but settled in to complete the nine-inning effort. While his performance came up just short of outdoing Stoffal’s, it was still another dominant showing in perhaps the biggest win for Oregon this year.
“We joke in the locker room, us starters. It’s like, ‘Oh, I guess I gotta one-up you now!’” Mercado said with a laugh. “Unfortunately I didn’t, but I came pretty close. So there’s that playful banter there, but [Stoffal] really set the tone for us to go out and have the outings that we did.”
The Cardinal, evidently disgruntled after two tough losses, stayed in their team huddle on the field for nearly 45 minutes after the game.
Oregon (24-9, 9-5 Pac-12) will go for the sweep of No. 7 Stanford (22-10, 10-4 Pac-12) Sunday at noon.
