Oregon baseball’s postseason chances are slim, but the Ducks kept themselves on the right side of the margin Sunday with a 5-1 victory over Utah in Salt Lake City, pushing their winning streak to six straight games.
Josh Graham (4-1) turned in another quality weekend start, while Mitchell Tolman etched his name atop another Oregon leaderboard with his 44th career double.
The Ducks got on the board right away against Utah’s starter Jayson Rose (3-5). Jakob Goldfarb started the game with a triple to right center field, then Austin Grebeck converted a sacrifice fly to give the Ducks the opening tally.
Graham cut through the first turn of Utah’s lineup untouched before allowing back-to-back hits in the fourth inning to tie the game at 1-1, but the junior starter settled back into a groove. Graham posted scoreless frames in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to finish the day with 7.0 innings pitched, 5 hits and one run allowed.
Oregon tacked on insurance runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Mark Karaviotis scored Matt Eureste on a RBI single to left, then Tolman picked up Grebeck with an RBI double to right center, making Tolman Oregon’s all-time leader in career doubles with 44.
In the eighth, the Ducks manufactured another run as Tolman hit a one-out single, stole second – his 10th of the season– advanced to third on a fly-out, then scored on a wild pitch to push Oregon’s lead out to 4-1.
Goldfarb doubled Karaviotis home in the ninth to give Oregon its final 5-1 advantage.
Stephen Nogosek pitched a clean eighth and handed the game to Garrett Cleavinger in the ninth, who finished things out with a 1-2-3 inning.
The Ducks’ winning streak now stands at six consecutive games.
Oregon’s postseason hopes rest squarely on this final week as the Ducks will face two top-50 RPI teams.
They’ll face No. 35 Oregon State in Corvallis on Tuesday, then take on No. 3 UCLA at P.K. Park to close out the season. If Oregon emerges with a 3-1 record, or better, it will have a good argument for earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Follow Josh Schlichter on Twitter @joshschlichter