Oregon baseball needed to finish strong if it wanted any chance at making the NCAA Tournament.
To say the Ducks finished with their best foot forward would be an understatement, as Sunday’s 4-3 11 inning victory over No. 2 UCLA completed Oregon’s late season turnaround in dramatic fashion.
Thanks to Josh Graham’s spectacular start, Scott Heineman’s four hit performances and Tim Susnara’s walk-off single, Oregon outlasted the Bruins in extra frames for the second time in the weekend series, handing UCLA its first series loss of the season.
“Win or lose this, I would have been extremely proud of them,” Oregon head coach George Horton said of his team. “Obviously they grinded through and gave us everything they could. The fact that they were rewarded with the victory is apropos.”
Graham, who started the season as the Ducks’ back-up catcher, has made quite the journey from reliever to starter, to proverbial ace. The junior pitched the first 9.0 inning start of Oregon’s season, allowing just three runs on five hits and two walks. He also had a career high 11 strikeouts.
“I haven’t gone nine since high school,” Graham said. “It was unbelievable giving up those runs and then having our team come back with a number on it.”
While the Duck offense couldn’t find a way to get Graham the decision, he was overjoyed with his team’s resilience. Whenever Graham gave up a run, his team found a way to pick him up with a run of their own in the bottom half.
When the Ducks took a 1-0 lead on a manufactured run in the second inning, UCLA responded in the fourth when Kevin Kramer blasted a changeup for a solo home run to tie the game at 1-1, but Oregon got the run right back on a Heineman home run.
Graham’s only rough inning came in the sixth, where the Bruins worked back-to-back walks to set Luke Persico up for a 2 RBI single to left field, giving UCLA a 3-2 lead. But Heineman came up big again in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI double to tie the game for the second time.
As Graham settled into a groove in the late innings, UCLA’s bullpen did the same as both teams posted three consecutive scoreless innings to reach the eleventh.
Both Stephen Nogosek and Garrett Cleavinger pitched great relief outings in extras. Nogosek lasted five outs and allowed just one Bruin to reach base on a walk. Cleavinger (6-2) picked up his third consecutive decision with a one-out outing that stranded the potential go-ahead run at third.
Now that Oregon’s season is complete, the Ducks will await the verdict of the selection committee, which had to have been impressed by Oregon’s series win against one of, if not the best team in the country.
“I feel like we’re easily one of the best 64 teams in the country,” Heineman said. “We just got off to a rough start. We lost some pretty critical games that we wish we could have back, but we couldn’t do anything about that, so we just had to finish strong. I think this weekend proved that we’re up there with the top teams in the country. We can compete with anyone on any given day.”
Oregon will know its fate tomorrow morning when the brackets are announced.
The selection show will be televised at 9 a.m. on ESPNU.
Follow Josh Schlichter on Twitter @joshschlichter