The No. 22 Oregon (20-9, 8-4 Pac-12) baseball team let a late lead slip away and narrowly missed earning a road series sweep of No. 5 UCLA (21-7, 8-4) on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins came back from a pair of deficits and topped Oregon 8-6, ending the Ducks’ win streak at five. @@http://www.pac-12.org/SPORTS/Baseball/Standings.aspx@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205410277@@
After the Bruins scored two runs in the first inning off Ducks starter Brando Tessar to take an early lead, Oregon answered with five runs in the second. Ryon Healy reached on an error to lead off the inning and Brett Thomas hit an RBI double to score Healy. The next batter, freshman third baseman Thomas Walker, scored Thomas on an RBI single. Connor Hofmann (sacrifice fly), J.J. Altobelli (RBI double) and Aaron Payne (single) added RBIs before the Bruins escaped further damage.
UCLA began to chip away at the deficit in the middle innings. The Bruins scored a run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Kevin Williams to cut Oregon’s lead to 5-3, then scored two runs in the fifth to tie the game at 5-5.
The Ducks retook the lead in the top of the sixth inning on an RBI double by Scott Heineman, but UCLA scored twice in the seventh inning and once in the eight to go ahead 8-6. UCLA’s bullpen shut down Oregon in the late innings, throwing three hitless, scoreless innings to end the game.
Although none of Oregon’s five pitchers was particularly effective, reliever Jeff Gold was tagged with his second loss of the season after allowing the decisive two runs in the seventh inning. UCLA reliever David Berg (4-0) earned the win by pitching scoreless seventh and eighth. Bruin closer Scott Griggs threw a scoreless ninth to earn his seventh save of the season.
Friday
Oregon’s offensive resurgence continued on Friday, as the Ducks scored eight times and tallied 11 hits to defeat the Bruins 8-3. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=11401&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205409968@@
The victory was Oregon’s fifth in a row, and the Ducks second-straight scoring at least six runs.
Oregon opened the scoring in the first inning on an RBI single by Healy but was immediately countered by an RBI single by UCLA left fielder Cody Keefer in the bottom of the frame.
A sacrifice fly by Heineman in the fourth gave Oregon a 2-1 lead before the Ducks broke it open in the fifth inning. With catcher Brett Hambright on second base and two outs, Payne delivered an RBI single to give the Ducks a 3-1 lead. After Payne stole second and third, Aaron Jones plated Payne with an RBI double to increase Oregon’s lead to three runs. Next up, Healy hit a double of his own to score Jones, and Brett Thomas plated Healy with an RBI single.
The Ducks added two more runs in the sixth inning on a two-run home run by Hofmann to extend the lead to 8-1 and put the game out of reach.
Freshman Jake Reed improved to 3-2 by pitching six innings of three-run ball to earn the win for Oregon, and reliever Joey Housey pitched three shutout innings out of the bullpen to earn his first save of the season. Nick Vander Tuig (3-2) allowed 10 hits and eight runs in 5 1/3 innings and was tagged with the loss for UCLA.
Friday’s victory followed a 6-2 Oregon win over UCLA in the series opener on Thursday. Starter Alex Keudell pitched seven scoreless innings and Jones hit a pair of home runs to defeat the Bruins.
Keudell extended his scoreless innings streak to 22 and Oregon extended its winning streak to four games, following a sweep of Arizona State the previous weekend, in the victory.
Oregon will return to action at 6 p.m. Monday when they host San Francisco for the first of a two-game series.