A special day for Tanner Smith turned into a special day for Oregon on Friday. The veteran left fielder wasted no time setting Oregon’s all-time hits record, smacking a double in the second inning to the delight of the Ducks’ dugout and the crowd at PK Park. It was his 247th career hit — and he added two more for good measure.
“Just an immense amount of gratitude to think about all the people that have helped me get to that point,” Smith said while choking up in his postgame press conference. “All the coaches, all the players, there’s been some unbelievable people that have helped me put a record like that up there, and I gotta give thanks to everybody that has.”
Smith and the Ducks never looked back, going on to hit six homers in a 16-1 thrashing of Northwestern State. It included a pair of three-run bombs from Sabin Ceballos and the first home run of Dominic Hellman’s career. Smith and Gavin Grant were also each one hit shy of a cycle.
“For me, it’s pretty special,” Ceballos said. “I was telling my teammates early in the day: I play for my family. They are far away right now. So I’m just trying to bring my smile every time on the TV, just so they can see I enjoy what I do.”
It was a special day for head coach Mark Wasikowski too, celebrating his birthday with Oregon’s most dominant win of the year.
“So many things going on, especially with Waz’s birthday,” Smith said. “How can you not feel so fired up with that? A lot of adrenaline at PK today.”
Jace Stoffal started on the mound for Oregon and worked around runners in scoring position in the first two innings. He ended the second inning by bumping his fastball up to 93 miles per hour as he collected his second strikeout.
Smith’s record-breaking hit was Oregon’s first hit of the day, coming with one out in the bottom of the second. His teammates immediately rose from the dugout and gave him an ovation while the loudspeaker announced his achievement.
“The guy’s a grinder. He was the last guy out of the weight room before the game today,” Wasikowski said. “For a guy like that to be rewarded with the all-time hits record, that goes to a lot of people that have worked with him and helped him through the years.”
The Ducks came out shaky in the first two innings against Cal Carver’s sharp curveball, and they struck out twice to strand Smith at second. The Northwestern State left-hander entered the day with a 0.59 ERA.
The Demons took a 1-0 lead on a double and a sacrifice fly in the third inning, but then the Ducks unloaded with six of their own. Grant tied things up with a solo bomb off the scoreboard, his fifth home run of the year — which Wasikowski called the “at-bat of the day.”
After Colby Shade and Drew Cowley got on base, Ceballos rocketed one to center field that kept carrying, eventually poking over the fence for his first three-run homer.
Smith stayed hot with his second hit in as many at-bats, and Jacob Walsh crushed one to left field for Oregon’s third homer of the inning. The left fielder briefly tried to sell it as a catch, but after a moment of confusion, Walsh rounded the bases and made it a 6-1 game.
The Ducks added another in the fourth inning. Grant nearly hit his second homer of the game, but it fell just short and he settled for a triple. Rikuu Nishida perfectly executed a squeeze bunt to drive Grant home.
“Rikuu is really good with handling the bat. He does a lot of things well,” Wasikowski said. “I don’t think we’ve ever asked him to squeeze yet, but he did that today and he did it very well.”
Carver’s evening ended after four innings, his ERA having climbed to 2.34.
With reliever Grayson Gates in the game, the Ducks capitalized on a walk and a fielding error. Josiah Cromwick slapped a double with two outs, bringing in a pair of unearned runs to make it 9-1.
Ceballos continued to pummel the baseball, smashing his second three-run homer of the game in the sixth.
“I never did that before. Today was pretty, pretty fun,” Ceballos said. “For these things that happened today — special things — but everything happened just because you trust the process and work.”
On the very next pitch, Smith poked one barely over the left field wall for a solo homer to extend Oregon’s lead to 13-1. It was a monumental day for Smith, breaking a record and seeing the ball well in all four of his at-bats.
With such a large advantage to work with, Stoffal kept things in check for the Ducks. While he only had one perfectly clean frame, he was able to hold the Demons to one run in six innings. He walked three and struck out three.
“The lead makes pitching a lot easier, especially with the good defense that we have,” Stoffal said. “Just throwing strikes, letting them put the ball in play makes it a lot easier to pitch, especially when they put up 16.”
Dylan McShane, Jacob Hughes and Logan Olson each threw a scoreless inning in relief to go the rest of the way. Hughes worked around two hits and a walk; catcher Chase Meggers came into the game and made a nice catch in foul territory to end the top of the eighth.
In the bottom of the eighth, Oregon added three luxury runs on a big blast by Hellman. It was the first home run of the 6-foot-6 freshman’s career, complete with a smile to the dugout and a bat flip. The three-run bomb rubbed salt in Northwestern State’s already gaping wound, putting the finishing touches on a 16-1 blowout.
“You see the kid’s talent,” Wasikowski said of Hellman. “I mean, he misses balls and he can hit them literally over the lights when he misses them. We’ve never had a player who has power like that, ever.”
Oregon (12-7) has now won three in a row, scoring a total of 43 runs in its last three games. It’ll look to keep that momentum going in a doubleheader against Northwestern State (13-8) Saturday, starting at noon.
