The Oregon Ducks have won the 2023 Pac-12 Baseball Tournament.

With all the ups and downs this team has been through, and the hurdles it’s had to persevere through, it was only fitting that it came down to a tight matchup. Oregon and Arizona played a tight, competitive, fast-paced game Saturday night at Scottsdale, and it was ultimately the Ducks who got to celebrate in a dogpile and be honored with a postgame celebration.

“That’s my favorite moment on a baseball field,” said Turner Spoljaric, Saturday’s starting pitcher. “I was ecstatic. I was running around, jumping. I was anxious. I was nervous. I was happy. I was super, super pumped up. It was an awesome experience.”

Spoljaric got the start despite struggling on Thursday against Stanford. Head coach Mark Wasikowski kept the faith in him, and it paid off. He pitched six strong innings, and Oregon got enough offense to take down the Wildcats 5-4 and win the tournament championship.

“The guys just played their hearts out,” said Wasikowski, who was drenched in Gatorade by Bryce Boettcher in his postgame interview. “They knew that the way they’d get into the next tournament is to win this tournament. And now we know for sure we’re in. So that was the objective when they set this thing out. Great leadership.”

Spoljaric survived baserunners in the first two innings. A hit by pitch and a single put two on with two outs in the first, with the Arizona crowd rocking. But Spoljaric induced the second flyout to center of the inning to calm the red wave of fans on the third base side of the stadium.

Drew Cowley grounded into a double play in the first inning for Oregon, then turned a nice double play of his own in the top of the second to keep the game scoreless.

Drew Smith extended his hitting streak to 19 in the bottom of the second, breaking the school record set by Spencer Steer. But Jacob Walsh struck out, falling into an 0-for-8 slump and 2-for-13 in the tournament.

Arizona’s worst hitter, Garen Caulfield, led off the third inning with a double. Two batters later, Nik McClaughry brought him home with a single to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. With Arizona’s two best hitters, Chase Davis and Kiko Romero, coming up, Spoljaric bunkered down. He got them both to pop up, keeping the inning from spiraling.

“My dad [former major leaguer Paul Spoljaric] has always told me a key word to have is ‘poise’ on the mound,” Spoljaric said. “If you can always stay just poised and in the moment, be where your feet are, you’re gonna have success. When you get out of your level head and start getting worried in the moment and letting emotions take over, you run into trouble.”

The Ducks evened things up with two outs in the bottom of the third. Rikuu Nishida reached on an error by the third baseman, who was playing in. He stole second, then came around to score on a clutch single by Colby Shade. It was Shade’s eighth time reaching base in his last 10 plate appearances.

With the game knotted up, Spoljaric threw a five-pitch fourth inning. He allowed a one-out single, but third baseman Sabin Ceballos turned a swift double play to end the frame. Spoljaric roared as he paced off the field.

The Ducks rallied for two in the bottom of the fourth. D. Smith hit yet another single, raising his average to .414. Walsh ended his 0-for-8 skid with a single to right field, putting runners on the corners with one out.

Bennett Thompson, who was red hot, struck out on two half-swings for the second out. But Gavin Grant came through with a massive RBI single to give the Ducks the lead. They added one more on a soft tapper that Nishida beat out for an infield single, running out to a 3-1 lead.

Oregon made an error of its own in the fifth, as Walsh couldn’t field a hard grounder to the right side. Spoljaric recorded his first two strikeouts of the night, but they were sandwiched by an RBI single to chip into the lead. Spoljaric retired the side with another sky-high popup off the bat of Davis.

Each team had an unearned run, with Oregon narrowly leading 3-2.

Kiko Romero changed that, smacking a ball to deep center to lead off the sixth. It barely missed leaving the yard, but it spent so much time in the air that Romero was able to sprint all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run. The Arizona fans rose from their seats and devolved into a “U OF A!” chant that filled the warm outdoor ballpark.

Walsh, who entered the night scuffling, responded with an outside-the-park home run. He crushed one to right-center, handing Oregon the lead right back with a solo bomb.

“The last two or three weeks, we’ve played like our backs are against the wall,” Walsh said. “That’s how we did it this week.”

Austin Anderson came in for Spoljaric after six innings. After a leadoff single and an 0-1 count, Wasikowski came out for a mound visit. Anderson struck out Caulfield, but walked two of the next three hitters to load the bases.

The inning came down to Romero with two outs. With Arizona fans at their loudest volume of the night, Anderson got him to chase in the dirt and squeeze out of the sticky situation. As the Wildcats fans groaned, the most pumped up Oregon player was Thompson, who pumped his fists emphatically at home plate.

Oregon extended its lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh after back-to-back hit batters and a Tanner Smith RBI single. D. Smith nearly tacked on even more, but his scorching line drive was caught for an unassisted double play.

Matt Dallas walked the first batter in the eighth, but it was immediately erased on a double play. Tony Bullard then rocketed one over the left field fence for a solo homer. The double play proved massive, as it could have easily been a game-tying shot. Instead, Oregon still led 5-4.

Dallas came back out for the ninth, with the Ducks virtually out of arms. Wasikowski felt it would be irresponsible to put Josh Mollerus out there after he threw more than 40 pitches two days ago. 

Dallas got an out on the first pitch, then recorded a groundout to short. With Oregon one out away from victory, McClaughry hit a seeing-eye single to keep the game alive. It all came down to Davis, one of the most dangerous hitters in the country.

“Just get the next guy,” Dallas said. “Get ahead. Execute pitches. Not trying to do too much.”

Dallas did indeed stay composed, inducing a flyout to left to end the game and get the party started.

“It was a realization of all the people and all the time spent to make this thing go, to hold that trophy,” Smith said.

Oregon will await its seeding in the NCAA Selection Show on Monday at 9 a.m. But for now, they can celebrate, and they did just that in Saturday’s dogpile and postgame celebration. Emotions were at an all-time high, with hugs, fist bumps and unprintable expletives being thrown about.

“This is the best team I’ve ever been a part of,” Spoljaric said. “It’s an unreal group of guys all pulling for each other. From the top down, you’ve got leaders like Tanner Smith, Gavin Grant, Drew Cowley, all of them. They all took the freshmen under their wings and really showed them the ropes. I’m personally so grateful for them.”