Oregon’s club baseball team (13-3 overall, 3-2 Pacific Northwest Baseball Conference) proved it can win in more ways than one against rival Western Washington last weekend, sweeping the four-game, non-league series by scores of 14-13, 7-3, 5-4 and 4-2 in Sunday’s finale.
After outlasting the Vikings Friday, the Ducks opened Saturday with Bryan Hansen on the hill. The junior settled down after allowing a leadoff bomb to Western Washington’s shortstop Kyle Tait, surrendering just two more runs on four hits the rest of the way in a complete game victory.
Hansen helped his own cause early, launching a two-run home run in the bottom the first to atone for his early miscue and give his team a lead. The Ducks used a big third inning, and some sloppy Viking fielding, to come up with all the rest of the offense they would need.
Quentin Clark opened the frame with a single and moved up to second on Scott Marchione’s walk. Cam Gaulke then reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced to second on a throwing error by Western Washington’s third baseman, scoring Clark. Both Marchione and Gaulke would come around before the inning ended, widening the Ducks’ lead to 5-2 and putting the game of the Vikings’ reach.
Oregon’s second win of the afternoon came in dramatic fashion.
Down 4-2 heading into the last of the seventh, Oregon found the runs it needed to keep the game alive.
Hansen blasted a triple to the center field wall to bring home Gaulke, who had reached on an infield single, and put himself on third with the tying run with only one down. Travis Brown worked a walk and Andrew Murphy was given a free pass, bringing rightfielder Corey Johnson to the plate.
Johnson, as he has done many times already this season, delivered, lifting a fly ball deep enough into center to bring Hansen around with the equalizer.
With the game made new again, it was time for the Ducks to work the magic that has brought them two walkoff wins already in 2007.
Number nine man Brad Terada opened with a single, moved into scoring position on Clark’s sacrifice and scampered to third on a wild pitch. Marchione drew a walk, leaving the game on Gaulke’s bat.
Oregon’s left fielder stung the first pitch he saw into deep right for a game-winning sacrifice fly.
Stingy pitching took the spotlight away from the bats during Sunday’s matinee. Lefty Evan Coller made his first start of the season coming back from injury. Coller struggled early, with his curveball staying up in the zone for the better part of the first three frames. He eventually settled down, giving up two earned runs on seven hits over five innings of work.
“It was just my first outing coming off injury, so I just wanted to throw strikes and keep it low. I struggled with that early on, but I tried to keep it together for five innings,” Coller said.
The Ducks used a two-run blast from second baseman Andrew Murphy and run-scoring singles from Hansen and Johnson to grab a 4-2 edge after four innings, but ran into trouble in the sixth.
After Western Washington with two straight hits, Coller was lifted and All-American closer Greg Wells was called from the bullpen. Wells dazzled, putting out the fire in the sixth, and a working around an error to close out the Vikings in the seventh.
“I just came in trying to throw strikes and get out of the inning. I like those pressure situations, but the main thing was just to come in and throw strikes,” Wells said.
From here, Oregon heads south to California for three games with Cal on April 7-8 and then returns to Eugene for its final home series April 14-15 against Evergreen University before closing out the regular season in Washington with series against Eastern Washington University and Western Washington.
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