No. 11 Oregon’s (10-2) offense came back to earth in the final two games of the Ducks’ series against Columbia (1-6), but it gave the pitching staff a chance to shine on Sunday, and it did just that. On the back of Will Sanford’s six shutout frames, the Ducks recorded their third shutout win of the season.
“Just walking out of the weekend 4-0,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said of his favorite moment from the series. “That was the objective and we were able to do that.”
The freshman Sanford made his third-career start on Sunday. Entering the contest, the Ducks hadn’t lost a Sanford start on the young season, and that would continue in dominant fashion.
Burke-Lee Mabeus and Ryan Cooney — who both entered Sunday’s game hitting .636 on the series — teamed up for the contest’s first run. Mabeus doubled down the left-field line and came in to score when Cooney legged out his third infield single of the weekend.
From the first inning into the fourth, Sanford retired a string of nine-straight hitters to protect the narrow lead.
“He competed,” Wasikowski said of Sanford. “He made pitches when he needed to… I just thought he competed really well today.”
His counterpart, Columbia starter Joe Sheets, did a tremendous job silencing an Oregon offense that had accounted for 63 runs across the series’ first three games. Cooney’s RBI in the second was about all the offense Oregon could muster until after he was removed for the sixth inning.
Sheets finished with five full innings of work as he used 88 pitches to fan four and walk one. He allowed the lone run on five hits. Still, he earned Sunday’s loss despite his quality start.
A dropped ball in right-center field gave the Lions a scoring opportunity in the sixth, but Sanford worked out of it with a strikeout and a groundout. He gave the Lions’ dugout a shrug on his way off the field in what would be his final inning.
“It gets me hype,” Sanford said of his flair. “But it also gets the team fired up and that’s what I want to do.”
Sanford only allowed four baserunners (one hit, two walks, one error) across his six shutout innings. He fanned a career-high seven hitters on 95 pitches in his incredible outing. He earned Sunday’s well-deserved, the first of his career.
“As a starter, you want to go deep,” Sanford said. “I always plan to go deep into a game. The deeper you go, the less guys you have to use.”
The Ducks’ bullpen was tasked with protecting a 1-0 lead when Santiago Garcia took over in the seventh inning. He picked up right where Sanford left off by pitching a scoreless frame and fanning a pair of Lions.
Columbia reliever Griffin Palfrey walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh before Anson Aroz wore the Ducks’ 18th pitch of the weekend to double the lead. Maddox Molony brought another run home with an RBI fielder’s choice as the pressure on the bullpen lightened significantly.
Garcia fanned four across just 1.2 innings before turning the pitching duties over to Jaxon Jordan — who struck-out the first batter he faced. Seth Mattox recorded the game’s final two outs.
“Our bullpen, we’re all dogs,” Garcia said. “I think we just go out there and go shove.”
Carter Garate added to the lead with an RBI double in the eighth to plate Cooney for the 10th time in the series. Mason Neville followed it with a single of his own to drive in Garate and put the game out of reach. Two more came in on an Aroz single to clinch the series sweep.
“I would say that there’s things to improve on for sure,” Garate said. “But I think we’ve set a good stone to build on. We broke records this weekend and we’re looking to build on that.”
The Ducks scored 70 total runs on the weekend, 35 of which came in one game. Oregon abused Columbia for four games at PK Park. The Ducks are back in action for a midweek game against Utah Tech on Tuesday at 4:05 p.m.
