Oregon already had 10 runs on 10 hits before GCU finally recorded its first base hit in the third. The No. 9 Ducks (15-3, 3-0 Big Ten) scored in all but two offensive runs to rebound from Tuesday’s 4-2 loss and take a dominant 16-6 win over the Grand Canyon University Antelopes (12-5).
Chase Meggers made his first start of the season after a finger injury kept him sidelined until this midweek series. He made an immediate impact in the first inning, driving Mason Neville (2-4, three runs) in with a sac-fly to left field. Anson Aroz and Jeffery Heard (3-5, four RBIs) both recorded RBI singles before Ryan Cooney brought home the Ducks’ fifth run of the frame with a sac-fly of his own.
“You just want to be able to win in a multitude of ways,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “I think we’re showing that we can do that, and that’s a positive.”
In all, Oregon tallied five runs on five hits in a long first inning to give its pitching staff some cushion in its bullpen-game effort.
Julian Hernandez made his first start of the season on the mound for the Ducks. He kicked off a contest that would feature five Oregon pitchers with his 2.1 innings of two-hit, two-run ball.
The Ducks weren’t done attacking GCU starter Cayden Collins.
A string of three-straight hits from the top of the Oregon lineup chased the righty from the contest and sparked a five-run second frame that featured RBI knocks from Cooney (1-3, four RBIs), Dominic Hellman (3-6, three runs, three RBIs) and Heard. Aroz (1-2, three RBIs) recorded the Ducks’ third sac fly in two innings as Oregon jumped even further ahead.
“It was an impressive first [few innings] for sure,” Wasikowski said.
Zach Yorke got GCU on the board in the third with a two-out double to right field. The Lopes added two more runs in the frame as they chased Hernandez from the game. Hernandez issued five free passes (four walks and a HBP), but his defense strung a pair of timely double plays together to minimize the damage to a pair of runs.
After the third inning, Oregon led GCU 10-2 with more sacrifice flies (three) than the Lopes had total hits (two).
The drizzly atmosphere at PK Park was a factor for both pitching staffs on Wednesday. The two squads combined for 18 free passes (15 walks and three HBPs) in the long, three-hour, 15-minute marathon.
GCU earned a couple of runs in the fourth on a wild pitch and sacrifice fly, but Hellman evened the frame in the home half of the inning with his seventh homer of the season, a two-run shot into the Lopes’ bullpen.
A pair of hits and a walk loaded the bases for GCU with nobody out in the top of the fifth and two runs came around before the Ducks turned their third double play to limit the damage. Oregon got one back in the sixth courtesy of a two-error inning from the Lopes.
“There were some loose things that got away from the opposing team,” Wasikowski said. “But, I thought our team, for the most part, played pretty clean. In pieces, we didn’t pitch clean, but in pieces we did.”
The seventh inning featured the second doubles of the night for both Walsh and Heard as well as Cooney’s second sac-fly of the night. Both Cooney and Heard recorded their fourth RBIs of the game as the Ducks added a pair of unneeded insurance runs.
“I feel good at the plate,” Heard said. “[Coach] Marder and I have kind of been working on some things recently. I didn’t get off to the start that I kind of wanted, but I think sticking with it and trusting him has gotten me here. I just got to keep building off it.”
Santiago Garcia was by far the best arm the Ducks used on Wednesday. He entered for the seventh inning and recorded two innings of one-hit, no-run ball while fanning three to earn his second win of the season.
“When you watch him pitch, sometimes [he looks like] he can pitch in the Major Leagues,” Wasikowski said of Garcia. “He just hasn’t been consistent yet. There’s nights when he looks like he could be pitching in a big-league bullpen, though.”
A final run came across in the bottom of the eighth on an Aroz HBP to enact the rarely-used run rule. Oregon took the series split and will take a 15-3 record into its weekend series with Minnesota (7-8, 1-2 Big Ten). First pitch of Friday’s contest is set for 4:05 p.m.
