Parker Stinson hadn’t touched the field in an Oregon uniform until head coach Mark Wasikowski called his number with the winning run on third in the ninth.
He made an immediate impact with his new team, driving in the winning run and handing Oregon a 4-3 win over Rutgers.
No. 9 Oregon (18-4, 6-1 Big Ten) opened its series with Rutgers (9-13, 1-3 Big Ten) in first place in the Big Ten standings after sweeping USC to open conference play and taking two of three from Minnesota last weekend.
It was a slow and steady, evenly-placed game on a rainy Friday afternoon at PK Park, but the Ducks outlasted their opponents for another conference win.
A four-hit third inning from the Scarlet Knights gave Rutgers the series’ first advantage. Both Peyton Bonds and Ty Doucette picked up RBIs as Oregon starter Grayson Grinsell relented his only earned runs of the game. Mason Neville’s team-leading 11th homer of the season got Oregon on the board in the bottom of the frame, but the Ducks trailed 2-1 after three frames.
Grinsell recorded his 200th-career strikeout as a part of his 6.1-inning outing. He allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits while fanning eight and walking two.
After the third inning, neither team could push much offense across. The teams were a combined 1-15 with two outs and 6-28 with runners on base in the series opener.
A two-RBI knock from Jacob Walsh put Oregon ahead in the sixth as he drove in Anson Aroz and Chase Meggers, but a fielding error from Jack Brooks in the top of the seventh ended Grinsell’s outing and extending the frame, allowing the game-tying run to cross on a Santiago Garcia wild pitch.
Garcia responded with a scoreless eighth, but the Ducks were unable to generate any sort of offense against Rutgers’ bullpen after the Walsh single.
Jaxon Jordan took the mound for the Ducks in the ninth, but allowed two runners to reach on free passes before he was subbed for Cole Stokes, who worked out of the frame to keep Rutgers off the board. Stokes earned his first win of the season despite recording just one out.
Walsh was struck by a pitch to get on to start the bottom of the ninth, but Brooks’ sacrifice bunt attempt failed to bring him into scoring position. But a Maddox Molony one-out double brought the winning run to third as Parker Stinson stepped up as a pinch hitter.
Stinson, who’d been injured all season after transferring from Indiana State, made his first appearance of the season in the ninth as the Ducks needed a ball to the outfield.
That’s exactly what he gave them. A fly ball to left plated Brooks on a sacrifice fly to give the Ducks the series-opening win.
The win serves as Oregon’s second walkoff win of the season (Dominic Hellman ended a game against Rhode Island with a fielding error in the 11th inning) and its first in Big Ten play. Collin Clarke will take the mound tomorrow at 2:05 pm as the Ducks hunt their third series win of conference play.
