After starting the weekend hot against Arizona and losing it all against UC Irvine, the Ducks were all in against Vanderbilt and never showed their poker face in Las Vegas.

Oregon baseball (10-1) took down powerhouse Vanderbilt (7-5) in a nail-biting 6-4 victory to finish out the weekend on top at the Live Like Lou Las Vegas College Baseball Classic. The Ducks dominated on strong pitching from starter Cal Scolari (6.0 IP, 8 K, 2 H, 0 R), who commanded the Commodores with high velocity fastballs and nasty changeups, and strong hitting from Dominic Hellman (2-4, HR) and Maddox Molony (2-4, HR).

Things got off to a slow start offensively for both teams, with Scolari battling against the Commodores to start the outing with multiple full counts, but he managed to pull out three strikeouts after a leadoff single to get off to a hot start at the top of the order. Vanderbilt’s Nate Taylor retired the side in order with ease, only throwing nine pitches with two pop-ups and a strikeout in the first. 

The bats stayed cold until the bottom of the second, when Maddox Molony sent a ball over the left field wall for the Ducks’ first hit of the ball game to go up 1-0 early. The Ducks continued to warm up the bats with Angel Laya hitting a leadoff single in the bottom of the third, which set up a sacrifice bunt from Jack Brooks to put Laya in scoring position.

Ryan Cooney sent Laya home on a double into right field before being sent home himself on a first pitch single up the middle from Jax Gimenez to make it 3-0. 

Vanderbilt continued to struggle at the plate through the first four innings, with Scolari striking out seven with no runs by the end of the fourth inning. The Commodores’ struggles continued when Taylor let up a solo home run from Burke-Lee Mabeus in the bottom of the fourth to put the Ducks up 4-0.

The defense continued to stay hot for Oregon, with Mabeus picking off Logan Johnstone in the sixth. Hellman kept things rolling in the bottom of the sixth with his second home run of the weekend, a solo shot to left center field, and Gabe Miranda sent a ball into the swimming pool in deep right center field shortly after to go up 6-0.

In the top of the seventh inning, Toby Twist relieved Scolari and continued to shut out the Commodores, striking out two with only one hit. Vanderbilt made a change, bringing on Luke Guth to try and stop the bleeding in the bottom of the seventh.

Twist wasn’t able to hold out the shutout after a lead-off home run from Korbin Reynolds, and a two-run shot from Mike Mancini made it 6-3 late. Twist was pulled with two outs, bringing on Luke Morgan, who let up a home run from Braden Holcomb on his second pitch before escaping the nightmare inning with a strikeout.

Oregon closed out the nail-biter in the ninth after bringing on lefty Blake Crawford to relieve Morgan. In his first career appearance, Crawford would walk a batter before being pulled quickly in favor of Devin Bell in his second outing of the weekend. 

A popped-up bunt to Mabeus behind the plate was the first out in what felt like an endless inning, followed by a full count walk to load the bases. Bell finished with a strikeout and a pop-up to secure the save.

The Ducks head home to face in-state rivals Oregon State at home on March 3 at 3:05 p.m.