The Ducks brought the rain both figuratively and literally in their blowout win against the Xavier Musketeers.

Oregon baseball (13-3, 2-1 Big Ten) took down the Xavier Musketeers (5-12) 10-0 off the backs of their bullpen, with Toby Twist (5.0 IP, 1 H, 6 K, 0 R) getting his second start of the season. The bats were hot for the Ducks with Jax Gimenez (2-3, 4 RBI, HR) and Drew Smith (1-3, 1 RBI, HR) dominating at the plate.

Twist got off to a slow start in the first, walking leadoff man Jorge Valdes, but Burke-Lee Mabeus had his back after picking off Valdes when he attempted to steal second. There was a little controversy shortly after when Xavier’s catcher Jonathan Fitz, who reached first on an error from Brayden Jaksa in right field, was struck by a line drive from right fielder Clay Burdette and was allowed to stay on base in what would normally be an out due to interference.

“Tobys really good,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said postgame. “He wasn’t super sharp at the beginning and then he was able to find it again and be able to turn it into something that was really positive.”

Jaksa, who is usually behind the plate at catcher, was put in right field following Jack Brooks’ collision into the outfield wall in the series at Purdue over the weekend.

“(Jack)’s not 100 percent right now,” Wasikowski said. “Jack was our starting center fielder, gotta make adjustments. Brayden Jaksa is a really talented player and getting him more plate appearances and places to play, you gotta try and find places for really good players to play.”

Oregon’s bats started cold against Xavier’s Joey Young, with only one hit in the first, but the second inning saw the Ducks demolish the ball, as they slashed four hits, including an RBI infield single from Mabeus and a grand slam from Jax Gimenez to make it 5-0 heading into the third as rain started to fall on PK Park. 

“That’s the first grand slam of my life,” Gimenez said. “Not really much of a home run guy, first grand slam I’ve ever felt, good time to have it.”

When it rains, it pours, or at least it was for Oregon, who started the bottom of the third with a first pitch home run from Smith that soared over the left field wall to make it 6-0.

The runs kept coming with the Ducks scoring two in the fourth against Xavier reliever Michael Murphy, with runners getting on from walks and hit by pitches and scoring on sacrifice flies from Gabe Miranda and Maddox Molony. A game of pickle between Jaksa and Xavier allowed Mabeus to score the lone run in the bottom of the fifth to make it 8-0 heading into the latter half of the game.

“The biggest thing was the team performance,” Gimenez said. “Last week our biggest thing was the day after an off day, to really show up in the midweek, and last week we didn’t show up. I think we beat ourselves last week and the goal was to come out and play our game today and I think we did that really well.”

Tanner Bradley came in to relieve Twist at the top of the sixth inning and continued the shutout until the 8th inning when Blake Crawford picked things up to close it out. In that time, the Ducks’ bats cooled off, with no hits or runs through two innings.

“Theres a lot of talent (in the bullpen),” Wasikowski said. “I’ve said it a lot, the experience piece is a real thing, we don’t have a bunch of guys that have had a bunch of experience so the only way they’re gonna get that experience is to actually be pitching in these games.”

The game would end in the bottom of the eighth on a 10-run rule from a walk-off RBI  single from Naulivou Lauaki to close out the first leg of their two game series against Xavier.

The Ducks will play their final game against Xavier tomorrow at 3:05 p.m. at PK Park.