On the second day of spring break, students are escaping campus, and the Ducks are no different after escaping a narrow victory over the Northwestern Wildcats.

No. 19 Oregon baseball (19-3, 7-1 Big Ten) took down Northwestern (7-11-1, 1-4 Big Ten) 6-4 today on a solid performance from starting pitcher Collin Clarke (7 IP, 10 K, 4 R, 5 H). Drew Smith (2-4, 2 RBI, HR) and Gabe Miranda (2-3, 2 RBI, HR) headlined the box score on the offensive end in the nail-biter win to secure the series.

It didn’t take long for Clarke to find his groove against the Wildcats, finding the zone repeatedly with two strikeouts in the first inning. On the flip side, the Ducks took that momentum to the plate with Smith sending a ball deep over the left field wall for a two-run homer, scoring Dominic Hellman, who reached first on a walk. 

Northwestern responded quickly with third baseman Owen McElfatrick hitting a double, putting two runners in scoring position with designated hitter Nick Barron reaching first on a walk previously. A sacrifice fly from centerfielder Jack Lausch and a fielder’s choice groundout from first baseman Noah Ruiz tied things up 2-2 before a double play ended the inning to escape the jam.

The bottom of the second had a bit of deja vu as Molony reached first on a hit by pitch before Miranda demolished a ball over deep center field for a two-run homer. Brayden Jaksa followed up the homer with a solo shot of his own to deep center to go up 5-2.

After a quiet third inning, the Ducks brought back the tower power with a solo shot from Ryan Cooney in the bottom of the fourth to go up 6-2.

In the top of the fifth, catcher Jay Slater brought some life back to the Wildcats offense with a two-run homer to left-center field, scoring Ruiz, who reached on a single just before the homer. Clarke recovered from the homer with a strikeout to close out the top of the fifth, 6-4. Clarke found himself in another tough spot in the sixth after letting up two singles, but he was able to escape the jam with another two strikeouts.

Clarke was relieved in the top of the eighth by Tanner Bradley, who kicked off his appearance with a three-pitch strikeout before letting on two baserunners with one out. Bradley worked himself into a sticky spot after a pop-up put runners at the corners, but he struck out Lausch to close out the top half of the eighth. 

The Ducks closed out the game with Devin Bell and held Northwestern to no runs to wrap up a strong 6-4 win to secure the series.

Oregon plays its final game of the series against the Wildcats tomorrow at 12:05 p.m. at PK Park.