It wasn’t exactly the recipe Oregon baseball had in mind.

A spot start, a taxed bullpen and an opponent coming off its biggest win of the season.

Still, when the stakes were at their highest, the Ducks utilized clutch hitting and a resilient bullpen showing to hold off Illinois (20-19, 8-10 Big Ten) in an 11-5, series-clinching win.

With the win, Oregon improves to 28-11 (12-6 Big Ten). The other good news? The Ducks will play their remaining 16 regular season games on the West Coast, with road trips including a one-game series next week against Oregon State and trips to Washington and UCLA.

Miles Gosztola did more than enough to give the Ducks a chance to win, tossing 4.1 innings of three-run ball in his first Sunday start of the season due to Cal Scolari’s injury last week.

From there, Oregon’s offense jumped all over the Illini pitching staff, plating 11 runs on 15 hits, including a four-run seventh inning that put the game well out of reach. The Ducks scored 10 or more runs in each of their three games against the Illini after being held relatively in check for most of conference play.

For a bit, it looked like Sunday’s contest would be far more taut than it was.

Oregon struck first, plating a run on a Brayden Jaksa RBI single. Since entering conference play, the 6-foot-6 freshman has emerged as one of the Ducks’ best hitters with his batting average now sitting at .346. ​

Illinois took the lead in the second when Illini second baseman J.R. Nelson laced a double down the right-field line, but the Ducks eventually retook their advantage with three fifth-inning homers from Naulivou Lauaki Jr., Ryan Cooney and Maddox Molony. Oregon smashed three homers in an inning for the first time since June 9, 2024. Molony also blasted home runs in all three games this series, a positive sign that he’s broken out of his early-season slump.  

Michael Farina uncorked a solo blast in the bottom of the inning, but from there, the Illinois offense was of little resistance. Oregon posted 15 hits, went 7-18 with runners on and went 3-9 to begin innings. The Ducks scored nine runs over their final four offensive innings, completely dismantling what was left of a limited Illinois bullpen.

Gosztola, Leo Uelman, Cooper Markham and Tanner Bradley combined to go the distance for Oregon. Despite allowing a run Sunday, Bradley’s ERA this season sits at 1.71 through 31.2 innings of work.

Oregon takes on Oregon State in Corvallis at 5:35 p.m. Wednesday.