The Ducks (11-5, 2-1 Pac-12) fell to one of the better West Coast Conference teams on Tuesday night as they really struggled defensively in a 15-5 loss. After splitting a pair of games against the Pilots (9-5) last season, Oregon hosted Portland for a midweek game that saw the Ducks’ pitching staff struggle mightily.
It allowed 15 runs on 16 hits while walking eight and hitting two. It doesn’t really matter what the offense does on a night where the defense puts up numbers like those. The Pilots’ pitching staff, however, needed only two pitchers to defeat the Ducks.
“I didn’t give them a [postgame] message,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “I think the game gave them the message today.”
Turner Spoljaric took the mound for Oregon on Tuesday. Still looking to find his stride in 2024, Spoljaric entered with a 0-1 record and an ERA of 9.95 across 6.1 innings. He came in with just one strikeout to five walks on the season, and his night quickly got off to a bad start.
Portland’s Brady Bean took the first pitch of Tuesday’s contest out to straight-away center field to give the Pilots the earliest-possible lead, 1-0.
Portland’s Morgan Codron’s night started the same way Spoljaric’s did: with an early mistake.
Justin Cassella imitated Bean with a leadoff shot to center field of his own. His fourth homer of the season erased Portland’s lead about as early as possible. Immediately after, Anson Aroz sent a ball off the wall for a double and would later score on a Jeffery Heard sac-fly as Oregon took a 2-1 lead into the second.
Spoljaric’s second inning was no better. A leadoff walk and a string of hits hurt Oregon’s righty for four runs during the four-hit frame. His day would end after two innings of five-run ball on six hits and a walk. He threw 44 pitches during his two-inning outing and his ERA rose to 12.96.
“He wasn’t locating his fastball,” Wasikwoski said of Spoljaric. “He was throwing down the middle of the plate. Portland’s kind of an old team. Those guys are a bunch of old guys. I think they started a bunch of juniors and seniors and they looked like it when they took good at-bats.”
Ryan Cooney responded with a solo shot in the bottom of the second. Zach Tolgia launched one of his own for Portland in the top of the third. Both teams combined for six homers on Tuesday.
Jacob Walsh led the bottom of the fourth off with a moonshot over the Oregon bullpen that landed on the back of the player development area building’s roof. Walsh’s sixth of the year had to have been one of the longest homers in PK Park history. His bomb made it 6-4 in the fourth.
Ryan Featherston’s relief effort was to no avail. The Ducks’ pitcher was responsible for five earned runs across 2.1 innings. He allowed four hits while striking-out two and walking three. His day ended during a five-run fifth inning that saw Portland open up an 11-5 lead.
Codron’s day ended shortly after the Walsh homer. He finished with four complete innings of five-run ball in which he allowed six hits and a walk while fanning three. His replacement, Tanner Douglas, picked up Tuesday’s win after his 5.0 relief outing. Douglas was brilliant as he allowed no runs on two hits while fanning four across his five innings. Spoljaric earned the loss.
Cole Stokes’ relief outing was just as bad as his predecessors’. He threw only 14 of his 35 total pitches for strikes while allowing three earned runs, walking three and hitting one across his 1.2 innings of work on a night where the Ducks’ pitching staff just wasn’t clicking. He exited with the bases loaded in the sixth, a situation that his replacement, Collin Clarke, couldn’t work Oregon out of.
The first batter Clarke faced — Toglia — doubled off the wall to drive in another pair of Pilots. Toglia finished 3-6 with two RBIs and was just a triple short of the cycle.
From the fourth inning on, Oregon’s offense went cold. The Ducks tallied eight hits on the night, but only two came after the fourth frame. Only Cassella recorded multiple hits against Portland’s pitching staff.
The Ducks hung with the Pilots early, but a combination of poor pitching and offensive struggles sealed Oregon’s midweek loss.
“Any aspect of the game, we got beat at,” Wasikowski said.
Oregon now holds a 108-41 all-time record over the Pilots. The Ducks are 35-12 in Eugene and 5-3 in the Wasikowski era. The Ducks will play the Pilots once more this season in Portland on Apr. 2.
Oregon’s next test is a three-game Pac-12 series against California (11-3, 3-0 Pac-12) at PK Park from Mar. 15-17. First pitch on Friday is set for 5:05 p.m.
