The Ducks (38-14, 19-8 Pac-12) finished off a sweep of USC (22-24, 7-16 Pac-12)@@checked on team websites@@ with a 6-3 victory Monday night to improve to 11 games over .500 in conference play. Jeff Gold picked up the win for the Ducks to improve to 7-3 and Jimmie Sherfy shut the door with his 16th save of the season.
“It was a much-needed sweep,” designated hitter Aaron Jones said. “We’ve come out a couple times and been unable to get it done, and it was definitely much needed.”
USC took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning after a routine ground ball escaped through the legs of shortstop J.J. Altobelli, turning an easy out into a Trojan run. The Ducks tied the game an inning later before Matt Foat hit a home run off Gold to give USC the 3-1 lead.@@I was following the game on Twitter@@
Oregon had the chance to score in the bottom half of the first inning after Aaron Payne hit a lead-off triple, but the Ducks were unable to cash in. Payne was the first of two Duck baserunners to be retired at home in the game.
Things nearly took a physical turn at the close of the fifth inning when several players from USC’s dugout started jawing in the direction of Thomas Walker. Oregon third base coach Jay Ulhman yelled at the Trojan bench, prompting more chirping, though nothing more came of it.
“My players love Coach Ulhman, and that animosity might have woke a sleeping dog up,” Horton said.
Before the Ducks took the field in the sixth inning they huddled in the dugout, where Horton said he reminded his team to stay focused on the task at hand rather than the drama from the Trojan dugout.
Walker led off the Ducks’ half of the sixth inning with a walk followed by a double from Andrew Mendenhall that scored the Ducks’ second run. Oregon added two more runs in the frame to take a 4-3 lead after six.
Joey Housey pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the Ducks after Gold started things off with a six-inning performance. Housey started the eighth inning on the mound but was pulled before recording an out, in favor of Tommy Thorpe.
Sherfy took over with one out in the eighth inning and struck out four of the five batters he faced in recording a five-out save. Sherfy got through the ninth inning effortlessly, needing just 11 pitches to strike out the side.
Sherfy entered in a tight spot in the eighth with runners on the corners and just one out, with the Ducks leading by just one. He retired the first two batters he faced to maintain the lead before Oregon struck twice in the bottom of the eighth to widen the lead to 6-3.
“(The insurance runs) felt good,” Sherfy said. “It took a little pressure off my back.”
The Ducks’ win comes after the release of the Baseball America poll saw the Ducks ranked sixth — their best ranking since the program was reinstated four years ago. With just two weekends left in their season though, the Ducks aren’t beginning to look at the finish line.
“I guess the outside sources of not us are counting the games now,” Gold said. “We’re just trying to take it one game at a time and it was fun to come out and get three ‘W’s against a Pac-12 team.”
Three Ducks had multi-hit games as Payne went 2 for 3, Jones went 2 for 5 and Brett Hambright finished 2 for 4. As a team the Ducks racked up nine base hits to the Trojans’ five.
Oregon is now three games ahead of second-place Arizona in the Pac-12 standings, but Arizona has three more conference games remaining than the Ducks. The Ducks host Seattle for a nonconference series this weekend before traveling to Corvallis to finish off the regular season.