The Oregon club baseball team swept Eastern Washington University this past weekend, improving its record to 10-4 overall, 3-0 Northern Pacific West Conference. The Ducks outscored the Eagles by 24 runs, and they posted scores of 12-5, 10-3, and 11-1.
“It was a good weekend,” Bryan Hansen said. “We put up a lot of runs, but we are expected to beat teams like that.”
Coach Kenny Swartwout agreed, saying that it was important to start off league play with three wins.
“They’re not the best team in our league, but that doesn’t mean you can take a team like that for granted. We got complacent for a stretch and let them get back into the second game. We have to keep playing our style and not let up.”
The first game of the series started off close, after the Eagles scored three runs in the top of the first inning off of Kyle Knapp. But those three runs were the only ones he allowed over the next three innings, and he left the game with a 7-3 lead.
Colton Grimes came on in relief, giving back two runs on two hits, narrowing the score to 7-5. That’s as close as Eastern Washington would get, as Oregon pulled away down the stretch, scoring two in the bottom of the fifth, and three in the sixth for the final of 12-5. Junior Ross Tiernan closed out the game on the mound, allowing no hits or runs.
Outfielder Vincent Hulstrom led the Ducks offensively, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and outfielder Quentin Clark continued his success at the plate, getting a hit in two at-bats and walking three times.
Game two went well for the Ducks. The team jumped out to an early 6-1 lead and cruised to a 10-3 finish. Clark went 4-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, and catcher Brad Terada went 3-for-4 with two RBIs. David Tinsley got the win from the mound, going four innings and giving up three runs on three hits, while striking out five.
The series finale on Sunday started slow. Through four and a half innings the score was 1-0 in favor of Oregon, and the Ducks didn’t have a hit. Their only run came on a Bryan Hansen sacrifice fly in the first inning.
Oregon’s quiet bats woke in the fifth inning, with second baseman Ben Woodcock getting the team’s first hit with a double to center field. Two errors and another sacrifice by Hansen ended the inning with the Ducks up 5-0.
The Ducks added another five runs in the sixth, and one in the seventh to end the game early at 11-1 due to the 10-run mercy rule.
Hansen started the game on the mound, and he threw all seven innings, giving up three hits and one run while striking out eight.
For the series, Scott Marchione continued his hot hitting, going 7-for-12 with eight RBIs, and Clark finished with eight runs scored. Clark was encouraged by the way the team responded to struggling early, but he thought they got lackadaisical.
“We let up on them, and allowed them to stick around. I mean, it’s good that we can turn it on when needed but we should always be attacking and not backing down,” Clark said.
The Ducks will travel to Seattle this weekend to play league rival Seattle University, who took two of three from the Ducks last year. According to Coach Swartwout, the team will also try to makeup at least two of the games postponed earlier last month with Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.
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