Oregon head coach George Horton had Oregon’s Sunday afternoon in the cold and rain as nothing more than a “grinder.”
“That was a grinder for sure,” he said. “For both teams.”
In the freezing rain, the Ducks outlasted the Mississippi State Bulldogs 6-5 in 11 innings at PK Park on Sunday to secure their first series win of the season.
“Coming from Oregon, I’m used to it,” Beaverton native and Sunday’s winning pitcher, Kenyon Yovan said of the conditions. “It’s Duck weather as we say.”
Any extra inning game could be categorized as a “grinder.” But for five innings on Sunday, this game did not look like it would be heading in that direction.
The Ducks got things started with a big second inning. They plated four runs on five hits, a walk and an error, all with two outs. Kyle Kasser capped the rally with a single to right field to score Daniel Patzlaff. That would be the end of Mississippi State starter Graham Ashcraft’s day. He was pulled after 1.2 innings after allowing 4 runs (2 earned), six hits and one walk.
With a four-run cushion, Oregon starter Cole Stringer settled in nicely on the mound. Through five innings, Stringer had only allowed 3 hits and no runs.
But the Bulldogs got to him in the sixth. After retiring the first batter, he allowed five straight hits, capped off by a bases loaded double to Elijah McNamee which plated two and cut Oregon’s lead to 4-3. He exited with runners on second and third.
“He was up a little bit,” Horton said of his starter. “He’s a wiggle guy and I don’t know if the ball flattened out. I don’t fault Cole at all … they were just jumping on the first pitch.”
On the day, Springer allowed eight hits and three runs (all earned) in his 5.1 innings of work.
Reliever Parker Kelly would enter in relief of Stringer and worked into the seventh before running into trouble. After a hit batsmen and a single, sophomore Jake Mangum doubled to deep left center. That brought in a runner and tied the game at 4-4. A strikeout later, Ryan Gridley blooped a single to center to score another and put the Bulldogs up 5-4.  
After their productive second inning, the Ducks bats went cold. Mississippi State reliever Ryan Cyr worked well out of the pen in relief of Ashcraft. He went 5.2 innings and allowed one run on two hits and three walks while striking out seven.
“He did a good job,” third baseman Kyle Kasser said. “He shut us down. We saw him early on in the series and just couldn’t figure him out.”
It took them a few innings, but the Ducks would eventually figure out Cyr. Oregon managed to land runners on first and second to start the eighth inning and Cyr was then pulled for reliever Ryan Rigby. He promptly gassed his first pitched about four feet over the catcher’s head to allow both Oregon runners to advance.
The next batter, Tim Susnara, would sky a deep fly ball to right to bring Dyer in to tie the game at five apiece.
From there, the game became a battle of the bullpens. Neither team managed anything of substance until the bottom of the 11th, when shortstop Daniel Patzlaff walked to lead off the inning. A sac bunt moved him to second before Carson Breshears came in to pinch run. This set up an opportunity for Kasser that he would not pass up.
Kasser delivered a sharp single to center and Breshears raced home. He was then mobbed by his teammates who came streaming out the dugout.
The Ducks’ homestand continues Monday night as they welcome UC Davis to Eugene for one game. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris