When the starters were in, it was a pristine pitchers duel. But as soon as the No. 12 Ducks (1-1, 0-0 Big Ten) and the Toledo Rockets (1-1, 0-0 MC) turned to their respective bullpens after five scoreless frames from their starters, it got ugly as an onslaught of walks on both sides led to an 5-3 Toledo victory.
After Grayson Grinsell’s solid start in Friday’s 9-2 win, the Ducks turned to Collin Clarke, who had a 6.41 ERA in 19.2 innings in 2024, took the mound for the Ducks as he looked to earn – at worst – a series split.
Clarke faced some early trouble in the second after allowing back-to-back hits to start the frame, but he recorded a pair of strikeouts and got JP Wagner to pop out to escape the jam.
A leadoff single and a walk put him in a similar spot in the third, but he worked out of it again, stranding another pair of runners. In all, Toledo and Oregon both left seven runners on base in the contest.
Clarke wouldn’t be tagged for any real damage at any point in his outing. He retired the final nine batters he faced and finished with five full innings of shutout baseball. Across his 71 pitches, he only allowed three hits and a walk while fanning seven, which is increasingly impressive when remembering Clarke only had 14 strikeouts all of last season (19.2 IP).
“I thought Clarke pitched really good,” Wasikowski said. “He had a couple of jams that he pitched out of very effectively. I thought he pitched very well. [He] pounded the strike zone.”
With any offensive help, he could have been in line for a win. Instead, he turned the ball over to senior transfer Julian Hernandez (7-2, 2.42 ERA at Whitman College in 2024) after five stellar innings.
Hernandez had an outing to forget in his Oregon debut. He walked the first two batters he faced before a fielding error by Jacob Walsh on a bunt loaded the bases with nobody out. He relented a two-RBI single to Troy Sudbrook and was pulled before he could record a single out.
Sam Boyle (2-2, 3.40 ERA in 2024 at Washington) relieved Hernandez, but Toledo pushed another pair of runs across in the frame on a Cole Cahill single to take a 4-0 advantage.
Unfortunately, the Ducks’ offense was having trouble with the Rockets’ starter, who was just as good as Clarke on Saturday.
Toledo’s RJ Shunck got the start for the Rockets. He was 1-4 with an ERA of 8.16 in 2024, but got his 2025 campaign off on the right track as he retired the first 10 batters he faced. He only needed 28 pitches to get through Oregon’s lineup the first time.
The Ducks strung a pair of hits together (Drew Smith and Anson Aroz) in the fourth, but a spectacular web gem from Luke Walton took extra bases away from Jeffery Heard and kept the game scoreless as it entered the fifth inning.
Shunck finished with five shutout innings of four-hit ball while fanning three. He didn’t issue a single walk across his 61 total pitches. His dominant effort earned him a well-deserved win.
“I’ve been impressed with Toledo’s pitching,” Wasikowski said. “They’ve been extremely effective and they have really good arms.”
Oregon finally got on the board in the bottom of the eighth as Mason Neville led the frame off with his first homer of the young season. Each of the next three Oregon hitters drew walks to set Oregon up with a bases-loaded, no-outs opportunity. A wild pitch plated Smith and Jeffery Heard recorded an RBI groundout to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Just like Hernandez’ outing in the sixth, each of the three arms used by Toledo in the eight issued costly walks, two of which came around to score.
The Rockets got one back in the top of the ninth on an RBI groundout from Luke Leto. Oregon went down silently in the ninth in its first loss of the season.
Oregon freshman catcher Coen Niclai made his first collegiate start on Saturday. In his first at-bat, Walton made an incredible diving catch in left-center field to rob Niclai of an extra-base hit. In his second at-bat, however, Niclai laced a single to left field for his first collegiate knock.
He finished 1-3 with a solid performance behind the plate before being pinch-hit for by Jack Brooks in the bottom of the ninth.
Freshman and Oregon native Gabe Howard threw the final three innings for the Ducks out of the pen. He allowed one run on two hits while walking one and fanning one on 37 pitches.
Game 2 will start at roughly 2:30. Jason Reitz will make his Oregon debut while the Ducks face Toledo’s Ryan Kennedy.
