Oregon scored in every offensive inning but the third and capitalized on 15 free passes from Rhode Island pitching to secure a long 19-12 win over the Rams and sweep Saturday’s doubleheader.
“We won two games today and that was the goal,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said.
After Oregon outlasted the Rams in 11 innings in the first game of the doubleheader, the Ducks’ offense got started early in game two. Anson Aroz launched his third homer of the year out to right-center to plate himself and Jacob Walsh, who reached on a fielding error.
The Rams jumped on Oregon starter Jason Reitz in the following frame. After Reitz issued a pair of walks to open the inning, the Rams strung together a trio of singles, another walk and a hit-by-pitch to erase Aroz’s blast and chase Reitz after just 52 pitches.
“I thought he pitched pretty good in the first inning,” Wasikowski said. “I think he had a flukey thing happen and in the second inning, it got away from him and I’m not too sure why.”
Retiz finished with 1.1 IP, five runs on four hits and three walks. Ian Umlandt entered with the bases loaded and one out in the second, and he only allowed one more run to cross before the inning mercifully ended, but Rhode Island had an early 5-2 lead.
Jax Gimenez led off the next inning with a double for his first collegiate hit and came around to score on a Ryan Cooney RBI groundout to narrow the Rams’ lead.
Evan Maloney exited in the second after a rogue pitch. He called for the trainers and immediately left the game, holding his elbow and not moving his throwing arm. He only threw 29 pitches in his injury-shortened outing.
Anthony Depino led the top of the fourth off with his third hit of the contest (he finished 4-5). Umlandt looked set to work out of a two-on, one-out jam, but an error on a pop fly to Carter Garate extended the inning and three unearned runs came across in the frame to extend the Rams’ lead to 8-3.
However, the Oregon offense went back to work in the bottom of the fourth. The Ducks took advantage of five-straight free passes to open up an eight-run inning and climb back into the contest. A slew of walks and hit batsmen spelled disaster for the Rams, who quickly surrendered their large lead. Walsh cranked a ground-rule double (the only hit in the frame) out to center to plate two in the crooked inning.
“Making them throw the ball over the plate,” Wasikowski said of his team’s approach. “Being patient. You’ve gotta be able to win in a lot of different ways. You’ve gotta be able to win by hitting the ball over the fence, you’ve gotta be able to win by bunting sometimes or stealing a base. We showed that we can win in a different way today and that was the first time we’ve shown that.”
In all, the Rams issued seven free passes in the fourth inning alone (part of their 15 total) as the wheels fell off for Rhode Island. When the frame finally ended, the Ducks were up to 11 runs on only three hits.
Walsh collected his second RBI double in as many innings as a part of a four-run fifth that expanded the Ducks’ advantage. Mason Neville hit his team-leading fourth homer of the season to the opposite field the following inning to make it a 16-9 lead.
“He got me on a changeup that I had rolled over on in the at-bat before that,” Neville said of his first blast. “So I was just really focused on letting it get deep. I didn’t exactly get all of that how I wanted to, but I put a good swing on it and let the ball travel a little more.”
Freshman Kellan Knox threw 2.1 solid innings of relief work. He allowed two runs on one hit across 35 pitches. Similar to his first outing — where he earned the win — he was subject to a good amount of loud contact, but minimized damage aside from a Jack Hopko (4-5, 4 RBIs) two-run homer in the seventh.
“All of our freshmen have really good arms,” Wasikowski said. “They just need more experience and we just need to be patient with our young arms, but we’ve got a really good group of them.”
Neville smacked another no-doubt, two-run homer off outfielder Ryan Thompson in the eighth to extend the lead. Tyler Jones closed out the ninth and the Ducks took a 2-1 series lead.
“The objective was to win two games today and we did,” Wasikowski said.
The final game of the series is slated for Sunday at 12:05, but could be flexed or cancelled with serious weather expected in Eugene for the remainder of the weekend. If the game happens, it’ll be Will Sanford for the Ducks.
