No. 11 Oregon (7-2) used its extremely-hot offense to open the series against the Columbia Lions (1-3) 20-11. 

“We played an errorless game. We gave up some runs, but got a lot more runs,” head coach Mark Wazikowski said. 

The Ducks were helped by a never-ending cavalcade of hits, especially Dominic Hellman’s eight RBIs on two grand slams. Grayson Grinsell dealt 5.1 innings with six earned and seven hits, but secured his first win of the season. 

The Lions’ offense kept them in it as the game progressed, but Columbia failed to hold Oregon’s offense, as the Ducks tallied a boatload of efficient runs. 

Columbia traveled to Eugene after dropping its first series of the season 2-1, but each of the two losses were decided by two runs or less. 

The Ducks, riding the red-hot bats of Maddox Molony and Burke-Lee Mabeus, entered the series against Columbia after taking the last three of a four-game slugfest against the University of Rhode Island. 

Mabeus posted an incredible 4-5 day with three RBIs while Molony struggled and went 1-5. 

“[Coach Wazikowski] pulled me aside, just saying to ‘really trust your talent that you have and stay through the middle.’ I was just trying to be as relaxed as I can and put good swings on balls,” Mabeus said. 

Oregon’s ace Grinsell opened the game by fanning two and allowing just one hit in the opening frame. Columbia’s Alex Sotiropoulos answered with a 1-2-3 first inning with a strikeout on just 10 pitches.

Grinsell struggled to punch out batters, and surrendered the game’s first two runs after a Jack Kail blast to right center drove in a runner on first. In just the second inning, Oregon faced a 3-0 deficit. 

Ben Fishel pulled a weak Grinsell breaking ball to deep left field for a double, which scored a runner from second. The inning could have turned much more sour if not for an athletic grab by Jeffery Heard at the wall. 

The Ducks’ first two hits came from their first two batters in the second. They didn’t waste any time scoring their first run, as Mabeus drilled a double off the wall and brought in Anson Aroz from third. Oregon tied the game up and subsequently blew the game wide open. 

Hellman tore the cover off the ball in his first offering at the plate and sent a grand slam off the left field scoreboard. 7-3 Ducks in a matter of minutes. 

That stretch chased Sotiropoulos after 2.0 IP with six hits and seven earned runs, and he received the loss. 

“We hadn’t been super clean with our [offensive] execution and I thought today was probably our cleanest day for execution,” Wazikowski said. 

The bottom of the third saw another run driven in as Oregon secured a firm grip on the contest. 

Heard opened up the fourth by putting one deep into the parking lot behind right field. Five more were added in the frame — three coming from a Mabeus RBI double. 

Another explosion brought the Ducks ahead by nine with no signs of a Lions’ comeback after another clean inning from Grinsell and the defense. 

In Grinsell’s last efforts of the contest, the Lions found a way to generate some offense, as Columbia scored its fifth run off Oregon’s starter. The first batter that reliever Ryan Featherston faced crushed a two-run homer to left and brought the Lions within six. 

Oregon responded to Columbia’s offensive fire with two runs of its own to prove that the Lions were completely outclassed in Friday’s series opener. In each inning that Columbia scored, Oregon responded with at least two runs in the ensuing frame. 

But Columbia wouldn’t go down easily. A four-run seventh inning forced multiple mound visits and only ended after Featherston gave way to Jaxon Jordan, who sat down the last batter to end the Lions’ rally. 

“Jaxon came in and was fantastic again. It’s his second outing of the year where he’s been outstanding. It was good to see,” Wazikowski said. 

Another response was warranted for Oregon, and it came once again from the bat of Hellman. On the first pitch of the at-bat, with the bases loaded, Hellman knocked his second grand slam of the game to put the Ducks up eight runs in the bottom of the seventh. 

“I feel like when my direction is going through the middle, I can see the pitches a lot better and recognize spin and recognize when I’m on time to a fastball, and that’s exactly what I did,” Hellman said.

Hellman recorded the first multi-grand slam game in Ducks’ history as Oregon took the series opener in emphatic fashion.

Another run was added in the eighth, as the Ducks took a 20-11 win. First pitch for the first game is set for 11:05 a.m.