Saturday will undoubtedly go down as one of — if not the — worst day of Oregon’s baseball season.
The No. 10 Ducks entered the day looking for the series win over Ohio State, which was still searching for its first conference win of the season.
Oregon entered with the fewest losses in the Big Ten conference with two, a number that doubled after an atrocious day at the ballpark.
The Ducks got swept in their doubleheader with the Buckeyes (11-10 and 8-6) to lose their first series of the season to the last-place team in the Big Ten. Terrible.
The first game of the doubleheader will likely go down as one of Oregon’s worst losses of the season. The Ducks led 4-0, 7-3 and 10-6 at different points, but disastrous pitching performances from a number of Oregon arms gifted Ohio State just its first conference win of the season.
Maddox Molony hit a three-run jack in the first game to put Oregon ahead 4-0. Molony was the bright spot of the terrible day with his three-homer, nine-RBI doubleheader. Anson Aroz and Jacob Walsh also tallied homers, but it wouldn’t matter. The Oregon pitching staff was too bad to overcome in either game.
Collin Clakre started the first game, but he went only two innings, allowing five runs on five hits and issuing a pair of free passes. Walks were perhaps the Ducks’ main catalyst on Saturday. Across the two games, Oregon pitchers walked 13 hitters and hit five of them, providing the Buckeyes with chances to drive them in, which they did. Ohio State was 14/30 (.358) with runners on base on Saturday.
The Ducks used six pitchers in the first game, but they allowed 10 earned runs on 12 hits and blew a slew of leads. Aroz and Molony drove in nine of Oregon’s 10 runs in the first game. Game two was just as rough on the Oregon bullpen.
After starter Will Sanford (two innings, three hits, four runs, five walks) was pulled, three more Oregon arms were used, but they too were of little use aside from Ryan Featherston, who recorded 4.1 shutout innings in the loss.
A three-run homer from Ohio State’s Tyler Pettorini in the bottom of the eighth erased yet another Oregon lead and sunk the Ducks’ chances at redemption or a series win.
Aroz and Molony again combined for five RBIs in a game in which they both homered, but game two of the doubleheader proved to use the same script as game one, one that spelt disaster and embarrassment for No. 10 Oregon.
The Ducks will surely plummet in the national rankings and the Big Ten standings after their disastrous Saturday in Columbus. The series loss needs to be a serious wake-up call for Oregon as the Ducks return home for a midweek game against Portland on Wednesday and a three-game series against Michigan next weekend.
