When Oregon (26-11, 13-7 Big Ten) starter Collin Clarke left the game, it was knotted in a 3-3 tie. Once he turned it over to the bullpen, the game went from a tight contest between two ranked teams to a 14-4, run-rule, blowout win for No. 10 UCLA.
“Yeah, it wasn’t good.” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “We don’t have a AAA team to be able to call guys up, so we gotta get them better. We gotta utilize the bullpen pieces better to where we don’t have that result.”
A chance to take a series from a top-10 team became a bad loss in the blink of an eye as things unraveled for the No. 16 Ducks in the late innings. Oregon’s bullpen was responsible for 11 runs (eight earned) as the Bruins (29-9, 13-10 Big Ten)
evened the series.
The wind blowing out to center pregame was a sign of things to come. Both starting pitchers surrendered homers to the first hitters they faced. Both offenses were on the board within the first 10 pitches they saw.
UCLA led just seven pitches into the game. Dean West led the contest off with his fourth homer of the season, a rocket that snuck over the right-center wall and Drew Smith’s leaping attempt.
It took Mason Neville only six pitches to tie it back up. The Ducks’ leadoff man sent a blast of his own out to open the bottom of the first. Neville’s 18th bomb of the season hit off the roof of the PDA in right and tied the Oregon single-season home run record.
A few hitters later, Smith drew a two-out walk, took second on a wild pitch and scored on an Anson Aroz RBI single as the Ducks took a lead of their own in an entertaining first frame. The first inning alone featured as many runs as Oregon’s entire 2-1 win on Friday.
Both starters — UCLA’s Michael Barnett and Oregon’s Collin Clarke — settled in nicely. Clarke retired the next seven batters he faced while Barnett kept Oregon from scoring again until the fifth.
Unfortunately for Clarke, he surrendered the lead in the fourth. After allowing back-to-back singles and a hit-by-pitch to load the bases with nobody out, Jarrod Hocking picked up the game-tying RBI on a fielder’s choice grounder. A wild pitch brought Roman Martin home later in the frame to put UCLA back in front.
Just like they did in the first, the Ducks responded with a homer. Jacob Walsh blasted his 10th of the season on a line to right field. He turned and shouted into his dugout on his way to first and knotted the contest at three. The inning chased Barnett, who went 4.2 innings and allowed three runs on five hits while walking three and fanning two.
In all, it was a solid outing from Clarke. He limited the No. 10-ranked squad in the country to three runs on four hits across his five innings of work. He fanned three, but also hit three batters during his 78-pitch start.
“He was okay,” Wasikowski said. “I mean, he kept us in the game. It was a heck of a baseball game until we got into the later three innings of the game.”
Freshman Will Sanford took over for the sixth. He’d only been used as a starter in 2025, but made his first appearance out of the bullpen on Saturday. It wasn’t a good one.
He relented a leadoff double and then threw a bunt attempt into right field to allow an unearned run to cross and UCLA to regain the lead. A double-play ball ended the frame and limited the damage to one, but the Bruins were back in front.
UCLA added to the lead in the seventh when Roch Cholowsky, the Bruins’ shortstop, blasted a solo homer off the scoreboard in left field off Oregon reliever Santiago Garcia. A few hitters later, Hocking blasted a three-run shot of his own out to left-center and UCLA blew the game open. Santiago was tagged for four runs on two homers in just 0.2 innings.
“He’s got a great arm,” Wasikowski said of Garcia. “He’s going through a little bit of a funk with his pitching, clearly. A couple of our bullpen pieces have been clearly inconsistent for us and it’s not like you’ve got a bunch of other guys that you can just roll out there.”
Every Oregon arm that threw on Saturday surrendered at least one run save for Sam Boyle.
Trailing by two after the fans stretched at PK Park, the Ducks needed another response but none would come. Walsh homered again in the bottom of the seventh, but his solo shot did little to carve into the Bruins’ lead.
Oregon pitchers struggled with command in the loss, especially out of the bullpen. The Ducks’ staff hit seven batters, constantly setting UCLA up with prime scoring opportunities, which a top-10 team is going to capitalize on more times than not.
Kellan Knox loaded the bases in the top of the eighth with two hit batsmen and a single before being pulled for Cole Stokes. Cholowsky added to the Bruins’ lead with a two-RBI double before coming around to score in a disastrous six-run eighth inning that featured three different Oregon arms.
In the blink of an eye, it became a run-rule loss for the Ducks. If Oregon was going to lose, it needed to be close. Now, the Ducks have to find a way to shake off an embarrassing loss and be ready to go in the rubber match on Sunday.
The series will be decided on Easter Sunday. Jason Reitz gets the ball for Oregon. First pitch is set for 2:05 p.m.
