With Oregon baseball’s 2-0 win over UC Santa Barbara (16-9) on Sunday, the Ducks improved to 23-5, are yet to lose a multi-game series this season and boast one of the best pitching staffs in the country.

That really shouldn’t surprise most fans in the Oregon stratosphere.

The part that is a surprise, and the part that should have the conference’s other teams concerned, is how the Ducks have done it without Dominic Hellman and Maddox Molony hitting like their usual selves.

Both walked once, but combined to go 0-7 in Oregon’s pitching-focused rubber match win. Cal Scolari’s six shutout innings, coupled with a dominant bullpen showing from Devin Bell and Tanner Bradley, led the way for an Oregon team that just needed Angel Laya’s solo homer in the fourth and a ninth-inning wild pitch to clinch the series over the Gauchos.

The bigger story for Oregon’s season, however, is what to make of the Ducks’ offensive output, and to be specific, what this team is capable of when its two premier  hitters, Hellman and Molony, return to form.

Granted, neither player has been bad to start the season — far from it. But Hellman hit .326 with 13 homers last season, was getting on base more and striking out less. Molony, on the other hand, has seen a more drastic fall off through 28 games from his freshman and sophomore seasons, which had him lauded as a surefire MLB prospect this year

​It hasn’t mattered at all for the surging Ducks, despite their offense not being at its best against the Gauchos

Oregon didn’t score until the seventh inning in Friday’s series-opener, and once again saw its offense score just two runs Sunday against a talented UCSB pitching staff. The Ducks still found a path to victory in two of this weekend’s three games

The recipe for success Sunday was simple — pitching. Oregon held UCSB to just six baserunners and limited the Gauchos to just five at-bats with runners in scoring position. Santa Barbara went 0-5 in those opportunities and was constantly from behind, going 0-9 to begin innings.

Led by Scolari, Friday starter Will Sanford and a strong bullpen spearheaded by Bradley and Bell, Oregon has enjoyed plenty of success on the pitching side. But the true ceiling of this Ducks’ team will likely lie in the hands of Hellman and Molony.

Regardless, it’s hard for fans to be anything less than thrilled by Oregon’s first 28 games this season, and on the macro level, three games against one of the best teams on the West Coast. Their offense was just so-so. The Ducks’ star players didn’t really hit. And still, they took the series.

The Ducks will return home to take on Portland on Tuesday at 5:05 p.m.