EUGENE, Ore. - Saint Mary's held one of the best offenses in the country to just four hits but a pair of long balls lifted the fifth ranked Oregon Ducks to a 6-3 win in game one of their two-game set. The Gaels jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first with a pair of hits but a three-run homer in the bottom half of the inning would give the Ducks the lead for good.
The Gaels pitching staff held the Ducks to just four hits on the night and scoreless in four of their final five innings at the plate. Four hits in a game goes down as the third lowest season total for the Ducks and the fourth time they've recorded that number this season. In those four games they are a combined 3-1 with their lone loss coming to Minnesota on March 16th. The Gaels bullpen has been terrific over the last month of the season as they allowed just one hit and two runs over their four innings of work in Tuesday's game.
Game two is slated for Wednesday evening at PK Park with first pitch set for 6:05 PM.
1ST INNING
After a one-out walk from
Cody Kashimoto for his team leading 32nd of the season,
Aiden Taurek would rope a double to the left center fence. The double would surely score Kashimoto from first but a big bounce off the turf would put it over the fence for a ground rule double, putting runners on second and third with one out.
Ryan Pierce got the scoring started the very next at-bat with a single to center field and then
Brian Duroff flew out to shallow center but Taurek was able to tag and slide head first into home plate to give Saint Mary's an early two-run lead.
Senior southpaw
Dylan Delvecchio made his eleventh start of the season and nearly got out of a jam in the first inning but gave up a three-run homer with two outs to put Oregon in front 3-2. The lunging swing just barely got over the left field fence on what was a warm spring day in Eugene. Delvecchio gave up one more solo-shot in the third but put up clean frames in the second and fourth to leave the game just down a run.
4TH INNING
On the first pitch of the fourth inning, junior shortstop
Jared Mettam rifled a line drive off the left field wall for a leadoff double. The Gaels would record back-to-back ground outs to eventually bring Mettam home and bring them within a run.
Delvecchio left two runners on base the next half inning to conclude his four-inning start with the Gaels down 4-3.
6TH INNING
Oregon would tack on two more insurance runs in the sixth inning after loading the bases with a pair of walks and a hit batter. Freshman
Talin Gardini would minimize the damage as best he could, inducing an RBI groundout and then a sac fly allowing the Ducks to plate two runs. Trading two outs for two runs was not the worst case scenario for Saint Mary's as big innings earlier in the season have hurt them late in games.
Saint Mary's had runners on in each of the last three innings but failed to put any runs across. They had two on with two outs in the eighth and then saw
Tanner Griffith reach base as the leadoff hitter in the ninth.
Eddie Madrigal would come to the plate and barrel his best ball of the night, a straight line drive right at the first baseman. Oregon's first baseman would snag the liner and step on first for the double play. The line drive was bound for the right field corner and could've easily scored Griffith from first to set up a big inning.
Oregon's Santiago Garcia would strikeout Kashimoto to end the game and seal the 6-3 victory. Seven different players made up the team's seven hits as Saint Mary's out-hit the Ducks 7-4.
Derik Eaquinto and
Elliott Joslin combined for the final 2.1 innings allowing just one hit and one walk. The Gaels bullpen held Oregon hitless from the fourth inning to the seventh but struggled to get runners on and wear down Ducks reliever Ian Umlandt who finished with 6.2 innings in relief.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Mary's saw their five-game win streak come to an end as they fell to 26-21 overall after their 6-3 defeat to the fifth ranked Ducks. They'll return to action Wednesday evening to conclude their two game series with Oregon at 6:05 PM. Catch all the action live on BigTen+.
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