The Ducks reacted swiftly and forcefully, but it wasn’t until the second game of the season that Oregon baseball suffered a defeat that it would find difficult to bear once the postseason arrived.
No. 12 Oregon won a split in Saturday’s doubleheader in front of 2,138 at PK Park after the bullpen gave up all five runs in a 5-3 defeat to Toledo to start the day. Jacob Walsh and Maddox Molony both hit two home runs in a 9-0 victory.
Each team left four players on base during the opening game, which ended without a score after five.
After Julien Hernandez walked the first two batters and an error loaded the bases in the sixth, the Rockets made a breakthrough. Troy Sudbrook opened the scoring with a two-run single, and Cole Cahill followed with a two-run base hit to make it 4-0.
Mason Neville’s leadoff home run in the eighth inning gave the Ducks their first run. Toledo pulled out of the jam and grabbed an insurance run in the top of the ninth, but a wild pitch enabled a run to score and Jeffery Heard added an RBI groundout to cut the lead to one with the possible tying run on third.
In a no-decision game for UO, Collin Clarke pitched 5.0 innings, gave up three hits and one walk while striking out seven. Logan Jones struck out three and walked one in a 2.0 IP save, while Toledo’s RJ Shunck earned the victory after giving up just four hits and striking out three in 5.0 IP.
Hernandez did not record an out in the defeat, giving up four runs, three earned, on one hit and two walks. Over 3.0 innings, Gabe Howard gave up one run on two hits and one walk.
In the day’s second game, the Ducks scored in six consecutive innings.
In the second, Molony hit a home run. In the third, Drew Smith hit a sacrifice fly. In the fourth, Burke-Lee Mabeus added a sacrifice fly and Heard hit a home run to make it 4-0.
Molony blasted his second out of the park in the sixth, Neville and Walsh each went yard in the fifth, and Walsh and Anson Aroz each had solo home runs in the seventh.
In 6.0 innings of winning relief, Ian Umlandt struck out eight batters, gave up two singles, and hit a batter, while Jason Reitz gave up two hits, two walks, and five strikeouts in 3.0 innings.
At noon on Sunday, the clubs will wrap up the four-game series.
