Oregon Baseball swept a day-night doubleheader with Saint Mary’s on Saturday at PK Park, as rain fell consistently throughout both games.

The Ducks won the first game, courtesy of a brilliant pitching performance by Ryne Nelson who went 6 innings, and only gave up 4 hits while striking out 9. The entire pitching staff had a great first game, only allowing 2 runs off of 7 hits.

On the offensive side, the Ducks were led by Aaron Zavala who went 3/4 with 2 RBI’s, as well as Kyle Fromke who was 1/3 with 2 RBI’s. The offense was capped off by a Cameron Campbell homerun in the 8th inning which increased their lead to 6-1 at the time. The Ducks would go on to win the first game 6-2.

In the second game of the day, it was a much more offensive game. Cullen Kafka was hit early in the game, surrendering 3 runs in the fourth inning before dialing it in later on.

The Duck bats on the other hand did not warm up till the 5th inning, when . With the Gaels ahead 3-1, the top of the Ducks order came out swinging. Novitske and Deluca led off with back-to-back singles. Gabe Mathews then strode to the plate and belted a 1-1 pitch  into the Oregon bullpen for a 3-run homerun to give the Ducks a 4-3 lead.

The Ducks pitchers worked themselves into stressful situations in the 6th and 7th innings. In the top of the sixth Kafka had to work to get through the inning, alternating walks and strikeouts to eventually get through a bases loaded situation with his third strikeout of the inning.

After making a pitching change in the 7th, and after two leadoff singles, Keaton Chase struckout the side to end the threat.

Oregon won the second game 5-4 behind some solid pitching by Kafka and Chase, as well as some timely hitting from the likes of Zavala to sweep the day-night doubleheader.

Up Next: Oregon takes on Saint Mary’s one more time, tomorrow at 12 P.M. as they try and sweep the series.

Game Story: (Michael Abbott)

Postgame Audio

Head Coach George Horton

DH Aaron Zavala, and Pitcher Ryne Nelson