By Justin Grossweiner

The Oregon Ducks baseball team beat their rival Oregon State 4 to 1 to start a 3 game series on Friday April 9, 2021. The victory was led behind a strong pitching performance as well as some clutch late inning runs by the Ducks. For Oregon Robert Ahlstrom pitched a masterful performance to put the Ducks in position to win against the Beavers. Ahlstrom went into the 8th inning allowing only 1 run on 5 hits with 9 strikeouts. Gabe Matthews homered in the 5th inning to give the Ducks their first lead, and he had 2 RBI in the ballgame.

After throwing 107 pitches through 7 innings Oregon coach Mike Wasikowski sent out Ahlstrom for the 8th inning. Following a leadoff triple Ahlstrom was pulled for Mosiello who gave up a SAC fly to tie the ballgame. In the bottom of the inning Oregon responded with a rally of their own. Tanner Smith led off the inning with a single up the middle and Anthony Hall put runners on 1st and 3rd with a single of his own. Kenyon Yovan then struck out looking, setting up Zavala to be intentionally walked to face Jack Scanlon. Scanlon who came in as an injury replacement for Josiah Cromwick earlier in the game is 0-2 on the season and Oregon decided to play the matchup game. Wasikowski burned right handed pinch hitter Tyler Ganus to bring in the lefty Hanoian and face the righty Salgado who was brought in to face Ganus. The matchup worked as Hanoin walked in a run, and Matthews followed by getting hit by a pitch. The shortstop Kasevic walked in a 3rd run to push Oregon’s lead to 4-1. Kolby Somers worked a quiet 9th inning to finish off the game with a save.

Oregon is now 3-1 against the Beavers on the season with Friday night’s victory being the first official victory against the Beavers in PAC-12 play. The Ducks take on the Beavers for game 2 of the 3 game series against the Beavers at PK Park tomorrow night at 6:30 PM as Oregon looks to inch closer to first place in the PAC-12.