By Knight Jarecki
EUGENE, OR — Oregon Baseball (12-6) has been a team of comebacks this season. After picking up their 5th comeback win of the season Friday night, Oregon came from behind again on Saturday as the Ducks scored 5 runs in the 8th inning to beat Utah (11-6-1) 8-6. In their last 4 victories, the Ducks have trailed in every game only to rally back for the win.
Oregon got the offense started in the first inning. Brennan Milone launched a ball over the left-field fence on a solo shot for his 5th home run of the season and second in the past two days to give the Ducks an early 1-0 advantage. Isaac Ayon started the game with 8 straight outs and was on his way for his 9th consecutive out, but a throwing error by Sam Novitske kept the 3rd inning alive for Utah. After the error from Novitske, Utah scored 3 runs on 3 hits which were highlighted by a TJ Clarkson RBI single that gave the Utes the lead. Utah led 3-1 until the 5th inning when Gavin Grant ripped his second single of the day and Tanner Smith launched his 4th home run of the season to knot the game at 3 after 5 innings. Utah wasted no time to answer back as they led off the 6th with a walk and back-to-back to retake the lead 4-3 after a Davis Cop RBI single brought in Chase Anderson. Anderson wasn’t done just yet as in the 7th he crushed a 2-run home run over the center field wall to extend the Utes lead to 6-3. The score remained 6-3 until the bottom of the 8th inning when the Ducks capitalized on Utah mistakes. After 2 walks and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, Gavin Grant ripped a single to left to make the score 6-4. Tanner Smith then found some grass between the 3-4 hole and singled in two runs to tie the score at 6. After double-steal put runners at 2nd and 3rd, Colby Shade skied a ball to right field that was deep enough to score Grant giving Oregon their first lead since the 3rd inning. Brennan Milone added more cushion as he doubled in one more run for the 5th of the inning. Kolby Somers shut the door in the 9th as the Ducks held on for the 8-6 victory.
Tanner Smith finished the day 2-5 at the plate with 2 runs, 4RBI and a home run. Smith also had a homerun saving catch and both of hits tied the game for Oregon. Brennan Milone went 2-4 with a double and home run as he drove in 2 runs. Matt Dallas (1-0) picked up his first win of the season after he came into the game in the 8th inning and prevented Utah to score despite there being a runner on 3rd with only 1 out.
The Ducks have won their last 11 games against the Utes. and are 26-6 in their history against the Utes. With the win, Oregon has now won 8 of the 10 total series between the two programs with 5 sweeps in history. UO will look for their 6th sweep against the Utes tomorrow with the first pitch scheduled for 11:05 a.m. Utah will be searching for their first win at PK Park since March 20th, 2016, and their first win against Oregon since 2017.
Postgame:
Audio Story by Knight Jarecki: