The No. 5-ranked Oregon Ducks (42-15, 22-8 Big Ten) had their backs against the wall and the season on the line as they stepped into Game 3 of the Eugene Regional against the Cal Poly Mustangs (41-18, 23-7 Big West).
The Ducks were in a battle in the top of the seventh. The frame before, Cal Poly had inched closer with a solo homer to make it a 6-5 Oregon advantage. A base hit from junior designated hitter Dominic Hellman started the inning, but senior first baseman Jacob Walsh grounded into a double play to clear the bases. Reviving what seemed like a dead frame, junior right fielder Drew Smith blistered a pitch deep to left-center field that extended the Oregon lead. Before Ducks fans could even celebrate, senior left fielder Jeffrey Heard golfed a low pitch out to left field and into the Oregon bullpen. The back-to-back shots would make it 8-5, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Mustangs would score five unanswered and take the victory 10-8.
Leading the way for the Oregon offense was Hellman, who was 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs.
Getting the start for Oregon was the ace, junior left-handed starting pitcher Grayson Grinsell.
The Ducks were coming off a heartbreaking 6-5 defeat to the Utah Valley Wolverines the day before that sent Oregon to the losers’ bracket in the regional. In that game, a controversial malicious contact call from junior left fielder Anson Aroz deemed him out at the plate, ejected and suspended for this game.
The Mustangs would strike first in the bottom of the second after senior center fielder Casey Murray Jr. singled to lead off the inning. A sac-bunt moved him to second, but a flyout in the next at-bat would hold him there. It wouldn’t matter, though, as senior right fielder Dylan Kordic got a hold of a pitch and, with some assistance from the wind, sent it over the center field wall. Oregon found itself down early again, this time 2-0.
Oregon responded right back in the top of the third when sophomore second baseman Ryan Cooney slapped an opposite-field one-out double. Junior third baseman Carter Garate then walked and was followed by junior center fielder Mason Neville, who reached out and poked a flyout to center field that allowed Cooney to advance to third. That extra 90 feet would prove to be major as Hellman drove a single to left field, allowing Cooney to trot in to make it 2-1.
Cal Poly got that run right back as freshman left fielder Dante Vachini blasted a double to start the frame. A sac-bunt would get him to third, then a sac-fly would send him home.
The top of the fifth featured the life being put back into the Ducks’ crew. Garate singled with one out, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. The Oregon crowd was rocking, and the players could clearly hear it as Mustangs sophomore left-handed starting pitcher Josh Volmerding was rattled. He balked to put Garate on third, then needed a mound visit as the crowd got even louder. What followed was a lengthy, steel-headed at-bat from Hellman. He went down 0-2, took a ball, fouled off three straight, then took two pitches to work the count full. On the ninth pich, he slaughtered one deep to left field and off the video board to knot the game at three.
The momentum would be stolen right back by the Mustangs as Vachini doubled with one out. He came around to score when senior second baseman Ryan Fenn knocked a single to left field. After five, it was 4-3 Cal Poly.
It wouldn’t last long.
In the top of the sixth with one out, Heard blistered a 2-0 count pitch straight to center field and off the batter’s eye for a solo shot. The Ducks were done messing around with the tie games, as freshman catcher Burke-Lee Mabeus blooped a single to left field. In electric fashion on the first pitch, Cooney hammered a pitch the opposite way to reignite the crowd and give Oregon the 6-4 lead with the two-run bomb.
The pestering Mustangs cut that lead in half after only two pitches in the bottom of the sixth as Murray Jr. sent a solo homer over the left-center field wall.
Relentless was the theme of the Oregon squad in this game. Walsh grounded into a double play that seemed to kill the Ducks’ half of the seventh, but back-to-back solo shots from Smith and Heard extended the Oregon lead and sparked a “Go Ducks” back-and-forth from the fans.
“Personally, I felt good, and those two at-bats, obviously, in those homers, kind of been an up and down year for me, but I felt God telling me to just stay patient and trust him. And it came through today,” Heard said. “But obviously I'm disappointed with the outcome. But looking back on it, we had a great year, a great group of guys and I found my best friends for life on this team.”
In that same inning, freshman catcher Coen Niclai picked up a bat and pinch hit for Mabeus.
Niclai would only bat, as junior catcher Chase Meggers stepped in for defense in the bottom of the seventh.
Grinsell’s day (6.0 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 Ks and 90 TP) came to an end in the bottom of the seventh after he walked the lead-off man. Junior left-handed reliever Ian Umlandt took over for the ace in a crucial spot.
“Obviously, it wasn't one of my best and obviously I didn't want to go out on that note,” Grinsell said. “But I still felt like I went out there and gave it everything I had, and that's all you can do.”
Umlandt would get shelled. He gave up a walk and a single to load the bases before recording his first out via the strikeout. Sophomore third baseman Alejandro Garza worked a walk to give a free run to Cal Poly and a single from the Duck killer Murray Jr. scored two more and tied the game at eight.
The bleeding would not stop. A single from senior designated hitter Cam Hoiland gave Cal Poly the lead and left Oregon shocked, a consistent theme on the weekend. After that, Umlandt (0.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K and 29 TP) was yanked for sophomore left-handed reliever Santiago Garcia. He got the Ducks out of the nightmare inning, but they had work to do again.
The Mustangs tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth thanks to a solo blast from senior first baseman Zach Daudet. This would be it for Garcia (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K and 14 TP) as he was pulled for senior right-handed reliever Seth Mattox (0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 Ks and 1 TP).
The Ducks needed at least two runs in the ninth, but the energy was lacking. Oregon sent three up to the plate in the ninth, and all three struck out. Molony was the last batter of the season, but left the bat on his shoulder.
Another headliner for the Ducks offense was Heard, who was 3-for-5 with two homers and two RBIs.
The Oregon Ducks baseball season came to an earth-shattering winless effort in their home regional. This breaks the two-year super regional appearance streak and continues the hunt for the first College World Series appearance since 1954.
“First off, I want to compliment Coach Lee's club, very solid team, errorless game,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikoski said. “And for them to get to five two-out RBIs really shows the grit and resilience that they had. They executed very well today, pitched very well today, and it was a well-coached team. I knew that we would expect with Larry Lee. He's one of the most underrated coaches in the entire country and he's awesome. He's a good coach, and his team was well prepared.”