By Kent Williams

Opening day for the Oregon Ducks baseball program(1-0) was an exciting start for the 2023 campaign, winning a 3-2 nail biter over the Xavier Musketeers with a walk off sacrifice fly by transfer outfielder Owen Diodati. He also happened to hit a walk off against Xavier last season in the first game of the season while a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide, so he is no doubt a heel in that Musketeers dugout. Scoring the winning run was another newcomer in Rikuu Nishida, who had laced a single to start off the inning and got to third by way of consecutive walks.

While many preseason pundits were more excited about this teams offense, it was the pitching staff that got the Ducks in a position to win when the lineup struggled during the middle innings. Starting the game was righty Logan Mercado, who pitched 4 innings with only 1 earned run while striking out a career high of 7 and walking 2. Following that up was another righty in Jacob Hughes, making just his 9th career appearance. He struggled with command in his first inning of work, walking his first three batters before inducing a double play and escaping with only one run allowed. His second inning out was fantastic, retiring the side in order before being removed after one batter in the 7th. Finishing out the game was Austin Anderson, Ian Umlandt, and Josh Mollerus all making their Ducks debut, and shutting out the Xavier offense while the Ducks started their comeback.

Offensively, the Ducks took a while to figure it out. Stifled by Xavier's all-conference pitcher Ethan Bosacker, Oregon only managed 1 run and 2 hits off the righty. At one point, Oregon had gone 16 straight batters without a baserunner. Once Bosacker was removed, the Ducks were able to get a run across in the 8th on a fielding error, scoring Josiah Cromwick. Then, the Ducks struck gold with their walk off win in the bottom of the 9th.

Next up for the Ducks will be a double header Saturday against Xavier for games 2 and 3 of the four game set. First pitch of game 2 is scheduled for 12:05 pm, and game 3 will start at 4:05 pm.

Postgame Audio

Coach Wasikowski

Starting pitcher Logan Mercado

Right fielder Owen Diodati