The No. 11 Oregon Ducks (9-2) were searching for a doubleheader sweep and a 3-0 series lead in the second game of Saturday’s duals against the unranked Columbia Lions (1-5).
In the bottom of the second, the game already seemed much more mellow than Oregon’s 35-1 victory earlier in the day. With both teams knotted at zero, freshman catcher Coen Niclai stepped up to the plate with a runner on first.
Niclai worked the count full, then on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, crushed an outside pitch and watched it fly over the fence in dead center field. Niclai rounded the bases and flashed his Ducks logo on his chest as he stomped on home plate. This was Niclai’s first homer of the season and the first of his Oregon career.
“Oddly, in the fall and spring scrimmages for us, he’d been one of the team leaders in RBI, so we’ve really seen him hit very well for us in scrimmages,” said Ducks head coach Mark Wasikowski. “Coen is really good, he comes from a wonderful family too.”
This broke the tie and put Oregon up 2-0, a lead the Ducks would never relinquish as they came out on top 8-3.
Niclai was the headline for the Oregon offense in Game 2 of the doubleheader, going 1-for-3 with a homer and two RBI.
Sophomore starting pitcher Collin Clarke kept up his dominance in the game, going 6 ⅔ innings, giving up five hits, three runs and two walks while picking up a career high eight strikeouts.
With a shocking turn of events, the first inning of this one was scoreless from both teams. Both pitchers went 1-2-3 while Clarke grabbed his first strikeout.
Clarke was dealing early and nabbed two more strikeouts in the second. When the Ducks came back to bat, Niclai went yard to make it 2-0 Ducks. Senior right fielder Jeffery Heard walked then advanced to second, then was driven in thanks to a single from junior third baseman Carter Garate.
Clarke struck out two more in the third, making his total five on the day.
When Oregon stepped back up to the plate, it looked like a quiet inning as the first two batters went down quietly. Junior left fielder Anson Aroz had other ideas when he came up as he demolished his fifth bomb of the year to left-center field. This extended the Ducks' lead out to four.
Clarke was able to work around some poor defense and wild pitches in the fourth to put up another zero. In the bottom of the inning, Oregon threatened by getting two runners on but couldn’t plate any.
The pitching stayed strong as Clarke picked up strikeout number six. Aggressive baserunning paid off for the Ducks when the bats came back up. Aroz got hit by a pitch and sophomore shortstop Maddox Molony walked, and then they pulled off the double-steal to get them on second and third. Niclai put one in play that scored Aroz from third, and the speedy Ducks made it 5-0.
The strikeouts kept coming for Clarke as he made it seven in the sixth. In the bottom frame, freshman second baseman Ryan Cooney walked and set the table for leadoff junior center fielder Mason Neville, who blasted a two-run tater after working a 2-2 count to make it 7-0.
The Lions broke through and made the Ducks sweat for the first time in a week in the seventh. Clarke was sent out for the seventh and let the first two batters on with a single and a walk. He struck out the next, which dialed a career high eight strikeouts for the sophomore. He walked the next batter to load the bases, and Columbia third baseman Hunter Snyder delivered with a two-RBI double.
Left fielder Ben Fishel slapped one deep enough to sac-fly a run in, and the Lions cut the Oregon lead to four. The rough seventh led to Clarke getting pulled for freshman reliever Gabe Howard.
“I did well, but could’ve done better,” Clarke said. “I got hit around in the seventh, could’ve gotten out of it, but didn’t end up doing it.”
Oregon went quietly in its half, and three different pitchers held it down for Oregon on the top of the eighth. Lefty reliever Santiago Garcia replaced Howard with two outs for matchup favorability, then was immediately replaced by sophomore closer Cole Stokes after giving up a single.
Junior designated hitter Dominic Hellman continued his loud hitting in the eighth, tacking on a tape measure solo homer that was a nice insurance run for the Ducks.
“He’s a special kid, he’s a special talent,” Wasikowski said. “For the moment, it was a good run for us to get in the inning, for us to just answer, cause I thought they had a little bit of momentum and I thought that swing kind of killed some of the momentum.”
Stokes kept up his upper-nineties nasty work in the ninth, striking out two despite walking two. This closed out the doubleheader sweep for the Ducks, winning it 8-3.
The eight runs made the final tally 43 runs in one day for the Ducks, a program record.
This win makes it a 3-0 series lead as the Ducks look for the series sweep tomorrow against the Columbia Lions. Will Sanford will take the mound for Oregon with a 12:05 p.m. first pitch.