At the bottom of the first during the Tuesday battle between the Oregon Ducks (11-2) and the Utah Tech Trailblazers (5-9), junior center fielder Mason Neville was at the plate and in his usual leadoff spot for the Ducks offense.
He was in a grinder first at-bat as he was put in a full count after fouling one off. On the sixth pitch, Neville showed off his strength by blistering a pitch in the upper part of the zone and sending it deep the opposite way to left center field and over the wall.
“3-2 count, I just tried to put a good at-bat together and put a good swing on it,” Neville said. “I like to set the tone for the rest of the lineup.”
This was Neville’s seventh home run of the season and it gave Oregon a lead it would never look back on in the 15-0 victory.
The Ducks were coming off a series sweep of the Columbia Lions the weekend before. In that series, Oregon scored a combined 70 runs, including a program record 35-run outburst in Game 2.
Starting for the Ducks in this one was junior lefty Ian Umlandt. He picked up where he left off from his last outing by striking out the first batter he saw. He sat down the next two to put up a zero in his first inning of work.
When Oregon got to the plate, Neville went yard to make it 1-0 Ducks early. They weren’t done with the early push, though. After senior first baseman Jacob Walsh walked, junior left fielder Anson Aroz smoked an opposite field double that scored Walsh all the way from first.
Sophomore shortstop Maddox Molony then drove in Aroz with a single, and that concluded the Ducks’ three-run first inning.
Umlandt worked around a single in the second and picked up another strikeout. When the Ducks came back up to the plate, red hot junior designated hitter Dominic Hellman blasted a solo home run that just stayed fair and the Oregon lead was four.
The third and final strikeout of the day for Umlandt came in the third as he put up another zero. He duplicated that zero in the fourth in his final full inning of work. In that fourth inning, Oregon extended the lead in a way that is becoming a topic for pitchers all around the country: a Hellman three-run homer.
“It’s about taking the at-bat and rolling with it,” Hellman said. “You can’t be a stubborn minded hitter when you’re at the plate because it’ll eat you alive if you don’t get one pitch.”
To set up for this homer, junior third baseman Carter Garate singled to start the inning. He stole second, then a wild pitch advanced him to third. Neville walked to put the runners on the corners, then Hellman came up and mashed the ball over the left-center field wall.
The Trailblazers threatened in the fifth, but couldn’t get any across. The Ducks broke double-digits in this inning that started with a Molony walk and a freshman catcher Burke-Lee Mabeus single that sent Molony to third. Senior right fielder Jeffrey Heard drove in Molony with a single that advanced Mabeus to third. Mabeus scored through the backdoor after freshman second baseman Ryan Cooney put one in play.
Garate slapped one past the left fielder and got on his horse for a triple that scored Cooney. Neville rewarded his efforts by bringing him home with a double in the next at bat. Following the flurry of runs, it was 11-0 Oregon.
After senior righty reliever Seth Mattox replaced Umlandt and got the final out of the fifth, senior righty reliever Julian Hernandez replaced Mattox and went 1-2-3 in the sixth, striking out one. Oregon stayed put at 11 in its half of the sixth.
Umlandt had a strong performance, going 4 ⅔ innings with four hits, zero earned runs, one walk and three strikeouts.
“Real solid performance. He throws strikes, he’s got a lot of wiggle on the ball, his velocity is up a little bit. He’s a real competitor,” said Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski. “He’s a lot of fun to play behind I’m sure.”
The seventh would be the final inning of scoring for the Ducks. After Cooney and Garate singled, Neville singled and Cooney came around to score. Later in the inning, Walsh singled to plate Garate and Aroz followed that with a single of his own through the right side. This sent Neville home and the 15th and final run of the game was thanks to a Molony poke out to right center.
Sophomore reliever Ryan Featherston pitched the seventh for the Ducks, and left reliever Sam Boyle replaced him in the eighth. They both pitched efficiently, as Featherston struck out two and Boyle one before being replaced by freshman righty Michael Meckna. He took care of his one batter before giving the ball up to freshman reliever Tyler Jones to close it out. Jones let runners on first and second after a single and a hit by pitch, but shut down the threat and sealed the 15-0 Ducks win.
The leader of the Ducks offense in the midweek showdown was Neville, who went 3-for-5 with a double, a homer and three RBI.
Oregon goes on the road for the first time this season with a three-game series ahead of it against the USC Trojans. That series starts Friday, Mar. 7 at 6:35 p.m.