Written Story by Austin Ota

EUGENE, OR – Just about sixteen hours after the Oregon Ducks (No. 25, 20-9)  saw their modern program-long winning streak come to an end, one of the streakiest teams in the nation tried to start a new one against their rival Oregon State Beavers (NR, 20-11). It’s been the story of Oregon’s season thus far – the Ducks sandwiched a four game losing streak between five and eleven game streaks and exit Rivalry Weekend dropping their last two. A bullpen day was able to stifle Oregon’s hefty offense and quiet the Ducks, 12-2.

Oregon’s designated Sunday starter, Leo Uelmen, has been notably shaky at the back end of the rotation and struggled again against the Beavers. The walks have killed Uelmen all year. Uelmen only lasted an inning and walked a trio of Beavers while a 468-foot grand slam by catcher Wilson Weber was more than enough for Mark Wasikowski to end his starters’ day prematurely. In all fairness, Oregon’s pitching was solid the rest of the way, with Turner Spoljaric allowing a pair of runs in as many innings. Matt Dallas shut down the opposition for three innings of hitless ball and Austin Anderson tossed a shutout frame. Already down 7-0, Jacob Hughes came in and walked a pair (though he was helped by a runner being thrown out trying to steal second) and Ian Umlandt floated a 3-1 fastball to Garret Forrester, who took it into the Ducks bullpen to add insult to injury. OSU would score three more in the ninth off of Dylan McShane and Jackson Pace.

But we can’t talk about this game without mentioning the dominance of the Beaver pitching staff. Opener Jaren Hunter went two scoreless innings and was followed by four from bulk man AJ Lattery. Ben Ferrer was the first Beaver to allow a runner to even reach scoring position, as a full-count Gavin Grant walk in the eighth was followed by a wild pitch to Rikuu Nishida. He then slapped one off the glove of Ferrer for Oregon’s first hit of the night. Grant would come home to score on the ensuing batter, as Ferrer was called for a questionable balk to bring home Oregon’s first run. Back to back two out doubles by Tanner Smith and Jacob Walsh gave the few Oregon fans that labored through “Shout!” something to cheer about on Easter Sunday.

Oregon will stay in Eugene for a two game series against the USF Dons before continuing the Pac-12 gauntlet against No. 7 Stanford next weekend.

Audio Story by Jasmine Saboorian