The Oregon Ducks’ bats haven’t been a problem this season, and there’s no reason to believe a problem will crop up later this season. The lineup is balanced and has everything a coach wants, including hitters that bat for average, it has power, and they also do the fundamentals.
But on Saturday, none of that showed up.
Oregon could muster up just a couple of runs Saturday night as the Ducks watched UC-Santa Barbara tie the weekend series with an 8-2 win. The two teams will meet Sunday afternoon for the rubber game of the three-game set. The Ducks took the series opener Friday night with a 4-0 win.
Collin Clarke (4-2) took the loss on the mound as he went five strong innings, giving up four runs, two earned, five hits, and four strikeouts. The Gauchos used two pitchers to shut down the Duck offense. Starter Cole Aceves went 4.2 innings before giving way to reliever Cole Tryba, who went the rest of the way to earn his first win of the season.
Oregon dropped to 22-5 for the season, but the Ducks are still winners of 11 of 13 games. The Gauchos improved to 16-8 overall.
It was 2-0 UCSB in the fifth when the Ducks’ bats found a little life in them. Dominic Hellman drove in Ryan Cooney for the first run, and that was followed by Drew Smith’s single to center to tie the game. But the Gauchos would break the tie in the bottom half of the fifth with a couple of runs of their own, and that was enough. They put the game away in the bottom of the eighth with four huge insurance runs to secure the victory.
The series finale is scheduled for a 12:05 pm first pitch. Neither team has announced a starting pitcher, but Oregon usually goes with right-hander Cal Scolari on Sundays.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Gauchos even up weekend series with 8-2 victory over Ducks
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