Oregon Baseball Advances To The Pac-12 Tournament Finals, 12-7

Oregon baseball continues its improbable run through the Pac-12 tournament by defeating the Washington Huskies, 12-7.

The victory was made all the sweeter in having taken revenge upon Washington’s sweep of the Ducks in Eugene just a few weekends ago.

Matthew Grabman took the hill first for Oregon, and pitched a solid first two innings before running into trouble in the third, when he gave up five runs and the pen took over.

Grabman had the bats behind him, however. Sabin Ceballos struck early and often, and picked up two RBIs in the first inning on the way to finishing with 6 RBIs on the day.

The third Duck RBI in the first inning was courtesy of Drew Smith, who extended his current hitting streak to 18 games, and in doing so tied the UO all-time record.

Meanwhile, Grabman was solid in the first two innings.

Oregon stacked on three more runs in the second inning to pull ahead 6-0. A Drew Cowley RBI single was followed by a two-run homer by Sabin Ceballos.

After giving up six runs in two innings, Huskies starter Kiefer Lord got the hook and the Washington bulllpen took over in the third inning.

In the bottom of the third, Grabman’s control disappeared and the Huskies got back into the thick of it, scoring five runs.

After giving up a three-run home run, Grabman was relieved by Ian Umlandt, who finished the inning and kept the Huskies off the board in the fourth.

Drew Smith’s RBI triple in the fifth starting a five-run march by the Ducks in the inning.

The scoring deluge was capped by a Sabin Ceballos single with the bases loaded and two outs, and the game stood at 11-5.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Huskies responded with a RBI single and a sacrifice fly make it an 11-7 ball game.

Grayson Grinsell took over after Dylan McShane gave up the RBI single, but the sacrifice fly came at the expense of a double play and that’s all that Washington would score in this game.

Grinsell threw lockdown ball and silenced Washington’s bats through the eighth inning.

Colby Shade hit an insurance single in the top of the ninth inning, and put the Ducks up by five.

Matt Dallas took the mound in the bottom of the ninth, and shut the Huskies down 1-2-3.

Here are your stats leaders and the final board:

Grayson Grinsell was the game winner, and it was well earned off an outstanding 3.2 innings of relief pitching.

#6 Oregon battles #8 Arizona in the Pac-12 tournament finals - a most unlikely finals matchup. If Oregon can take it all, then they stand a very good chance of hosting a regional to begin the NCAA Tournament.

The final between the Oregon Ducks and the Arizona Wildcats is tonight at 7:05 pm PT. The game is telecast on ESPN2.