Oregon notches double-header sweep of Xavier to improve to 3-0 on the year
One day after delivering a walk-off win in Friday’s season-opener, No. 20 Oregon got the bats going early and picked up two more wins during a doubleheader sweep of Xavier.
The Ducks (3-0) topped the Musketeers (0-3) 9-2 in seven innings in the opening game thanks to an explosive first inning. During the nightcap, Oregon won 5-3 to complete the sweep.
Freshman right Leo Uelmen picked up the win in his first collegiate start and gave the Ducks 5.0 very good inning. Uelmen struck out two Xavier batters and walked none while limiting the Musketeers to soft contact for most of the afternoon.
Freshman lefty Grayson Grinsell threw two perfect innings and struck out four of the six batters he faced to close out the game.
Catcher Josiah Cromwick launched a three-run homer in the first inning to give the Ducks an early lead. On the day, Cromwick went 2-for-3 with five RBI.
Leadoff batter Rikuu Nishida went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and stole his first base of the season.
Tanner Smith went 1-for-2 with an RBI double, and Sadin Ceballos hit his first homer of the season in the second inning.
During the second game of the day, Oregon got another strong performance from a true freshman. Right-hander Matthew Grabmann tossed 4.0 innings, surrendered three hits and one run, and struck out three during his collegiate debut.
He was replaced by fellow freshman Turner Spolijaric, who delivered a solid bridge-gap performance and held Xavier to one run on four hits.
Spolijaric gave way to standout reliever Matt Dallas in the eighth. Teddy Deters, the first batter Dallas faced, launched a solo homer to cut Oregon’s lead to 5-3. But from there, the right-hander buckled down and closed out the game to secure the win.
Oregon got big hits from Nishida and Drew Cowley, with the former rapping a two-run single to give the Ducks a 3-1 lead in the fifth and the latter blasting a two-run homer to the opposite field in the sixth to push the lead to 5-1.
Oregon will close out its four-game series with Xavier Sunday at PK Park, with freshman righty Jackson Pace slated to make his first career start.
After that, the Ducks will set their sights on next week’s four-game series with UC Santa Barbara in Goleta, Calif. The Gaucho’s head coach is former Oregon pitching coach Andrew Checketts, who served on George Horton’s staff from 2008-2011.
