Gavin Grant says there will be a statue of Tanner Smith built at Oregon one day

Oregon star outfielder Tanner Smith walked up to the plate Sunday against Oral Roberts with two outs in the bottom of the ninth with his college career hanging on by a thread. The Golden Eagles were winning Game 3 of the Eugene Super Regional by a score of 11-5, and one out away from clinching a spot in Omaha.

The at-bat was, barring a comeback, going to be the last one in Smith’s memorable career.

He worked the count to 2-2 before slapping an RBI single to cut the deficit to 11-6. But Oral Roberts got the next batter out on a ground ball, ending the 2023 Ducks season.

After the loss at the post-game press conference, Smith’s teammate Gavin Grant had nothing but nice things to say about his friend.

“When Tanner got up to bat, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team or collected on one player,” Grant said after the defeat in Game 3 of the Eugene Super Regional. “For everything that he’s done for this team and this program, I just want to thank you. He’s one of my best friends ever. Roommates for three years now. He’s gonna be in my wedding. That’s just the relationship that we’ve made. I want to thank him for everything. There’s going to be a statue built of him here. Without a doubt. I don’t know how many records I think it’s 10, 11 or 12. But that’s unheard of. I’m just really proud of him.”

Over five seasons, Smith played in 248 games for Oregon, starting 246 of them. He found ways to improve his game each year.

That has also led to him breaking many program records during this swan song season for the fifth-year player. The records he has broken or tied include career hits with 306, home runs with 31, doubles with 69, RBI with 145 and outfield assists with 13.

Other accomplishments include most multi-hit games in a career, most at-bats and most games played.

While the Ducks ended their season earlier than they would have liked on the edge of a return to Oregon, Smith left fans with fond memories in his final games. He was 7 of 13 over the three-game Eugene Regional with five RBI and three runs scored.

That included a three-run homer in the third game of the Super Regional, which gave him the record for most homers in a Oregon career.