Live updates: Oregon baseball vs. Vanderbilt at the Nashville Regional

The Oregon Ducks will have an opportunity to take control of the Nashville Regional Saturday evening when they face off with host Vanderbilt.

The No. 2-seeded Ducks (38-20) and the No. 1-seeded Commodores (42-18) are set to square off at 6 p.m. PT at Hawkins Field in the winner’s bracket. The game will air on SEC Network.

Oregon notched a 5-4 win over Xavier in its regional opener on Friday behind the late-game heroics of Drew Cowley and a stellar showing from its bullpen. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, beat Eastern Illinois 12-2 to advance to the winner’s bracket.

Saturday afternoon, Xavier kept its season alive with a 6-0 win over Eastern Illinois.

Follow along for updates throughout the evening as the Ducks aim to notch an upset over the host Commodores.

FINAL: Oregon 8, Vanderbilt 7

Ninth Inning

B9

Closer Josh Mollerus took over for the Ducks in the bottom of the ninth to face Vanderbilt’s 3-4-5 hitters.

He walked Ryan Shreck with one out and then surrendered a two-run homer to Chris Maldonado, which cut the Ducks’ lead to 8-7.

But he recovered to force a pair of pop-ups and end the game.

T9

Colby Shade was hit by a pitch but was left stranded.

Eighth Inning

B8

Matt Dallas stayed on for the Ducks and retired Vanderbilt’s 9-1-2 hitters in order to keep the score at 8-5.

T8

Oregon stranded a runner at first after Bennett Thompson was hit by a pitch with two outs.

Seventh Inning

B7

Right-hander Austin Anderson relieved Spoljaric at the start of the seventh inning. He got two quick outs but then walked cleanup man Parker Noland, hit Chris Maldonado with a pitch, and walked Troy LaNeve to load the bases.

Anderson fell behind 2-0 on the next batter, so Oregon opted to replace him with Matt Dallas.

Dallas walked the first batter he faced to send home a run, cutting the Ducks’ lead to 8-5. The next batter, Alan Espinal hit a slow roller to third and Sabin Ceballos made an outstanding play to end the inning and get Oregon out of the jam.

T7

Vanderbilt reliever Grayson Moore retired Oregon’s 3-4-5 hitters in order and struck out Drew Cowley and Sabin Ceballos looking.

Sixth Inning

B7

Vanderbilt’s first two hitters of the inning reached on an error and a walk. But Spoljaric buckled down and produced three straight outs to escape the jam.

T6

Oregon was retired in order.

Fifth Inning

B5

Parker Noland smashed a two-out double, but Spoljaric was able to work around it and produced another scoreless inning to hold Oregon’s lead at 8-4.

T5

Sabin Ceballos lined an RBI single to give Oregon a 5-4 lead.

Then, three batters later, Jacob Walsh smashed a bases-clearing double to push the Ducks’ lead to 8-4.

Fourth Inning

B4

Spoljaric produced another 1-2-3 inning to keep the game tied at 4-4.

T4

Jacob Walsh smashed a one-out double but was left stranded.

Third Inning

B3

Spoljaric produced his first 1-2-3 inning of the day on just seven pitches.

T3

Oregon’s 2-3-4 hitters were retired in order.

Second Inning

B2

Vanderbilt scored three runs, including a massive solo homer from RJ Schreck, to tie the game at 4-4.

T2

Bennett Thompson lifted a solo homer with one out to push Oregon’s lead to 4-1. Rikuu Nishida later reached on an infield single and stole second. But he was left stranded.

First Inning

B1

Vanderbilt cut the Oregon lead to 3-1 on Parker Noland’s one-out single. The Commodores loaded the bases with two outs after a Sabin Ceballos error, but Ducks’ starter Turner Spoljaric got RJ Austin to line out to center to escape the jam.

T1

Oregon tagged Vanderbilt starter Hunter Owen for three runs in the top of the first to take an early lead.

Rikuu Nishida was hit by a pitch to lead off the game, then scored on a throwing error while attempting to go first-to-third on Drew Cowley’s single. Cowley advanced to third on the error, then scored on Sabin Ceballos’ groundout.

Tanner Smith capped off the scoring by smashing a solo homer to right field.