Oregon Baseball Clinch Series Win vs No. 10 UCLA

Via Oregon Communications

EUGENE, Ore. — Freshman Burke-Lee Mabeus hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a tie and spark a four-run rally to lead No. 16 Oregon to a 10-6 Big Ten Conference series-clinching win over No. 10 UCLA on Sunday at PK Park in front of 3,005 fans.

After UCLA tied the game with a run in the top of the eighth, Mabeus stepped to the plate and drove the first pitch he saw the opposite way for the go-ahead homer. The freshman’s long ball started an inning where Oregon (27-11, 14-7 Big Ten) sent 10 batters to the plate and built a four-run lead before eventually leave the bases loaded.

Following Mabeus’ home run, Carter Garate continued the rally with a one-out walk before moving to third on a Mason Neville hustle double. Dominic Hellman loaded the bases on a hit-by-pitch before giving way to pinch runner Jax Gimenez.

Jacob Walsh gave the Ducks some cushion lining a two-run single into the right-center field gap putting runners at the corners before he swiped second to put two in scoring position. Still with one out, Drew Smith drove a 2-2 pitch deep into centerfield scoring Gimenez from third on the sacrifice fly.

Oregon’s dramatic rally overshadowed Neville’s record setting effort from earlier in the game. The Ducks’ centerfielder belted a three-run home run in the fourth inning to cap the Ducks’ four-run frame and give UO a 6-4 lead. The homer was his 19th of the season, setting a new Oregon single-season record for long balls.

How It Happened: After a 1-2-3 first inning, the Ducks sent six hitters to the plate in the second inning while scoring a pair of runs. Smith led off the frame with a single and moved to third on an Anson Aroz base hit before scoring on a Maddox Molony RBI single.

After Mabeus moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt, Aroz scored on a Ryan Cooney ground out to make it 2-0.

UCLA took a 4-2 lead with a run in the third and three more in the fourth, but the Ducks rallied in their half of the fourth with four runs to regain the lead. Aroz led off the inning with a solo home run to trim the lead to one.

After Cooney singled to left and Carter Garate reached on an infield single, Neville blasted the record-breaking homer to put Oregon on top by two.

UCLA (29-10, 13-5 Big Ten) scored on in the sixth and one in the eighth to tie the game, but Oregon got out a jam in the eighth to keep it tied to set up the four-run rally. The Bruins had the bases loaded with one out after tying the game, and Oregon turned to Seth Mattox out of the bullpen. After falling behind 2-0, he got Roman Martin to hit a weak chopper toward third where Garate gloved it, stepped on their and fired home to get the runner trying to score ending the Bruins threat.

Box Score Notes: The announced attendance (3,005) marked the 36th time in the history of PK Park that a crowd has exceeded 3,000 fans … Oregon’s series win was its ninth this season with just one series loss … Neville went 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored … Walsh was 2-for-3 with two RBI … Aroz went 2-for-4 with a RBI and two runs scored … Mattox moved to 2-0 with the win.

On Deck: The Ducks play the first of five consecutive nonconference games when they host Portland at 5:05 p.m. on Tuesday (B1G+).

Head Coach Mark Wasikowski

On the game overall…

“Good. It’s good to win a conference weekend series, they’re hard to win, and against a good program, UCLA. The guys played a complete game today. They were a little bit salty after how yesterday ended. Thought we played a really good game yesterday through five plus innings, and we were salty about how the thing ended. We didn’t give ourselves a chance to win three games by the way we played yesterday, and came out today and took care of business.”

On Burke-Lee Mabeus’ home run…

“Really impressive. I mean, the guy’s throwing 97-98 miles per hour, and Burke went first pitch fastball. I think he just got a good barrel on it. And I was happy to see him being aggressive in that situation. For a freshman, that’s pretty cool. He caught a win too, today. Another win that he caught, that’s equally as important.”

On Mason Neville breaking the single-season home run record…

“He’s a talented young player, and we recruited him really hard out of high school and we finished in second place, which is as good as 10th place when it comes to recruiting. It stinks when you lose a kid out of high school. And then when he decided he was going to come our way after his first year, we were thrilled. I would have loved to have another year with him to be able to help him develop, because he’s a tremendous young man. The only sad part is I didn’t get a third year with him to help him in his game, because he’s been fun to work with on a daily basis. He’s not perfect, none of these kids are. But on a daily basis, he tries his best, he gives you everything he’s got. He’s got a great heart.”

Mason Neville

On the team’s current attitudes…

“We’ve got a chip on our shoulder. We know we’re a good ball club, and we can do a lot of good things. We went to a Super Regional last year and had almost our whole lineup come back. The standard is high, but it’s baseball. You’re going to lose some games here and there, but we also shoot to win every game.”

On if he feels relief after achieving his new record…

“It’s not something I really focus on too much. It’s pretty cool, but it’s just about getting to Omaha. That’s the main focus. It’s a pretty cool thing to do, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not really thinking about that. I just want to put good swings on the ball and help my team win.”

Seth Mattox

On how he feels about his pitching right now…

“I feel good. I feel like I’m attacking the zone more. Getting ahead is big, especially with my stuff. As long as I can get ahead, I can get to my secondary pitches, which is what I want to do.”

On how the pitching staff had crucial outs today and what it does for their confidence…

“It’s massive. I think that builds confidence for every guy that pitched today, knowing that their stuff can beat anybody. That’s a really good hitting team. So, just knowing that our stuff can win is a huge confidence booster.”

Burke-Lee Mabeus

On if he thought his homerun was going over…

“No, I think I was sprinting out of the box. I wasn’t sure. They have a pretty talented left fielder out there. I saw he got a decent jump on it, and I was thinking maybe I would get a hustle double. I was looking for the umpires, trying to see if they were going to tell me it was over. I think I found out when I was rounding second, and I was still sprinting.”

On the team’s ability to execute bunts…

“We work on those every day. There are some days when the coaches let us work on bunts only during hitting. If it’s going to make us better, they want us to do it. It’s something we really value as a part of our game. When you play good baseball, it helps for sure.”