Oregon Baseball Downs UCLA to Open Conference Play

Via Oregon Communications

EUGENE – Owen Diodati and Jacob Walsh hit two-run home runs while five Oregon pitchers combined to hold No. 13 UCLA to four hits while striking out 15 Bruins in a 6-2 Pac-12 Conference win at PK Park on Friday afternoon.

Oregon (9-3, 1-0 Pac-12) picked up a win in its conference opener over a ranked team for the second consecutive season. Last year the Ducks won 4-3 at No. 2 Stanford to open league play.

How It Happened: Oregon didn’t waste any time taking the lead. Tanner Smith led off with a double and came around to score on a pair of groundouts giving Oregon a 1-0 lead.

The Ducks built on the lead in the second innings scoring a pair of runs. After Colby Shade reached on a hit-by-pitch, Owen Diodati drilled an opposite-field home run give Oregon a 3-0 lead.

UCLA (10-3, 0-1 Pac-12) cut into the lead with a pair of solo home runs in the third and fourth innings, but Oregon answered with runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

Rikuu Nishida led off the fifth with a solo home run and came around to score on Jacob Walsh’s two-out home run for a 5-3 lead. The Ducks tacked on a run in the six thanks to a UCLA balk. Gavin Grant led off the inning with a single, moved to second when Smith was hit by a pitch and to third on a Sabin Ceballos walk before scoring on the balk.

Jace Stoffal got the Ducks’ pitching staff off to a good start. The Ducks’ righty struck out a career-high nine batters, including a stretch of six straight batters over the first two innings after he walked the leadoff batter.

Stoffal allowed the two solo homers and left the game after the fourth inning because of a pinch count. Austin Anderson and Grayson Grinsell each pitched scoreless innings before Matt Dallas (1-0) retired six of the seven batters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings. Josh Mollerus got the final three outs for the Ducks.

Box Score Notes: The 13 strikeouts by the Oregon pitching staff were a season high … Stoffal fanned six straight in the first and second innings, the longest consecutive strikeout streak since Kenyon Yovan fanned six straight on April 28, 2018 … Oregon became the first team to score a first-inning run against UCLA this season … Smith has reached base in all 12 games this season … Nishida stole his eighth bag of the season … Nishida made his first career appearance in the outfield playing right field in the top of the eighth.

On Deck: Oregon and UCLA play game two of the three games series on Saturday with a 2:05 p.m. first pitch.

Quotes:

Head Coach Mark Wasikowski

Overall thoughts on the game:

“We pitched well and played clean baseball. I thought we played a well rounded game and we played good defense. Timely hitting, we moved the ball around the field. The first run was just really good situational hitting and then we had a couple of big swings. The swings off that guy, probably the most impressive thing, were the best swings to the middle and opposite field. That was something that I know was a point of emphasis going into the week with (Hitting) Coach (Jack) Marder and the offensive coaches. The guys bought in and they did a nice job of that today.”

Stoffal’s stuff today:

“I think he struck out eight guys today or something like that in four innings. I mean, his pitch count got up there, but when you’re striking guys out your pitch counts gonna get up there. I thought that was the best that the ball came out of his hand all year so far and it’s a tremendous sign.”

Matt Dallas

Thoughts on how you pitched:

“It felt really good. Felt good to be out there trying to just fill up the zone and execute pitches and get quick outs was really the main goal.”

Beating UCLA and winning first Pac-12 game:

“I mean, we have a saying around here that, ‘it’s not about who you’re playing, you’re just playing against the game.’ So I kind of have that mentality and it doesn’t really matter who’s in the box or anything like that. If I can just keep control of myself. That’s all that really matters. Doesn’t matter who you play.”

Jacob Walsh

On opening performance against UCLA: 

“UCLA always has a good team, you always have to be ready to play when you come and face them. It’s good to start off Pac-12 play against a team like that. It’s a huge thing in baseball to keep the momentum with you, so when Tanner got the leadoff double it set the tone and we rolled with it.”

On defensive improvement: 

“All the infielders put in work every single day on defense, and it’s great to see the results.”

Owen Diodati 

On competition and performance: 

“One thing I’m trying to do a better job of is just going out and competing. Being a competitor, I was a hockey player growing up in Canada and talking to Coach (Marcus) Hinkle this week he said to channel some of that and bring some of that edge to the field and that’s what I’m trying to do.” 

On offensive approach:

“I have always been a guy who’s typically been more of a pull hitter so it’s really important, especially in practice to really work on that and stay diligent and focus on that. It’s nice to have guys who do that for a living and it’s easier to talk to whether that’s Gavin Grant or Tanner Smith or even Jacob Walsh. Talking to them and learning how they do that has been great and helped me to do that today.”

Jace Stoffal

What was working today:

“Everything was working pretty good. I threw four pitches for strikes and you know that’s going to give any offense struggles. Just mix up pitches, throw first pitch strikes, and you’re going to have a good day.”

On high pitch count: 

“Obviously everyone wants to stay out there. Strikeouts do run your pitch count up, but I got deep into counts and had a lot of full counts, so if I can just minimize those I will be able to go deeper in innings and save pitches which is what I’d rather do.