UW baseball falls to fifth ranked Oregon
Pitcher, Gunnar Nichols, zeroes in on Oregon batter for a pitch. Nichols struck out 4 players against Oregon.
COURTESY PHOTO/UW ATHLETICS
EUGENE, Ore. — The Huskies (27-25) lost a competitive game against fifth-ranked Oregon (38-13) with a final score of 5-3 on Sunday afternoon, according to a statement by University of Washington Athletics Communications.
Oregon jumped ahead early, scoring four in the first two innings. Following a two-run home run with no outs, Isaac Yeager took over on the mound and struck out one while getting out of the inning without any further damage.
Across the remaining six innings in which the Ducks came up to bat, Washington allowed just one hit, a solo home run in the fifth.
Yeager went on to pitch a total of 5.0 innings, allowing just two hits and one run while striking out four.
Gunnar Nichols closed out the game for the Huskies, taking over for the seventh and eighth innings. He was decisive, facing a minimum number of six batters while collecting four strikeouts with no hits, walks, or runs allowed.
Offensively, the Huskies got going with a two-run blast from Cooper Whitton in the seventh inning. It was his third bomb of the year and his second in as many days to put Washington on the board.
In the eighth, the Huskies loaded the bases and Casen Taggart scored on a wild pitch. Malakhi Knight earned a walk to load the bags again, but the Huskies were unable to find a crucial run-scoring hit.
After another 1-2-3 inning from Nichols, the Huskies returned to the plate for the final time. Blake Wilson earned a walk, and an AJ Guerrero single pushed him to third, while Matthew Henning took over for Guerrero as a pinch runner.
With Sam DeCarlo at the plate, Henning went for the steal and was caught at second for the final out of the game.
In total, Washington collected seven hits on the day, tied with Oregon. The Huskies also left eight runners on base, three more than Oregon's five.
Sam DeCarlo led Washington with three hits and was perfect from the plate, going 3-3 while adding a hit by pitch and two stolen bases. Whitton led the Huskies in RBIs with two on the day.
The Huskies return to action on Thursday against USC in the final home series of the season.