Oregon baseball ended the Gonzaga Bulldogs’ 14-game win streak with a 4-3 win at PK Park. The Ducks bats scored their four runs in the first two innings, and that was enough behind the pitchers to give Oregon a 6-game win streak.
Pitchers. Plural. As in, a different pitcher every inning.
This is the first time I can recall a different pitcher starting and playing through every inning. Nine pitchers threw in every inning – in order of Michael Meckna, Jonah Barkoff, Cooper Markham, Shane Johnson, Gabe
Howard, Luke Morgan, Toby Twist, Tanner Bradley, and Devin Bell. It seemed like damn near the entire bullpen was emptied, and using a pitcher every inning is a cool strategy if you can make it work.
The Ducks managed to make it work.
Gonzaga got on the board first. Their leadoff hitter belted a triple, and then crossed home on a wild pitch.
Oregon responded with three in the bottom of the inning; two runs off sacrifice flies, followed by Angel Laya’s solo homer to move ahead 3-1.
A sacrifice fly by the Ducks in the second inning gave Oregon a 4-1 lead. It was then going to be up to the bullpen to make it stick.
The Zags brought a runner home in the third inning to make the score 4-2. Johnson, Howard, and Morgan maintained that lead for the next three innings, with Johnson and Howard going 1-2-3.
Toby Twist gave up a home run against the first batter he faced in the seventh inning, but recovered and that’s all the runs that Gonzaga would get. Tanner Bradley got into a jam in the eighth but pitched his way out of it.
That left Devin Bell to make it stick, and that he did, for his 10th save of the season.
Here is your final line:
Tanner Bradley had this to say after his performance:
And coach Waz summed the day up as such:
Oregon baseball next takes their six-game win streak on the road, as they head north for a weekend series against Washington. Game 1 is on Friday at 7:05 pm PT, and can be seen on Big Ten Plus.
