Oregon Ducks Drop Series Opener At UCLA Bruins

The Oregon Ducks dropped the first game of the series at UCLA and are back to .500 on the season.

Oregon Starter Kenyon Yovan was the Ducks closer last season and worked his way into the Saturday Starter role all the way to the Friday starting role this season. Yovan has had eight quality starts this season and that stat came to an end against the UCLA Bruins on Friday.

Yovan helped his own cause in the first inning helping Oregon to a two-run inning and an early lead. The Bruins were able to strike back two innings later with four runs off five hits to take a 4-2 lead. Oregon showed some fight to tie the game in the sixth. Jakob Goldfarb threw out a UCLA runner at the plate in the third inning setting a new modern era assist record. The former record of 11 was set by Austin Grebeck.

UCLA took control of the game in the bottom of the sixth scoring seven runs off just five hits. The Bruins took two bases early in the inning after being hit by a pitch and scored three runs off Oregon wild pitches. While Oregon’s Pitching Staff has looked okay at times this season, there have also been times where they looked anything but okay. UCLA made Oregon pay blowing the game wide open to take a ten run lead and win the game 12-4.

The best the Oregon Ducks can hope is to end the season above the .500 mark and have something to build on next season.

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With the 2018 Post Season likely out of reach, Oregon could end the season on a better note. They will look to tie the series with UCLA this afternoon before wrapping up the three-game series on Sunday. Oregon wraps up the 2018 season with a three-game home series next weekend against Arizona at PK Park.