Oregon baseball beats UC Santa Barbara, Ducks advance to regional final

All things considered, the Oregon Ducks couldn’t have asked for a much better Saturday evening. Mark Wasikowski and his Oregon baseball team managed to take a major step forward towards advancing on to a Super Regional as the Ducks claimed a pitchers’ duel against UC Santa Barbara.

But it’s not just that Oregon won that makes this a big deal, it’s that this particular win put Wasikowski and the Ducks in control of the Santa Barbara regional.

With the win over the Gauchos, Oregon is now the only unbeaten team remaining in the Santa Barbara Regional and it would only take one more win for the Ducks to find themselves competing in a Super Regional.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Let’s examine that win over UC Santa Barbara first.

Oregon baseball recap: Ducks beat UC Santa Barbara Gauchos to advance to regional final

As is the case with most (well, all) pitchers’ duels, Oregon’s Saturday evening success was fueled by a stunning showing from one main source: the Ducks pitchers. Specifically in this case, Graysen Grinsell. 

Grinsell threw seven scoreless innings and held UC Santa Barbara to just three hits in that timeframe. On top of that, he managed to strike out nine of the 22 batters he faced.

And while Grinsell was dominating on the mound, the Ducks struggled to get him much run support until Oregon’s offense finally broke through against UC Santa Barbara starter Tyler Bremmer in the bottom of the seventh inning. Prior to that, Bremmer had been going toe-to-toe with Grinsell and was matching the masterful performance with a pitch-for-pitch sort of effort. 

With a Justin Casella single up the middle, Oregon was able to get a baserunner on with just one out in the seventh inning. Casella then scooted on over 90 feet, stealing second to give the Ducks a runner in scoring position. All it took from there was a single from Carter Garate to give Oregon the lead in this one. 

The Ducks then put an insurance run on the board in the eighth inning as Chase Meggers led off with a double and later scored on a Drew Smith groundout.

Which, turns out that run was important as UC Santa Barbara put a run up in the ninth inning. Thankfully though, Oregon was able to end the Gauchos rally and secure a spot in the Santa Barbara Regional final with a 2-1 win. 

Now we wait. We’ll soon find out who the Ducks will face next as UC Santa Barbara and San Diego meet up in an elimination game to decide Oregon’s foe for the Santa Barbara Regional final.