EUGENE, Ore. – Washington pitchers combined to strikeout 13 Oregon hitters, but Ducks' centerfielder Jonny DeLuca singled with the bases-loaded in the 10
th inning to break a scoreless deadlock and give his team a 1-0 win over the Huskies Sunday at PK Park in Eugene.
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The loss sent the Huskies (11-5, 2-1 Pac-12) home having to settle with a series win instead of a sweep, while the Ducks (11-7, 1-2) avoided a winless start to their Pac-12 season.
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After scoring 28 runs in the first two games of the series, the Huskies' bats were kept in check by three Oregon pitchers. Oregon starter Brett Walker went the first 3 1/3 innings, reliever Ryne Nelson went the next 5 2/3 and Nico Tellache (2-1) pitched a scoreless 10
th inning to earn the win. Â
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The Huskies had a golden opportunity to get on the board first in the second inning but were denied when
Connor Blair was thrown out at home trying to score from second on a
Ben Baird single.
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It was Washington's best opportunity to score while its starting pitcher,
Josh Burgmann, was on the hill. Once again, the redshirt-sophomore was outstanding on the hill, throwing six shutout innings, allowing four hits, two walks and striking out eight batters, which was good enough to move him into a tie for the Pac-12 lead with 39 punchouts on the season.
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Nelson was equally dominant out of the pen for the Ducks to keep his team in the game. The flame-throwing right hander limited the Huskies to three hits and struck out eight and left after the ninth inning.
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The two teams remained scoreless until the Ducks finally broke through in the 10
th. The home team had a couple of singles and a walk to load the bases for DeLuca.
Stevie Emanuels (1-1) fell behind in the count 3-1 and was able to get it back to 3-2 with a called strike two. But DeLuca was waiting for a fastball on the payoff pitch and smacked it cleanly into right field for a walk-off win.
Offensively,
Mason Cerrillo and
Braiden Ward were both 3 for 4 at the plate for the Huskies. UW outhit the Ducks, 8-7.
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Washington returns home to Husky Ballpark and will host USC in a three-game series starting Friday at 6:00 p.m.
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