McMillan Fires Gem, Oregon Rallies for Win in 10 Innings

EUGENE, Ore. (April 22, 2022) – Washington State starting pitcher Cole McMillan struck out a career-high 10 and worked into the seventh inning but No. 10 Oregon rallied with five runs in the ninth and used a walkoff RBI-single in the tenth inning to take the series-opener 8-7 at PK Park Friday evening.
 
WSU (14-22, 5-14 Pac-12) hit three home runs and built a 7-0 lead after five innings but Oregon (26-11, 11-5 Pac-12) tied the game with five runs in the ninth inning before hitting the walkoff base-hit in the tenth.
 
Jake Meyer, Bryce Matthews and Jacob McKeon each homered for the Cougars while Matthews, McKeon and Kyle Russell each collected two hits. McMillan kept the Pac-12's top offense off balance all night, working 6.2 innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts, one walk and allowed two earned runs.
 
KEY MOMENTS OF THE GAME
In the second inning, Justin Van De Brake doubled down the left field line with one out, Hainline pulled the first pitch he saw into leftfield for an RBI-single and Meyer followed with a two-run homer to left-centerfield for a 3-0 lead.
 
In the third, Matthews made it 4-0 with a solo homer just to the left of the batter's eye in centerfield. WSU added two more in the fourth inning after RBI-singles from Kyle Russell and Matthews and McKeon homered to left field to lead off the fifth to push the lead to 7-0.
 
Oregon began to chip away with runs in the sixth and seventh to make it a 7-2. In the ninth, Oregon led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch, doubled one batter later followed by a walk a two-run singled to make it 7-4. An Oregon hitter was called out on strikes after out of the batters box for an extended amount of time for the second out but the next two hitters recorded RBI-singles to cut the Cougar lead to 7-6. The tying run came home after a pitch got underneath the catcher and to the backstop.
 
In the tenth, three straight one-out singles loaded the bases and a RBI-single to right-centerfield gave Oregon the win.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Jack Smith walked in the 9th to extend his on-base streak to 20 games
Elijah Hainline singled in the 2nd to extend his on-base streak to 14 games
McMillan struck out 10, the first WSU pitcher with 10 K in a game since Zane Mills at Cal last season (10)
 
NEXT UP
The series continues Saturday at 3 p.m.