Ducks fall 2-0 in pitcher’s duel
EUGENE, Ore. — Seven Oregon pitchers combined to hold No. 2 Oregon State to just four hits but Oregon could not generate any offense in 2-0 nonconference loss on Tuesday night at PK Park.
The No. 24 Ducks (28-16) will not have to wait long to try to get revenge. The teams meet Friday through Sunday in a three-game Pac-12 Conference series in Corvallis. OSU sits two games in front of UO in the league standings.
How It Happened: Oregon State threatened to take an early lead, but Oregon got out of a second-inning jam with some good defense.
The Beavers put runners on first and second with two outs, and got a base hit to center field from nine-hole hitter Jabin Trosky. Colby Shade fielded the ball in center field as both runners looked to advance two bases on the hit. Shade threw to third where Drew Cowley tagged Jake Dukart out before OSU's Tanner Smith stepped on home plate to end OSU's inning with no runs.
Ducks pitchers took over from there retiring the next 12 batters with 1-2-3 innings in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
Caleb Sloan, who was on the mound in the second when OSU failed to score on the Trosky hit, did not allow a runner to reach in the third or fourth innings. He finished with a career-high five strikeouts in 3.0 innings pitched.
Andrew Mosiello relieved Sloan in the fifth and tossed two scoreless innings without allowing base runner. Mosiello tied his season high fanning three.
Oregon State finally took the lead in the seventh, taking advantage of a leadoff walk to Garret Forrester. Travis Bazzana doubled to move Forrester to third before Smith picked up the RBI with a sacrifice fly. The Beavers added a run in the eighth on a solo home run for the final margin.
Box Score Notes: Oregon was shutout for the first time in the Mark Wasikowski era, a streak of 115 games scoring at least one run … The Ducks' were last shutout on April 20, 2019 by No. 2 Stanford (10-0) … Drew Cowley batted cleanup for the first time at Oregon … Cowley (2-for-4) finished with his 12th multi-hit game of the season (in just 23 games played) … Shade (2-for-4) had his 18th multi-hit game of the year.
Up Next: The Ducks and Beavers meet in a Pac-12 series starting Friday at 7:05 p.m. at Goss Stadium. All three games will be televised on the Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Oregon.