Season Ends in Louisville Regional
Louisville, Ky. — Oregon cut a five-run deficit to two in the eighth inning, but the Ducks were unable to finish off the comeback and fell 8-5 to No. 7 Louisville in an elimination game.
UO (36-25) fell behind 7-2 after the Cardinals (40-19-1) tallied four runs in the sixth and seventh innings. The Ducks battled back with three of their own in the eighth, but they were not able to close the gap any further.
How It Happened: The teams traded runs in the first inning. Oregon drew first blood in the top of the inning. After a Colby Shade, one-out double, Drew Cowley picked up an RBI with a two-out single.
Louisville answered with a run of its own in the bottom half. Christian Knapczyk doubled to lead off the inning and came around to score on a ground out.
The Cardinals took their first lead scoring two runs on three hits in the bottom of the fourth. The big blow was a two-run Cameron Masterman homer over the left-center wall.
The Ducks cut the lead in half in the top of the fifth without the benefit of a hit. Sam Novitske walked to lead off the inning, moved to second on a balk and to third on a wild pitch on ball four to Gavin Grant. Tanner Smith then hit into a fielder's choice, scoring Novitske.
Louisville put together a big inning in the sixth, scoring three runs to push the lead to four. Back-to-back walks by Andrew Mosiello put runners on first and second and forced Oregon to bring in Kolby Somers with no outs. The Ducks' closer got the first two he faced on a sacrifice bunt and a pop out, but a balk, a double and a single brought three in for the Cardinals.
Oregon mounted a partial comeback in the top of the eight, scoring three runs to cut the lead to two. Shade and Brennan Milone led off the inning with back-to-back singles before Josh Kasevich delivered a RBI single. After a Cardinals pitching change, Anthony Hall drove in Milone and Kasevich with a ground-rule double. Louisville escaped with the two-run lead after Josiah Cromwick struck out and Novitske lined out to center field.
The Cardinals tacked on one more run in the ninth, scoring on a bases-loaded single.
Box Score Notes: Milone earned All-Louisville Regional honors ... He finished the regional with a .600/.600/1.133 slash, two home runs, two doubles, four RBI and five runs scored ... Shade's first-inning double was the 121st two-bagger for Oregon this season, setting a new school record … Novitske made his 150th career start at Oregon … Somers made his 87th career appearance, the second most in Oregon history … Shade picked up his 21st multi-hit game of the season, one shy of cracking the all-time top 10 at Oregon … Shade extended his hitting streak to 13 games … Cowley also extended his hitting streak to 13 games … Hall finished with his 22nd multiple-hit game, tied for 10th most in a season at Oregon, and his 37th of his career … The multi-RBI game was his 17th of the year, second all-time at Oregon, and the 28th of his career.