An early lead quickly turned into an insurmountable deficit for Oregon in a series-opening loss to rival Washington.
The No. 24 Ducks, who were once again without ace Jace Stoffal due to an unspecified injury, had five pitchers combine to allow eight walks and six of those batters scored in a 14-5 loss to the Huskies Friday night at PK Park.
Logan Mercado, usually UO’s Saturday starter, was moved up in the weekend rotation and struggled with command. He allowed eight runs on six hits — five for extra-bases — and five walks and struck out six over 3.2 innings.
“When you’re trying to throw fastballs that are living in the top of the zone against good college hitters, you’re going to have a tough time unless there’s exceptional ride on the ball and I don’t know that Logan had that tonight,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “He was up and that was clear. When you’re up int he zone you’re going to have a tougher time keeping the ball in the park or keeping the contact to a minimum.”
Washington (30-14, 14-10 Pac-12) got on the board first with a solo home run from Coby Morales (4 for 6, four RBIs) in the first.
Josiah Cromwick hit a two-run shot to put Oregon (31-17, 14-12) ahead after two.
Mercado opened the third with back-to-back walks and Morales hit a two-run double to put UW back in front. Aiva Arquette led off the fourth with a homer, Morales added another RBI double and Will Simpson hit a three-run home run to make it 8-2 and end the night for Mercado.
Stu Fresland III (5-2) allowed two runs on five hits and a walk and struck out three over 6.0 innings in the win for the Huskies.
They did a good job of commanding the strike zone. Their starter had good angle on the ball and kept the ball down. He was living on the ground for the most part.
UW added a sacrifice fly in the seventh and Simpson hit a two-run blast as part of a five-run ninth.
The Ducks plated three in the bottom of the ninth via back-to-back RBI singles by Colby Shade and Drew Cowley.
Dylan McShane allowed an unearned run on two hits over 3.1 innings, Leo Uelmen (1.1 IP) allowed three runs on three hits and a walk and Jacob Hughes (0.1 IP) allowed two runs on two hits and two walks before Ian Umlandt got the final out for Oregon’s bullpen.
“You try to be real with your team,” Wasikowski said. You don’t want to lie to your team; you try to be real. When you get punched in the mouth you let them know that’s clearly what happened. I don’t think that message fooled anybody out there in the huddle tonight. I think we all felt it.
“The challenge is what kind of pride do we have to get up off the mat and show up tomorrow and get after somebody?”
The teams continue the series at 6 p.m. Saturday.
