Oregon is one win away from possibly hosting a super regional.
Sabin Ceballos drove in a pair and Jacob Walsh’s three-run double capped a four-run fifth for the Ducks, who held on to beat No. 6 seed Vanderbilt 8-7 in the winners’ bracket game of the Nashville Regional Saturday night at Hawkins Field.
Vanderbilt will play Xavier (38-24) in an elimination game at noon Sunday. Oregon (39-20) will play the winner of that game in the regional final at 6 p.m. PT Sunday.
Tied at 4 after two, Oregon regained the lead for good amid a four-run fifth.
With runners on the corners and one out, Ceballos drove in his second RBI of the day on a single to right. Drew Smith drew a two-out walk to load the bases for Jacob Walsh, who follow with a bases-clearing double to left center off Ryan Ginther, who allowed four runs on four hits and a walk over 1.0 inning of relief.
It was all the run support needed for Turner Spoljaric. After giving up four runs on five hits and a walk over the first two innings, the freshman retired nine straight and 10 of 11 and worked around a jam with two on and nobody out in the sixth to cap fourth straight scoreless frames.
Spoljaric (7-0) allowed four runs on six hits and two walks and struck out two over 6.0 innings. Austin Anderson issued three walks and hit a batter to allow a run to score in the seventh, but Matt Dallas got the Ducks out of the jam thanks to Ceballos bare-handing a slowly chopped grounder and firing it to first to beat Alan Espinal.
Dallas threw 1.1 scoreless innings, then Josh Mollerus issued a walk to lead off the ninth and gave up a two-run home run to Chris Maldonado that made it a one-run game. But he closed it out to notch his 11th save of the season and send UO to the regional final.
Hunter Owen allowed four runs on six hits and a hit batter and struck out four over 4.0 innings in a no-decision for the Commodores (42-19).
The Oregonian/OregonLive will update this story.
