Oregon opened Pac-12 play with its best win of the season, knocking off No. 16 UCLA.
Owen Diodati and Jacob Walsh each hit two-run home runs and four relievers combined to allow one hit and five walks with five strikeouts over 5.0 scoreless innings in a 6-2 Ducks win over the Bruins on Friday afternoon at PK Park.
“We pitched well and played clean baseball,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “I thought we played a well rounded game and we played good defense. Timely hitting, we moved the ball around the field. The first run was just really good situational hitting and then we had a couple of big swings.”
Oregon (9-3, 1-0 Pac-12) took an early lead after Tanner Smith led off with a double and came around to score on a pair of groundouts.
Diodati hit a homer down the line in left to make it 3-0 after two.
UCLA (10-3, 0-1 Pac-12) hit a pair of solo home runs in the third and fourth innings, but otherwise was quiet against Jace Stoffal, who allowed two runs on three hits and three walks with a career-high nine strikeouts over 4.0 innings in a no-decision.
“I thought that was the best that the ball came out of his hand all year so far and it’s a tremendous sign,” Wasikowski said.
Rikuu Nishida led off the fifth with a single and came around to score on Walsh’s two-out home run that made it 5-3.
The Ducks added a run in the sixth thanks to a balk.
Jake Brooks allowed six runs on six hits and three hit batters and struck out three over 5.1 innings for the Bruins.
Austin Anderson and Grayson Grinsell each threw scoreless innings, Matt Dallas (1-0) retired six of seven batters in the seventh and eighth innings and Josh Mollerus got the final three outs for Oregon.
The teams continue the series at 2 p.m. Saturday.
