Oregon is one win away from reaching the College World Series for the first time since 1954, and all it took was the biggest comeback in NCAA Super Regional history.
Down 8-0 midway through the third, the Ducks steadily chipped away at a deficit 96 teams attempt and failed to overcome in a super regional, tying the game in the seventh on an RBI single by Tanner Smith.
In the bottom of the ninth, Gavin Grant and Rikuu Nishida drew back-to-back four-pitch walks before Oral Roberts finally brought in Cade Denton, one of the best closers in the country, and its mismanagement proved costly for the Golden Eagles. Two batters later, Drew Cowley laced a single to right to score Nishida and send the sellout crowd of 4,476 at PK Park into a frenzy as Oregon won 9-8 in walk-off fashion to take Game 1 of the Eugene Super Regional Friday night.
“This team’s got a toughness to them that I’ve never seen before – they won’t quit,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “Come back from an 8-0 deficit, as disappointed as they were in the third inning, they’ve been working to build this thing to where a day like this would happen with this number of people here and the energy. To get really punched in the face at the beginning of this game, I don’t think I’d ever imagine another team being able to rebound from that, the disappointment of what probably our guys were feeling at that time and yet they did.”
It was the 10th straight win for Oregon (41-20), which will try to punch its ticket to Omaha in Game 2 Saturday night (6 p.m., ESPNU).
Oral Roberts (49-12) saw its 21-game win streak snapped in the biggest collapse in super regional history. Teams trailing in super regional games by at least eight runs were 0-96.
“Tomorrow’s a new day,” ORU first baseman Jake McMurray said. “Still got to be able to win two games on the weekend; they still got to beat us again. I think we got to flush this one and get right back after it tomorrow.”
The Golden Eagles scored eight runs in the top of the third, sending 13 batters to the plate who saw 60 pitches.
An RBI groundout scored the first run, Matt Hogan hit a three-run home run to right, a wild pitch made it 5-0 and McMurray dropped a bases-clearing double into no man’s land down the line in right.
Oregon’s Grayson Grinsell allowed five runs on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts over 2.1 innings and Dylan McShane needed 22 pitches in just 0.1 inning of work, allowing three runs on one hit, two walks and a hit batter.
Then Ian Umlandt, Logan Mercado, Matt Dallas and Josh Mollerus locked down ORU’s hitters to give Oregon the chance to get back in the game.
Jacob Walsh and Bennett Thompson hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the third. Tanner Smith and Drew Smith singled and Thompson mashed a 1-1 pitch to left for a three-run homer to make it 8-5 after four.
ORU’s Jakob Hall allowed five runs on seven hits and a hit batter and struck out four over 5.0 innings in a no-decision.
Drew Smith added a solo home run to left in the sixth to get the Ducks within 8-6.
Meanwhile, Mercado allowed just one hit and three walks and struck out five over 3.0 scoreless innings.
With one out in the seventh, Nishida reached on catcher’s interference and an error by ORU pitcher Jacob Widener (2.0 IP, three runs, one earned, on three hits) allowed Bryce Boettcher to reach for Oregon to get the tying run aboard. Cowley hit an RBI single to right to cut the gap to 8-7, then Tanner Smith tied the game with a single to shallow right and the inning ended with Cowley thrown out at home.
With one on and one out in the eighth, Dallas got behind 30 against Jonah Cox, one of the Summit League Player of the Year and one of the top hitters in the country. Three pitches later Cox struck out swinging and Dallas was relieved for Mollerus, who closed out the inning then worked around a leadoff single in the ninth and falling behind 2-0 against Holden Breeze, who he struck out looking, and got a double play to keep the game tied at 8.
Rather than bring in Denton, who is tied for the national lead with 15 saves, to open the bottom of the ninth Oral Roberts stuck with Dalton Patten, who lost the zone and walked Grant and Nishida to put the winning run in scoring position with no outs.
“It’s easy to look back and say that (Denton should have come in earlier),” Oral Roberts coach Ryan Fowlar said. “We just made the decision, we felt good with where we were at at that point in the game and we went with Dalton.”
ORU finally brought in Denton and the in-game chess match continued to go Oregon’s way. Bryce Boettcher laid down a bunt and Denton made a terrific play to throw out Grant at third, but it ensured the Ducks would have Cowley up with a chance to hit rather than likely walking with runners on second and third with one out and create a force at every base against Sabin Ceballos, who was 0 for 4 on the night.
“I like my odds either way,” Wasikowski said.
Denton got ahead on Cowley 1-2, then the Oregon shortstop got a hold of a slider that he knocked into right field and Nishida came around to score.
“Not trying to do too much,” Cowley said. “Be in control of myself. We talk about as hitters or pitching just slowing the game down. Looking for something up and putting a good swing on it. I was able to get a slider and put a good swing on it.”
The Oregonian/OregonLive will update this story.
