Tanner Smith led an offensive onslaught for Oregon, which swept its doubleheader with Northwestern State.
Smith went a combined 4 for 6 with a double, two home runs and seven RBIs in wins of 12-7 and 13-3 for the Ducks Saturday afternoon at PK Park.
“It’s been team baseball and complete baseball,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “I’ve liked the quality starts we’re getting and the relief work. I thought Grayson (Grinsell) was really good today. Coming in and finishing that game up and the start by Leo in the second game was really good.”
Smith joins Kenyon Yovan (2021) as the only Ducks to hit homers in four consecutive games.
Other than a leadoff home run by Northwestern State (13-10) in the opener, Oregon never trailed in either game.
The Ducks got the run back in the first on an RBI double by Sabin Ceballos, then took a 3-1 lead in the second on an RBI groundout by Rikuu Nishida and single by Colby Shade.
Ceballos and Gavin Grant each had RBI singles and Josiah Cromwick hit a two-run double to make it 7-1 after three. Northwestern State hit another solo home run in the top of the fifth, but those were the only runs allowed by Logan Mercado (2-0) on six hits and three walks with five strikeouts over 6.0 innings.
Smith hit a two-run homer in the fifth and Oregon (14-7) poured it on in the seventh with another blast from Drew Cowley and a two-run shot by Jacob Walsh that made it 12-2.
Jackson Pace got tagged for five runs, all in the ninth, on four hits, three walks and a hit batter over 2.2 innings and Ian Umlandt came in for the final out of the opener.
In the second game, the Ducks scored six in the first, including two via wild pitches. Smith hit an RBI double, Bennett Thompson singled in a run and Carter Garate doubled in a pair.
Cowley hit an RBI single and two batter later Smith hit a three-run home run to make it 10-0 after four.
Northwestern State scored two in the fifth thanks to three straight two-out singles. Oregon got the runs back after a Smith single in the sixth and Garate homer in the seventh and the teams traded runs in the eighth, with Thompson hitting a home run.
Leo Uelmen (2-2) allowed two runs on four hits, four walks and a hit batter and struck out two over 6.0 innings.
“Felt pretty good,” Uelman said. “There’ve been days where I felt bad, but just a lot of things going my way the first couple of innings. The fifth inning kind of got away from me, but a lot of things were going my way. It was overall a good day.”
Grinsell struck out a season-high six while allowing a run on two hits and a walk over 3.0 innings to earn his first career save.
Oregon will go for the four-game sweep at noon Sunday.
