Oregon Baseball Wins Thriller in Santa Barbara Regional

Bryce Boettcher’s 11th inning home run propels the Ducks past San Diego in opening round of Santa Barbara Regional. Oregon will stay in the winners bracket Saturday.

Oregon outfielder Bryce Boettcher celebrates a home run as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at PK Park in Eugene, Ore. / Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA

EUGENE - A crowd of 1,142 took in an absolute heater between Oregon and San Diego baseball Friday.

The Ducks emerged victorious 5-4 in 11 innings. UO improves to 38-18 and stays unblemished in the Santa Barbara Regional. San Diego drops to 40-14 and will play in an elimination game Saturday afternoon against the loser of UC Santa Barbara and Fresno State.

After four innings of nearly flawless pitching from both sides, Oregon broke through with its first run in the top of the fifth inning. Following an answering run from San Diego in the bottom of the fifth, Oregon got back on top with a two-run sixth inning.

San Diego went quiet from the sixth to the eighth inning, going down 4-1 after the top of the eighth. But the Teroro bats came alive to the tune of three runs to tie the game at 4-4.

Oregon outfielder Bryce Boettcher celebrates a home run as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at PK Park in Eugene, Ore. / Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA

Neither team could push across a run in the ninth inning, sending the game to extras. The tenth inning also saw zero runs as the score remained deadlocked.

A heroic home run over the left field wall from Bryce Boettcher put the Ducks ahead 5-4 in the 11th and put the pressure on San Diego to answer.

Oregon closer Logan Mercado did enough to keep San Diego off the scoreboard in the and just like that the Ducks will advance to the second round of the regional where they will take on the winner of the other matchup between Fresno State and UC Santa Barbara.

Notable performances from Friday include Carter Garate’s three-RBI, one-home run game and, of course, Boettcher, who hit the winning home run for Oregon. Starting pitcher RJ Gordon put in 7.0 solid innings on 116 pitches before being spelled by Mercado who stomped out San Diego’s comeback efforts.

Saturday's matchup will give Oregon a chance to advance to the final game of the Santa Barbara Regional on Sunday where they can punch their ticket to a Super Regional appearance in their final year in the Pac-12 Conference.

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