Winning cures everything and the Oregon Ducks baseball team needed some wins in the worst way.
After losing two straight at Ohio State and one to Portland, all on the road, the Ducks came home to take two of three from the Michigan Wolverines at PK Park this weekend. Oregon just missed a series sweep, but dropped the finale 12-11 Sunday afternoon.
On the back of starter Grayson Grinsell, the Ducks dominated Friday night to the tune of a 15-2 whipping of Michigan. The junior left-hander threw six innings, gave up seven hits and two earned runs to move to 5-1 on the season.It was a team effort on the offensive side with five home runs, including Dominic Hellman's third grand slam of the season. Ryan Cooney, Anson Aroz, Parker Stinson and Mason Neville all went yard for the Ducks.
It was more of the same Saturday afternoon in a near-capacity PK Park where the Ducks pounded Michigan 13-3. Jacob Walsh homered and drove in four to become the program's all-time leader in RBIs. Jason Reitz just missed on qualifying for the win, but he went just 4 2/3 innings. Ryan Featherston came on to finish the fifth and he was credited with his second win of the season.
But on Sunday, the pitching for either team could be found. Oregon found itself down 6-2, but rallied for five runs in the fifth to take a brief 7-6 lead. Michigan answered with four in the sixth and two in the eighth and the Ducks were down 12-7.
Drew Smith brought the Ducks back to within reach with a three-run homer to make it 12-10. Oregon did its best to rally in the ninth when Neville hit his second homer of the day, his 15th of the season, to pull the Ducks to a single run of the Wolverines. But that was all the Ducks could muster and Michigan escaped Eugene with a win and avoided the sweep.
With the two wins, the Ducks move to 22-9 overall and 10-5 in Big Ten action. Oregon will fly across the country to face Maryland for a weekend series and play that Monday at Georgetown while they are in the area.
This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon takes two of three from Michigan despite Sunday loss
