It was about as ‘Oregon’ as it gets. With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, Mitchell Tolman squared to bunt with Friday night’s walk-off hero, Aaron Payne, standing 90 feet away from sweeping the No. 21 Cardinal. Tolman got the bunt down beautifully and with Payne breaking from third and Sam Lindquist had no chance to get the out at the plate.
Moments earlier, Ryon Healy tied the game with a double ripped down the left field line to undo the damage done by Justin Ringo’s home run which broke a 2-2 tie. It was the only earned run given up by Duck starter Jake Reed, who turned in a phenomenal 8 innings of work, scattering three hits and giving up just the one earned run.
Reed threw Ringo a changeup low in the zone — not normally a decision that leads to the longball — but the DH was sitting on the pitch and got enough on it to send it over the wall. On the next pitch, Reed shook off a sign for a slider and fired a fastball in for a strike.
“Maybe a little frustration,” Reed admitted. “I gave up a home run a few weeks ago and walked the next two guys and I wanted to make a point that that was a fluke and it was never gonna happen again.”
Stanford got its other two runs on something of a fluky sequence. With a runner on first Jake Reed coaxed a routine ground ball out of Austin Slater that turned into a would-be inning ending double play, but Slater bat caught Josh Graham’s glove and he advanced on catcher’s interference bringing up Brian Ragira who promptly ripped one up the middle to score two and tie the game.
“I think in the past it would have rattled me a little more,” Reed said. “I got two more ground balls out of that and he just got enough to get it up the middle.”
It’s the Ducks’ first series win against a ranked opponent this year and with the postseason approaching fast the sweep is a statement to the selection committee with Oregon hoping to be a national seed for the second straight year.
“When you beat a program like Stanford all three games, that’s a big accomplishment.”
But with three weeks left in the season, nothing is a guarantee. Still on the Ducks schedule, among other things, is a three game home set against No. 7 Oregon State.