Tuesday evening at PK Park was a textbook performance for the Ducks. Junior Clayton Crum tossed five strong innings, giving up just one run off of four hits, thus earning the win and sweeping the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

In the bottom of the fourth inning with one out, Scott Heineman singled to right field scoring Aaron Payne from second – tying the game at one.

Turning point. Perhaps the most bizarre moment of the evening came in the bottom of the seventh inning. With bases loaded and one out, senior infielder J.J. Albotelli laid down a suicide squeeze, scoring not only Tyler Baumgartner  from third, but Ryan Hambright from second, who was running on the pitch.

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen it. That’s an exciting play, and you don’t see it very often,” head coach George Horton said.

A Brent Thomas RBI single in the ensuing at-bat took the Oregon run tally to four – all the wiggle room closer Jimmie Sherfy needed to close out the top of the ninth in front of 1,329 Duck fans.

Sherfy said the inning of work was a good warmup for this weekend – when the Ducks host in-state rivals Oregon State who lead Oregon in the PAC -12 standings by just one game. The three game series will most likely decide the outright conference champion.

“I’d rather have the OSU game tonight,” Sherfy said post-game. “I probably won’t sleep too much, but it’s gonna be a fun series.”

On the horizon. Oregon takes on Oregon State Friday night at 6 p.m. at PK Park.