The Oregon baseball team hadn’t swept a three-game road series since February. Nick Catalano changed that in the 11th inning Sunday against UCLA.
With two outs in the top of the 11th, Catalano singled up the middle to score Mitchell Tolman to give the Ducks a 5-4 lead. Garrett Cleavinger the struck out the side in the bottom of the inning to conserve the win and the sweep.
Oregon (40-16, 17-10 Pac-12) tied the game at 1 in the third inning on Tyler Baumgartner’s RBI single. The Bruins (23-29-1, 10-17) answered in the home half with three runs. Shane Zeile drove in his second run of the game with a double, and scored on Justin Hazard’s two-run single.
Steven Packard scored on a wild pitch and Catalano scored on Mark Karaviotis’ squeeze bunt to tie the score at 4 in the seventh. Karaviotis drove in a run in the fifth with a sacrifice fly.
UCLA nearly won in the bottom of the 10th. Pinch hitter Darrell Miller Jr. singled up the middle with two on and two outs, and it would have been a walk-off if not for Aaron Payne, who gunned down Brett Urabe at the plate.
Packard and Tolman each went 2-for-5 with a run scored and Catalano went 2-for-4 with two runs and one RBI. Karaviotis had just one official at-bat (0-for-1) but drove in two runs.
Zeile, Trent Chatterton and Luke Persico all went 2-for-5, and Zeile and Hazard both had 2 RBI’s.
Oregon starting pitcher Brando Tessar allowed four earned runs in 2.1 innings pitched, with three walks and three strikeouts. Tessar, who had previously thrown 22.1 consecutive scoreless innings, has allowed 11 runs (eight earned) in his last two starts (six innings pitched).
Trent Paddon, Jordan Spencer, Stephen Nogosek and Cleavinger (3-1) all threw at least an inning in relief and allowed no runs.
Cody Poteet threw six inning for UCLA, allowing four runs on four hits with one walk and five strikeouts. David Berg (4-2) tossed four innings of long relief.
Oregon and Arizona State remain tied for third place in the Pac-12 standings after the Sun Devils swept their series with Utah. The Ducks play Oregon State on Tuesday before ending the regular season with a three game series versus California at home.
Follow Madison Guernsey on Twitter @guernseymd