The Ducks’ win streak is up to nine games after their latest series-clinching victory, this one a 9-6 win over first-place Iowa. Oregon (40-13, 21-8 Big Ten) trailed 6-2 in the fifth inning, but tallied the game’s final seven runs for an impressive comeback win.
Series, Ducks.
Oregon will enter the final day of the regular season with the possibility to finish anywhere from first to third in the Big Ten standings. But that’s Sunday’s story. Saturday belonged to the Ducks’ bats.
The top of the first looked a lot like it did in Friday’s 10-0 win as Drew Smith drove in an RBI single to open the scoring. That run would stand as the game’s lone rally until the bottom of the third when Iowa plated three runs on four hits, two of which came with two outs.
The Hawkeyes were on the basepaths early against Oregon starter Collin Clarke. Iowa’s leadoff man reached in four of the five innings that Clarke was responsible for in the win.
The Hawkeyes plated another in the fourth before a pair of homers in the fifth — one from Caleb Wulf and the other from Daniel Rogers — opened up a 6-2 lead and chased Clarke from the game.
Clarke was responsible for six runs on eight hits across his 4.1 innings of work. The abundance of early baserunners sunk him in his 63-pitch outing.
Oregon made history with a pair of homers in the fifth and sixth innings with homers from Jacob Walsh and Anson Aroz. Walsh’s 18th of the season tied the Oregon single-season team home run record at 101 and Aroz set the new mark with his 16th blast of 2025.
Oregon carved deeper into the Hawkeyes’ lead in the seventh. The first four hitters in the Oregon lineup reached to open the inning with Mason Neville and Walsh both doubling before Smith plated another with an infield single.
Now trailing by one, Aroz bunted Walsh and Smith over third and second base respectively to set up a golden opportunity to tie the game. Ryan Cooney did more than that, driving home a pair with a two-out, two-strike double down the left-field line. The Ducks used a four-run seventh to take a 7-6 lead. Cooney’s heroic blast highlighted a 2-4, two-RBI day that brought his average up to .335.
Ian Umlandt and Cole Stokes were elite out of the Oregon bullpen. The two combined for 3.1 innings of three-hit, no-run ball with four strikeouts between them. Santiago Garcia recorded the final out in a scoreless eighth and the first in the ninth before Seth Mattox entered to pick up his seventh save of the season. In all, the only damage Iowa dealt offensively was against Clarke. Iowa’s Justin Hackett earned the loss in the Hawkeyes’ defeat.
Chase Meggers brought another Duck home in the ninth with a bunt that he legged out for an infield single. Maddox Molony scored on a wild pitch to give the Ducks their ninth run of the contest. Oregon tallied 13 hits on Saturday with Walsh (3-5, three runs), Smith (2–5, two RBIs), Aroz (2-3, two runs), Meggers (2-4) and Cooney recording multiple knocks.
The Ducks need to sweep the series over Iowa to win the Big Ten regular season title. A win on Sunday would accomplish just that. If the Ducks can’t pull off a win tomorrow, they’ll finish either second or third depending on the result of the UCLA/Northwestern series. Jason Reitz will throw for Oregon. First pitch is set for 10:02 a.m.
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