Oregon baseball rallies to pull within a tie of first place

USA Today

17-05-2025

Oregon baseball rallies to pull within a tie of first place
No one can say this Oregon baseball team isn't resilient.
In a must-win game if the Ducks want to win the Big Ten regular season title, Oregon erased a 6-2 deficit and scored seven unanswered runs to stun Iowa 9-6 with just one game left on the schedule.
With the win, their ninth straight, the Ducks are now 40-13 overall and 21-8 in conference play. They are tied with the Hawkeyes for first place. The winner of the series finale are the champs.
For a long while, it didn't look as if it would be Oregon's day as Iowa jumped on Duck starter Collin Clarke for six runs and eight hits in just 4.1 innings. But the bullpen consisting of Ian Umlandt, Cole Stokes, Santiago Garcia and Seth Maddox held the Hawkeyes scoreless for the rest of the game, allowing the offense to rally.
That rally began in the sixth inning with Anson Aroz's solo home run to make it 6-3. Then the crucial comeback came an inning later as the Ducks scored four runs to take a 7-6 lead. Jacob Walsh smacked an RBI double to make it 6-4 and with Drew Smith's infield single to score Dominic Hellman, Oregon was within a run of the home Hawkeyes.
But it was Ryan Cooney's double down the left field line that scored both Chase Meggers and Smith that gave Oregon the lead for good. The Ducks added two big insurance runs in the ninth on Meggers' bunt single to score Aroz and a wild pitch scored Maddox Molony for the three-run lead.
Iowa did its best in the bottom half of the ninth to possibly tie the game as the Hawkeyes had the tying run at the plate, but Maddox coaxed pinch hitter Mitch Wood to ground out for the win.
These two teams play one for time in Iowa City with first pitch scheduled for 10 am PST.