Freshmen Lead Ducks Past UC Riverside

Monday, May 22

Riverside, Calif.

12:00 PM

University of Oregon

29-23

UC Riverside

21-30

Oregon

UC Riverside

Photo by: Kiel Maddox

05/22/17 | Baseball

Box Score

Freshman Zack Noll didn't allow a hit Monday, and freshmen also set the pace offensively as Oregon won for the third time in four games Monday, 10-6.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Zack Noll threw five no-hit innings and freshmen drove in seven of Oregon's 10 runs Monday, as the Ducks won for the third time in four games by beating UC Riverside, 10-6, in a nonconference matchup at the Riverside Sports Complex.

How It Happened: Noll's fourth start of the season was the best of the freshman's young career, as he faced one over the minimum in five innings. Noll (2-2) struck out seven and walked two, using a pickoff to erase one of those two baserunners allowed and preventing the Highlanders from putting a runner in scoring position while he was on the mound.

The Ducks (29-23) wasted no time providing run support for Noll, scoring twice in the first. Kyle Kasser led off with a single, Morgan McCullough followed with a walk and each moved up two bases on a wild pitch and a throwing error. McCullough came in on a Spencer Steer sacrifice fly that gave Oregon a 2-0 lead.

Taylor Travess, who stole home for the winning run Sunday at USC, used his speed to produce another run Monday. After Gabe Matthews singled and moved to third on two groundball outs, Travess beat out a hit to shortstop that scored Matthews for a 3-0 lead. Travess later scored during Oregon's two-run seventh inning, which also featured an RBI single by McCullough that scored A.J. Balta.

UC Riverside made it 5-2 in the seventh on a two-out, two-run double by Cody Sporrer. The Ducks answered with a Matthew Dyer sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth, and tacked on four more in the ninth when Steer drove in two with a single and Matthews followed with his third home run of the spring. Those insurance runs proved crucial when UC Riverside rallied for four runs in the bottom of the ninth.

Box Score Notes: The Ducks' second through fifth hitters were all true freshmen — McCullough, Steer, Matthews and Dyer — and they combined to go 5-for-14 with five runs and seven RBIs. … Steer had multiple RBIs for the 10th time this spring, tied for 10th-most in a single season by an Oregon hitter. … Kasser was 2-for-5, extending a 12-game hitting streak with his 23rd multi-hit game of 2017. He's now tied for third in the UO record book for multi-hit games in a single season, with Danny Pulfer from 2010, and tied for the sixth-longest hitting streak in school history with Ryon Healy from 2012 and Pulfer in 2011. … The Ducks need one more win for their seventh 30-win campaign in nine seasons under head coach George Horton.

Up Next: The Ducks open the final series of the regular season against UCLA at PK Park on Thursday at 6 p.m.