Another Gem Gives Ducks Series Win

EUGENE, Ore. — Through two games of their weekend series, Stanford’s elite lineup has been no match for the Oregon baseball team’s starting pitching.

One day after Jace Stoffal’s three-hit shutout of the No. 7 Cardinal, Logan Mercado also threw a complete game as the Ducks (24-9) won 8-1 before 2,322 fans in PK Park. Oregon’s lineup hit three home runs for the second day in a row, the Ducks again played errorless defense and Mercado made it stand up by allowing one run on five hits and a walk with seven strikeouts.

“Logan Mercado’s bulldog mentality set the tone, and the guys in the dugout were just feeding off of his energy,” UO coach Mark Wasikowski said. “It’s just a ton of fun to be around these guys right now.”

Mercado (3-0) made just one start in 27 career appearances the past two seasons, but he transitioned to the rotation this spring. A week after holding Oregon State to one run over five innings, he followed Stoffal’s gem Friday with one of his own Saturday.

“We joke about it in the locker room as starters, like, I guess I’ve gotta one up you,” Mercado said. “Unfortunately I didn’t. But I came pretty close.”

How It Happened: Oregon had the game’s first baserunners, when Sabin Ceballos led off the bottom of the second inning with a single and took third on a Tanner Smith double. But the Ducks were unable to capitalize on that opportunity, off a starting pitcher in Stanford’s Matt Scott who was 5-0 with a 2.08 ERA entering the game.

But Mercado pitched his third straight 1-2-3 inning in the third, and the Ducks went right back to work. Rikuu Nishida worked a one-out walk, stole second and took third on a single by Colby Shade. Drew Cowley’s RBI double scored Nishida, and Ceballos plated Shade on a groundball out.

A 2-0 lead became 3-0 when Jacob Walsh led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run. Mercado finally allowed a baserunner in the fifth, but the Cardinal couldn’t even advance the runner after getting a leadoff double. With two out in the bottom of the fifth, Cowley doubled again and Ceballos followed with his eighth homer of the year for a 5-0 lead.

Stanford strung together a walk and two singles with one out in the sixth, providing the Cardinal its first run of the weekend — a weekend Stanford entered as the Pac-12’s leader in runs this season with 262. Walsh quickly answered for Oregon, leading off the bottom of the sixth with his second opposite-field home run — while wearing No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day.

“It’s a huge day…