Brock Moore, Bryce Boettcher help Oregon baseball to midweek win over Oregon State Beavers
Stepping onto the mound in the second frame Tuesday already down 4-0 at PK Park, Oregon reliever Brock Moore had the unenviable task of facing one of college baseball’s best hitters in Oregon State’s Travis Bazzana to open the inning.
On the fourth pitch, the Beaver slugger went yard. Oregon State’s lead was 5-0 and on the verge of getting out-of-hand early in the second inning.
The senior hurler settled in and put together one of the most dominant stretches of his entire playing career against one of the more potent lineups in collegiate baseball. Moore retired the next nine Beaver batters and struck out the final eight in a row.
All the while the Duck bats got hot, scoring nine unanswered runs to pull away for a 9-5 win over the rival Beavers in a nonconference matchup after OSU took 2-of-3 against UO over the weekend in Corvallis.
“You’ve got to prove it every day,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “These guys battle. Some teams might’ve just rolled over and said, ‘Yeah, we’re getting beat, this is embarrassing at home, this isn’t the start we want.’ That isn’t our team. Our team decided to take a different approach and it was nice to see them battle back.”
Brock Moore strikes out eight in a row in dominant performance
Oregon starter Ian Umlandt got off to a troubled start, allowing four runs in the first inning after walking three batters and giving up a grand slam to Beaver Jacob Krieg. Wasikowski went to Moore for the second inning and the senior settled down the Ducks (30-14, 12-9 Pac-12) from the mound.
Moore got close to triple digits all night over three innings pitched, totaling eight strikeouts – a season-high – and just one hit.
“I just wanted to give our team a chance,” Moore said. “We have a lot of fight in our team. After the leadoff bomb that Travis had … He put a good swing on it and I just had to move on from that one.”
Moore started by inducing a groundout before striking out eight batters in a row. He said he had a similar stretch while pitching at Menlo College last season, though not against nearly as strong of a lineup as Oregon State’s (33-11, 12-8 Pac-12).
From there, the Duck bats took over. Bryce Boettcher unleashed a three-run home run blast to pull within one in the bottom of the second, and went yard later in the game, as well.
Oregon scored nine unanswered, getting a home run from outfielder Jeffery Heard on a three-hit day with two RBIs.
All the while, Moore and other bullpen arms Jaxon Jordan, Bradley Mullan, and Logan Mercado continued to mow down Beaver batters.
The Ducks struck out 15 OSU batters as a pitching staff.
“That’s just who Brock is,” Heard said of Moore’s performance. “He’s dealt with some injuries and stuff like that and has a real bounce-back attitude. That’s how he’s able to do things like that. That’s just who he is. He’s able to wipe stuff off and just back out there and attack the next guy.”
What's next for Oregon, Oregon State baseball?
The Ducks have a massive home series this weekend against Utah near the top of the Pac-12 standings and will hope to use the momentum of back-to-back wins against the Beavers to propel them down the final stretch of the regular season.
First pitch between the Utes and Ducks is at 6:05 p.m. Friday at PK Park.
Oregon State will take on Washington State in Pullman for a three-game series starting Friday.
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon Ducks baseball gets midweek win over Oregon State Beavers
