Oregon set for Rematch With Gonzaga in Eugene Regional

The top two seeds of the Eugene Regional will face off Saturday at 7 p.m.

Author:
Dylan Reubenking
Publish date:
Jun 5, 2021 6:51 PM EDT

Oregon and Gonzaga will meet for the second time this season after each team won its opening game Friday. The Ducks survived a shootout against Central Connecticut 13-10, and the Bulldogs blanked LSU 3-0 in the late game.

The Ducks and Bulldogs won their respective games in completely different ways; the Ducks poured it on offensively, scoring in each of the first six frames and bashing five home runs. The Bulldogs were carried by starter Alek Jacob’s complete game shutout.

Oregon’s offensive breakout Friday was a bit of a surprise with the Ducks’ hitting a school-record five home runs, two by Kenyon Yovan, two by Anthony Hall, and one by Aaron Zavala. The Ducks needed every one of them as they fought off the pesky Blue Devils.

“A huge thing that we’re thinking about when we go up to the plate is just to club the baseball,” Hall said. “That’s what we did today.”

“Our approach this week has just been to barrel up baseballs,” said Yovan, who broke the single-season record with his 15th home run in the first inning. “It was fun to watch.”

It’s fair to say that all 1,607 fans at PK Park would agree that the offensive explosion was fun to watch. The offense is hot right now for the Ducks, and the ball was jumping off the bats.

No Duck had ever hit two home runs in a postseason game, and two did it today. The Ducks broke their single-season team record for home runs, bringing their total to 53 and shattering the previous record of 48 set back in 1974.

“The first [homer] might have been the hardest ball I’ve ever hit,” Yovan said, referring to his shot over the left field wall in his first postseason at-bat. He followed it up with a moonshot to dead center in his next at-bat.

The matchup against Gonzaga may not see the same production from the Oregon bats, however.

Alek Jacob shut down an LSU offense that hit 80 home runs in the regular season — tied for twelfth in Division one — to no runs and just four hits. He won’t pitch against Oregon, but the pitching staff for the Bulldogs can be elite.

Over a 14-game stretch from early April to mid-May, the Zags surrendered just 2.4 runs per game and didn’t allow double-digit runs in any of those games. They had eight shutouts in the regular season — tied for the second-most in the country.

The Ducks, however, have done damage against the Bulldogs’ staff this season. On May 18, immediately after the aforementioned 14-game stretch, the Ducks offense unleashed 10 runs on 12 hits to defeat the Bulldogs 10-3.

In the last eight games, including the loss to Oregon, Gonzaga has allowed 5.9 runs per game.

Nico Zeglin, the Bulldogs’ starter against Oregon, hasn’t pitched since. The Ducks’ starter, Logan Mercado, made his only start of the season against the Bulldogs, so both teams will face a new starter on Saturday.

Expect Alec Gomez (5-3, 5.48 ERA) to be on the mound for Gonzaga Saturday facing Robert Ahlstrom (8-3, 2.41 ERA) for Oregon. Ahlstrom has been the ace for the Ducks all season, striking out 86 batters to just 15 walks and not allowing more than 4 earned runs in a game all season.

The North Eugene High School product will face a Gonzaga offense that mustered up three runs and eight hits against LSU on Saturday. The Zags hit .279 in the regular season — good for second in the West Coast Conference — and clubbed 33 home runs — finishing fourth in the conference.

Since the May 18 loss in Eugene, the Bulldogs' offense has sputtered frequently, scoring an average of just 3.5 runs per game in their last eight games. If Ahlstrom can be the ace that he has been all season in his first postseason game, the Zags will be in for a long night offensively.

One concern for the Ducks is that they couldn’t keep Central Connecticut off their heels, winning by three runs after leading by as many as seven runs. The Blue Devils scored six runs off the Ducks bullpen — two against Nico Tellache and four against Rio Britton (3 earned).

Closing out big games down the stretch will be crucial for the Ducks bullpen.

Oregon is two wins away from its first trip to the Super Regionals since 2013. With a win Saturday night against Gonzaga, it would advance to Game six of the Eugene Regional Sunday night.

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