OMAHA, Neb. – Months ago, the Oregon Ducks made winning a Big Ten championship a goal for this season.
But first, they had to get through today: a quarterfinal matchup against Pacific Northwest rival Washington followed by a semifinal matchup against second-seeded Nebraska, which drew a loud, partisan crowd to Charles Schwab Field.
After beating Washington 9-4 earlier in the day, the Ducks earned their way into Sunday’s championship game against the No. 1 team in the country, UCLA, with an 8-0 shutout of Nebraska, getting six shutout innings from starter Will Sanford and four RBIs from No. 3 hitter Drew Smith.
The Ducks immediately got a runner on the pond, with Ryan Cooney leading off the game with a double. He advanced to third on a ground out to second by Angel Laya and then took off on contact and scored when No. 3 hitter Drew Smith grounded out to third to give Oregon a 1-0 lead.
In the fourth, Maddox Molony hit a two-out solo homer, his 12th of the season, to give Oregon a 2-0 lead, and an inning later, Angel Laya’s 14th homer of the season made in 3-0.
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All the while, Sanford made short work of the Cornhuskers in the early innings. The San Diego native was perfect through three innings, struck out two batters in the first four innings, and didn’t allow a hit until Nebraska’s Jett Buck singled with one out in the fifth.
“I just thought competing, going pitch to pitch. I made some mistakes, and just trusting myself and trusting to fight back, and just trusting all my pitches,” Sanford said when asked what the key to his success against Nebraska was. “I just had full belief in myself, full belief in the guys behind me, and we just came to play today.
With one out in the seventh, Cooney on second and Laya on first, Drew Smith broke the game open for the Ducks, hitting a triple to deep right center field to score two runs.
“We have a really good idea of what we’re gonna go into the game, game plan wise, and the coaches do a really good job of scouting and giving us a good game plan to go out and execute. … I think we just did that today,” said Smith.
Next came Brayden Jaksa, who deposited a belt-high fastball into the Nebraska bullpen to make it 7-0 and silence the Nebraska-heavy crowd. It was the 100th homer of the season for the Ducks, and it silenced the crowd of 12,083, most of whom were hoping to see the Huskers advance to tomorrow’s championship game.
The atmosphere, though, only served to pump up the Ducks.
“I just think it’s more fun when there’s more people,” Smith said. “I love whenever there’s that many people and I thought it was just a great time. I thought our team fed off of it, and we just went out there and executed and won the game.”
The Ducks added another in the top of ninth when Elijah Cook scored on a sac fly to center by Drew Smith.
They have one more win to go to accomplish the goal they set for themselves earlier in the season, and they’ll need to beat a Bruins team that took two of three in their three-game series two weeks ago.