GOLETA, Calif. — The road to the Santa Barbara Regional title runs through Oregon. The UO baseball team got an elite start from Grayson Grinsell, came through with some clutch offense in the late innings and survived a stressful ninth inning Saturday to knock off NCAA Regional host UC Santa Barbara, 2-1, at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. The Ducks (39-18) are the lone unbeaten team left in the regional, and can clinch a spot in Super Regionals with a win Sunday evening. One day after a 5-4 victory in 11 innings over San Diego to open regional play, Oregon — the designated home team Saturday — broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the seventh against the Gauchos, who are coached by former UO assistant Andrew Checketts. The Ducks added an insurance run in the eighth, which loomed large as UCSB loaded the bases in the ninth and pushed across a single run.
Oregon holds off UC Santa Barbara to reach regional final ??
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) June 2, 2024Highlights ?? pic.twitter.com/QIUSAC3VW8
The Ducks handed the Gauchos their first loss of the season at home this year. UCSB faces San Diego in an elimination game Sunday afternoon, with the winner moving on to face Oregon later in the day, at 6 p.m. In the event of a UO loss, the Ducks would get another chance to clinch the double-elimination regional Monday. How It Happened: A year after throwing four scoreless innings as the starter in Oregon's regional-clinching win over Xavier in Nashville, Grinsell threw seven shutout innings Saturday. He scattered three hits and walked four while striking out nine in the longest outing of his career so far. "Being in a place like (Vanderbilt a year ago)," Grinsell said, "it gives you a ton of experience and a ton of perspective on where you're at, to not let the moment get too big and just kind of enjoy it." The outing was not without some stressful moments. Grinsell stranded runners at the corners in the first, left two more on in the fourth and had runners at the corners again in the sixth when UCSB ran itself out of the inning with an unsuccessful attempt to steal home. Grinsell retired the side in the seventh, striking out the final two hitters. In the bottom of the inning, Justin Cassella singled with one out; he tried to steal second and was called out, a ruling that was overturned by video review. Up came Carter Garate, who drove in three runs Friday and added another RBI on Saturday with a single that scored Cassella. That was the only run the Ducks were able to push across against UCSB starter Tyler Bremner. "He's a really good pitcher with great stuff, and you saw that today," Garate said. "But with a tough pitcher like that you've just got to go up there and grind as hard as you can. Go up there and fight and find a way." After a 1-2-3 eighth inning for UO reliever Ryan Featherston, Chase Meggers led off the bottom of the inning with a double, his third hit of the game. Jack Brooks replaced him as a pinch runner, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a Drew Smith groundout that made it 2-0. That set the stage for high drama in the top of the ninth. A hit batter and a double put the tying runs in scoring position with nobody out. A strikeout, a walk and another strikeout made it two outs with the bases loaded, and another hit batter forced in a run. But Featherston got the next hitter to ground out softly on the first pitch, sending the Ducks to the regional final Sunday evening. "That moment's a lot of fun and it's really exciting," Featherston said. "The biggest thing for me was the infield helping me through that inning, telling me to take deep breaths and take one pitch at a time. With their help and with Meggers and Bennett (Thompson) behind the plate, that was really helpful." Up Next: The Ducks face either UCSB or San Diego on Sunday at 6 p.m.
"Really hard-fought baseball game," UO coach Mark Wasikowski said. "Coach Checketts is a tremendous baseball coach, and his team is well-prepared. It was a good one to be able to come out on top of tonight. I was proud of the resiliency and toughness our club showed again."
