3.04.09 Baseball: UW 10, Oregon 2

Ben Guidos allowed only one hit in six shutout innings and Troy Scott led the offense with three hits to help the Washington Huskies rout the Oregon Ducks 10-2 at Husky Ballpark on an overcast Wednesday afternoon. With the win the Huskies swept the two-game non-conference series and improved to 4-5 while the Ducks dropped to 3-5.

The Huskies also extended their winning streak over Oregon in the series to eight games.

Guidos (1-1) began the game on an auspicious note, striking out leadoff batter Caleb Tommasini on three pitches, and retired the Ducks in order in five of the six innings. The only baserunners he allowed came in the fourth when Curtis Raulinaitis reached on a bunt base hit and KC Serna walked. He got out of the inning unscathed when Eddy Rodriguez grounded into a double play. Guidos allowed only the one hit and one walk while striking out four.

Geoff Brown pitched a perfect seventh in relief for the Huskies and Jacob Clem retired the Ducks in order in the eighth. The Ducks managed to get on the board in the ninth with two runs against Aaron West. Kenny Bartz led off with a pinch hit single to right and pinch hitter Andrew Schmidt got hit by a pitch. After the runners advanced on a groundout by pinch hitter Colby Sokol, Raulinaitis drove home Bartz with a sacrifice fly and Serna singled to score Schmidt.

The Huskies scored first in the bottom of the second to take a 1-0 lead when Scott drove a 3-1 pitch from Duck starter Alex Keudell (0-1) into the center field screen for his second home run of the season. They added four runs in the bottom of the fifth to go Keudell and go up 5-0. Julien Pollard led off with a double down the right field line and Andy Bethel walked. After Keudell threw two balls to Brendan Gardner Young, the Ducks brought in Scott McGough to finish pitching to the Husky leadoff batter. Gardner Young laid a perfect bunt down the third base line for a base hit to load the bases. Pollard scored on a infield single and Bethel came home on a grounder by Pierce Rankin up the first base line. Although the ball appeared to have no chance to roll foul, McGough thought it might, and by the time he picked up the ball and threw out Rankin at first, Gardner Young raced home with the third run of the inning. On the play Rife advanced to second and scored on Scott's third hit of the game, a line single to center.

Washington put the game away and went on top 8-0 with three runs in the sixth. Pollard led off with his second double of the game and scored on a double by Bethel. A single by Gardner Young and a wild pitch put Huskies on at second and third, and after Rife struck out looking, Rankin drove in both runners with a single to center. The Huskies added two more runs in the bottom of the eighth to make it 10-0. With one out Rankin doubled and advanced to third on an infield single by Kyle Conley. When shortstop Serna made an errant throw past first base, Rankin scored and Conley took second. A wild pitch by Blake Williams allowed Conley to move to thirdand he scored on a line single to left by Brett Wilcox.

Every Husky starter got at least one hit, and with 17 hits in 38 at-bats the Huskies raised their team average from .281 to .301. With the two runs allowed the Husky pitchers lowered their earned run average from 3.49 to 3.32.

The Huskies next return to action on the road when they face Nevada in a three game series in Reno beginning on Friday, March 6. Jorden Merry will start the opener for the Huskies, with Tyler Cheney going in Game 2 and Jason Erickson starting the finale.