Through two and a half innings Friday night, Oregon found itself down eight runs in its NCAA super regional opener vs. Oral Roberts.
But that only made the ending all the more dramatic and momentous for this ever resilient and determined Ducks team.
They chipped away at that deficit with two runs in the third, three in the fourth, one in the sixth, two in the seventh and seized a 9-8 win on Drew Cowley's walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth at PK Park.
The Ducks (41-20) have now won all eight of their postseason games, dating back to the Pac-12 tournament, with six of those coming by one run or in extra innings. They've won 10 in a row overall.
They are one win away from taking the best-of-three super regional and advancing to the College World Series for just the second time ever and first since 1954. Oregon and Oral Roberts return to the field for Game 2 at 6 p.m. PT Saturday on ESPNU.
"This team won't quit. This team's got a toughness to them that I've never seen before. They won't quit," Ducks coach Mark Wasikowski said. "To come back from an 8-0 deficit, as disappointed as they were in the third inning, they've been working to build this thing to where a day like this would happen with this number of people here and the energy. And to get really punched in the face in the beginning of this game, I don't think I'd ever imagine another team being able to rebound from that -- the disappointment of what our guys were probably feeling at that time -- and yet they did."
No team had ever come back from an eight-run deficit in a NCAA baseball super regional, but it was the third time this season these Ducks had rallied back from down seven runs or more.
Oregon also snapped Oral Roberts' 21-game winning streak.
The bullpen played a starring role again for Oregon after starter Grayson Grinsell gave up 5 earned runs over 2 1/3 innings and Dylan McShane got just one out while allowing 3 more runs.
The Ducks allowed just four hits the rest of the way as Ian Umlandt, Logan Mercado, Matt Dallas and Josh Mollerus kept Oral Roberts scoreless over the final six innings.
Bennett Thompson, Drew Smith and Jacob Walsh all homered for the Ducks. Thompson was 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs, Cowley was 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs and Tanner Smith, Drew Smith and Gavin Grant each had two hits in the wild win.
"We are resilient. We do not play the score, we play each inning, and that is what you saw tonight," Cowley said. "All I can say is, it does not matter what the score is, we are always in the game.”
The comeback started when Walsh and Thompson hit back-to-back homers in the bottom of the third inning. Thompson then crushed a three-run homer to left with two outs in the bottom of the fourth.
“In the situation you are down chasing seven runs, you cannot hit a seven-run home run; I’ve never seen it. I was just trying to put a good swing on the ball," Thompson said. "The guy [Jakob Hall] had been throwing a lot of strikes. So, I was able to get a fastball in the zone and not trying to do too much, which ultimately, the ball left the yard, but I was not trying to that, it just ended up happening. It was awesome to get the momentum back on our side there.”
Drew Smith hit a solo homer in the sixth, Cowley and Tanner Smith had RBI singles in the seventh to tie it up and Cowley plated the winning run in the bottom of the ninth after Grant and Rikuu Nishida had led off with walks.
Wasikowski praised the support of the home crowd in Eugene and what it meant to the Ducks ability to rally back Friday night.
"Our fans wouldn’t let us lose. Out fans were amazing. I don’t think PK park has ever been that electric and I think it can even get better, but they would not let us lose," he said. "... Grounded in the moment and we understand that we’re still one win away. It’s not like anything’s been accomplished other than the fact that it was a fantastic environment, a great game, and I just want to thank so many of those fans that showed up. Hopefully we can get some more tomorrow and build some more portable seats or something like that to get more people in the stands.”
