Updated June 6, 2026, 9:28 p.m. PT
That was bad.
The Oregon Ducks baseball team looked and played like a fish out of water as the Texas Longhorns took an early 4-0 lead and cruised from there to take an 11-3 win in Game 1 of the Austin Super Regional.
With the loss, Oregon will have to win Sunday and Monday in order to advance to the Men’s College World Series in Omaha. But a lot is going to have to change for that to happen. Not a lot went right for the Ducks in this opening game of the Super Regional. They left 17 men on base.
Yes, 17 runners were stranded on base.
Oregon proved it could put men on base, but driving them in was a different story. While the Ducks were having a hard time scoring, Texas plated two runs in both the first and second inning and although it was just 4-0 in the third inning, it seemed as if that deficit was insurrmountable.
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It was 7-0 before Oregon was able to dent the scoreboard and even that wasn’t of its own doing. Texas had back-to-back walks with the bases loaded for those two runs. The score was 7-2 in the sixth and the bases were loaded. Oregon had a huge chance to get back into this one, but Burke-Lee Mabeus struck out and the rally ended right then and there.
Texas used that momentum to score three in the bottom half of the inning to end any hope of a Duck rally. Drew Smith’s solo shot in the eighth accounted for the rest of the Oregon scoring.
Now with the season on the line, the Ducks will turn to ace Will Sanford, who was the Eugene Regional Most Valuable Player with his win over Washington State. He went 6.1 innings, allowing no runs and striking out 14 Cougars. While the Ducks shouldn’t need that same exact effort to win Game 2, something similar would be nice or the season will be over for Oregon.
Game 2 is scheduled for Sunday night with first pitch at 6 pm on ESPN.
Nothing doing for the Ducks in the ninth and that’s a wrap. This game was over early, but Oregon had more than its share of chances to score. It left 17 men on base.
Rodriguez hits a sac fly to drive in his fifth run of the game and the Longhorns need just three outs to close this one out and take a 1-0 lead in this Best-of-Three Super Regional.
Texas 10, Oregon 3 (Bot 8, Pitching Change)
The Longhorns have runners on second and third with just one out and the Ducks decided that will be the end of the night for Clarke. Michael Meckna will go the rest of the way.
Drew Smith hits one out to left field to add a run to the Ducks’ tally, but it’s way too little and way too late. But maybe the offense is coming back, and it will show itself in Game 2.
In a rarity, we have a perfect 1-2-3 inning as Clarke looked much better there. He’ll probably pitch the eighth too just to save some arms in that bullpen.
It’s stretch time and the Ducks are almost ready for Game 2 as this one is a blowout. Oregon has left 15 men on base.
Collin Clarke comes in for Oregon and unfortunately, it just wasn’t his best outing. He gave up three runs, including a two-run homer from Ethan Mendoza.
Mabeus strikes out with the bases loaded to end the rally. Oregon has left an unbelievable 14 men on base so far. That’s an almost impossible stat.
Texas 7, Oregon 2 (Top 6, Pitching Change)
The Ducks finally crack the scoreboard on back-to-back walks from reliever Thomas Burns. It’s not pretty, but Oregon will take them any way it can get them.
Texas 7, Oregon 0 (Top 6, Pitching Change)
The Ducks have the bases loaded with one out and the Longhorns go to the bullpen to relieve Volantis. The sacks were full with no out, but Volantis whiffed Laya for his 10th strikeout of the game.
Uelmen allowed a run on a hit-batsman, but that was it as the Longhorns extended their lead. Oregon’s offense has shown the ability to come back from deficits such as this, but they need to start scoring now or they’ll be down a game in this series.
Texas 6, Oregon 0 (Bot 5, Pitching Change)
Texas tacks on another run with an RBI single from Rodriguez, his second hit of the game and third run driven in so far. The Longhorns have the bases loaded, again, and Leo Uelmen is coming into the contest to hopefully get out of this jam.
With two out and no one on, the Ducks managed to put runners on the corners, but Lauaki, Jr. struck out to end the inning. Volantis has nine strikeouts.
Barkoff balks in a run by stumbling on the mound, but he was able to strike out Carson Tinney on a nice changeup to end the inning. That inning could have been a lot worse, and the Ducks are fortunate to only allow one run there.
Texas 4, Oregon 0 (Bot 4, Pitching Change)
The Longhorns have the bases loaded with two out, and the Ducks are finally going to the bullpen. Scolari has been wild this whole game, and it was just getting worse as this inning went along. Jonah Barkoff is now on the mound with the contest on the line.
Lauaki and Molony were on second and third with no one out, but Texas pitcher Dylan Volantis struck out Jack Brooks and Jax Gimenez before getting Angel Laya to ground out. That was their best chance to score, but came up empty. Oregon is 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
Scolari faced the minimum and pitched a scoreless inning. The Oregon bats need to get going here. There’s still plenty of game left to be played.
Oregon can’t say it hasn’t had chances to score. The Ducks loaded the bases with one out this time, but Jaksa struck out and Burke-Lee Mabeus grounded out to second to end the threat.
The Longhorns put two more on the board thanks to a solo homer from Casey Borba, and then later a sacrifice fly from Aiden Robbins. Scolari is struggling with every hitter, and he will most likely be taken out soon.
That wasn’t the response you were looking for as the Ducks failed to score, partly because of some bad baserunning from Naulivou Lauaki, Jr. He was caught off of second base on a ground ball and he didn’t stay in the rundown long enough for Maddox Molony to reach second.
Cal Scolari was close to pitching himself out of trouble, but Adrian Rodriguez smacked a two-run double to left-center to put the Longhorns on the board first.
The Ducks were able to put a couple runners on base, but Brayden Jaksa struck out to end the inning as we’re underway in Austin. If the first inning is any indication, Oregon is going to see a heavy diet of curveballs
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