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QuickTake:
The Ducks had the Bruins on the ropes, but UCLA’s late grand slam kept Oregon from becoming the first team this season to take a series from the nation’s top-ranked team.
WESTWOOD, California — Few doubt UCLA will end up in Omaha.
The Bruins are the No. 1 team in the country and came into the weekend undefeated in Big Ten play with a lineup full of players who will be remembered on Jackie Robinson Stadium’s lamp posts for years to come.
The Bruins, after all, have done it before, with their six College World Series appearances and the 2013 national title commemorated along the left-field wall and backdropped by palm trees.
The Oregon Ducks? They haven’t been since their one appearance in 1954 — and never since the program was reinstated in 2009 after a 26-year hiatus. And after Sunday’s 9-6 loss to the top-ranked Bruins in the rubber match of the three-game series, Oregon second baseman Ryan Cooney knew better than anyone the gap between the baseball blue blood and an Oregon program looking to establish its own history.
It ended up being a few inches.
In a seesaw game that saw UCLA (46-5, 26-1 Big Ten) score five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning — highlighted by Dean West’s two-out grand slam — Cooney had a pair of would-be home runs robbed at the wall.
“I don’t think I could say I’ve had that happen,” Cooney said. “Those guys are good defenders, and they made good plays.”
Center fielder Will Gasparino got him the first time to lead off the game, then it was West who pulled one back from over the left-field wall to prevent a Cooney grand slam in the fourth. The Ducks still scored a run on the play — and would plate five total in the inning, aided by a Brayden Jaksa three-run shot — but in a back-and-forth series that featured two ejections, 42 runs and several instances where the benches nearly cleared, every little bit of momentum mattered.
Oregon’s momentum ran out just shy of becoming the first team this season to take a series from the Bruins. And the series loss does have consequences — heading into the final week of Big Ten play, Oregon (36-14, 18-9) is now tied for fourth with Purdue in a conference whose top-four seeds get byes in next week’s conference tournament.
Oregon has three games left against No. 18 USC. And while the Ducks will come into the home finale against the Trojans fresh off just their second series loss of the season, coach Mark Wasikowski didn’t figure the Ducks were any worse off than they were before coming down here to Westwood.
“You’re playing the No. 1 team in the country, you have a very good chance to win two out of three on the road and you showed a lot of character this weekend,” Wasikowski said. “I think the team walking away from this weekend is probably more confident than they’ve ever been, and very disappointed in the results. I think that puts a bow on it.”
Cooney echoed his coach. The Ducks could be proud of the way they erased first-inning deficits on Saturday and Sunday, the spectacular defensive plays from shortstop Maddox Malony and third baseman Drew Smith, and the way starter Miles Gosztola gritted through 5-1/3 innings Sunday, allowing two runs while walking none and striking out a season-high nine.
The Ducks have done the hard part: They have talent and heart. What the next couple of weeks are about, Cooney said, is erasing the inches that separate a very good team from a contender.
Take the eighth inning. After allowing a Payton Brennan leadoff single, Oregon reliever Devin Bell struck out Gasparino for the first out before getting pinch-hitter Jarrod Hocking to hit a high chopper to second base.
Cooney mishandled the ball and Hocking reached, then scored on Aiden Espinoza’s ensuing single. Oregon’s Tanner Bradley came in to replace Bell and promptly hit Phoenix Call to load the bases for West’s go-ahead slam.
There’s a reason why these Bruins are No. 1. Give them an inch and, in West’s case, they’ll hit it a mile.
There’s also a reason why the Ducks think this could be the season where they finally join UCLA in Omaha.
“After this weekend, it builds momentum for us regardless of the result,” Cooney said. “If there’s anything that we learned it’s that we belong, especially with these upper teams that are considered the best in the country. I think we can beat anybody out there.”
