Oregon baseball wins the Nashville Regional with dominant victory against Xavier
Oregon baseball is headed to the Super Regionals for the first time since 2012.
The Ducks polished off a sweep of the Nashville Regional Sunday night with an 11-2 victory against Xavier, and will next take on Oral Roberts in a best-of-three Super Regional series this week that’s expected to be played at PK Park.
Drew Cowley homered and had four RBIs, Rikuu Nishida had two hits, three RBIs and three runs, and Oregon (40-20) put the game away with a six-run sixth inning as it won its ninth straight and is now two wins away from making the College World Series for the first time in program history.
More: Oregon beats Vanderbilt and is one win away from making Super Regionals
The Golden Eagles were the surprise winners of the Stillwater Regional hosted by No. 11-seed Oklahoma State, which didn’t win a game during regional play.
Washington was also eliminated from the Stillwater Regional Sunday by Dallas Baptist, which then lost to Oral Roberts in the finale Sunday night.
Dates, times and host sites for the Super Regionals will be announced by the NCAA on Tuesday.
More: Strong finish propels Oregon Ducks to 5-4 victory against Xavier in NCAA Regional opener
Oregon earned its spot in the next round of the NCAA postseason by going 3-0 in Nashville.
It beat Xavier 5-4 Friday in the opener, then upset No. 6-seed and host Vanderbilt 8-7 Saturday night.
But Sunday’s final against the Musketeers was the Ducks’ most convincing win.
Oregon scored first when Sabin Ceballos led off the fourth inning with a homer off Xavier starter Luke Bell.
The Ducks added three more runs in the fifth when Bennett Thompson scored on a throwing error, Nishida scored on a balk by Bell and Cowley hit an RBI double.
Xavier made it 4-1 in the top of the sixth but Oregon followed with six runs in the bottom of the inning, starting with Nishida’s three-run double followed by a three-run homer by Cowley.
A sacrifice fly by Ceballos in the eighth gave Oregon one more run.
Starting pitcher Grayson Grinsell helped set an early tone for the Ducks as he threw four shutout innings with seven strikeouts. He allowed just three hits.
Ian Umlandt pitched a scoreless fifth to get the win and Logan Mercado threw the final four innings to earn the save.
Nashville Regional
Friday's results
Game 1: Oregon 5, Xavier, 4
Game 2: Vanderbilt 12, Eastern Illinois 2
Saturday's results
Game 3: Xavier 7, Eastern Illinois 0
Game 4: Oregon 8, Vanderbilt 7
Sunday's results
Game 5: Xavier 2, Vanderbilt 1
Game 6: Oregon 11, Xavier 2
Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon Ducks baseball heading to first Super Regional since 2012
