USC
Oregon
Trojans Drop 4-3 Contest To No. 9 Ducks
May 12, 2012 | Baseball
May 12, 2012
EUGENE, Ore. - The No. 9 Oregon baseball team mounted a three-run fifth inning and USC wasn't able to recover as they dropped a 4-3 contest to the Ducks Saturday afternoon at PK Park. USC falls to .500 on the season (22-22, 7-14) while Oregon (36-14, 17-8) remains atop the Pac-12 with the win.
In the third inning, southern California native Aaron Jones took starter Ben Mount (L 1-5) deep to left on a change-up over the plate for his sixth home run of the season to give Oregon a 1-0 lead.
Senior Alex Sherrod led off the fourth with a double down the right field line and advanced to third on a sac-bunt by James Roberts. Freshman Dante Flores followed with a single up the middle off Alex Keudell (W 9-3) to even the score at 1-1.
In the third, Ryon Healy doubled to the right field wall to plate Aaron Payne from second to retake the lead. Brett Thomas added an RBI double of his own to stretch the lead as the Ducks kept the inning rolling. Another run would score on a throwing error by Roberts to cap a three-run inning for Oregon as they took a 4-1 lead.
USC battled back in the sixth as Matt Foat delivered a bases clearing double to left to score Sherrod and Flores cutting the lead to 4-3.
Matt Munson came on to pitch the sixth for the Trojans. With the bases loaded he was able to get two huge outs as he struck out Jones with a fastball on the outside corner and got Healy to roll into a force out at second to keep the game tight.
The Trojans threatened in the eighth with two runners on, but hard throwing reliever Jimmie Sherfy was able to strike out Brandon Garcia to end the inning and maintain the one run lead.
Sherfy returned for the ninth to strike out Sean Spear, Omar Cotto-Lozada and Garret Houts in order to pick up his 14th save of the season and secure the victory for the Ducks.
Notes: Roberts had hit 21-game hitting streak snapped Saturday but reached base on a walk in the eighth. He has now reached base safely in 22 consecutive games...Foat's two-run double gave him his team-leading seventh multi-RBI game...Sherrod (3-for-4) notched his 11th multi-hit game of the season while Flores (2-for-4) picked up his seventh.
USC returns to action tomorrow at 2 p.m. in game two of their series with the Ducks.
