Ducks sweep Arizona to end the regular season in style

At the beginning of the week, the thought of Oregon hosting an NCAA regional was a long shot at best.

Now with a good showing in the Pac-12 tournament next week, the Ducks have a really good shot at hosting.

Oregon ended the regular season with a 5-3 win over No. 25 Arizona and completed the weekend series sweep over the Wildcats. This is the same Wildcat team that defeated No. 2 Oregon Series two games to one last week.

With the win, the Ducks are 35-21 overall and finished the conference season with an 18-12 mark. They will be the 4-seed in the Pac-12 tourney in Scottsdale, Ariz., and will open the festivities on Wednesday with a 9 a.m. start against Arizona of all teams.

Isaac Ayon set the tone Friday night with a complete-game win and that momentum certainly must have inspired Game 3 starter Jace Stoffal. The sophomore from Roseburg had never pitched more than four innings in a game, but he was able to pitch into the eighth inning.

Stoffal gave up just one run on three hits and struck out three to earn his first win of the season.

The Ducks scored three runs in the second inning thanks to Bennett Thompson’s run-scoring single and Tanner Smith’s two-run double to right-center. They made it 4-0 in the sixth on Jacob Walsh’s single to center. That was all Stoffal and the Ducks needed, but Arizona made it interesting late in the game.

They scored one run in the eighth and two more in the ninth off of Kolby Somers. But the Oregon closer struck out Blake Paugh to end the game.

Now Oregon will take the show down to Scottsdale where if they win a few games or make the final, this win over Arizona won’t be the last game at PK Park in the 2022 season.