BASEBALL

Oregon beats Vanderbilt and is one win away from making Super Regionals

Oregon’s Tanner Smith (31) celebrates with Rikuu Nishida (56) and Jacob Walsh, right, after Smith hit a home run to right field against Vanderbilt in the first inning of an NCAA college baseball tournament regional game Saturday, June 3, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn.

Oregon upset No. 6-seed Vanderbilt to take control of the Nashville Regional and move within one win of its first Super Regional appearance since 2012.

Tanner Smith and Bennett Thompson hit home runs for the Ducks, who withstood a late rally attempt by the Commodores to win 8-7 Saturday night and improve to 2-0 in the NCAA baseball regional at Hawkins Field.

Next up for Oregon (39-20) is a 6 p.m. game Sunday against the winner of the noon game between Vanderbilt (42-19) and Xavier (38-24). If the Ducks win, they win the Nashville Regional. If the Ducks lose, they'll play a second game against the same opponent Monday.

Oregon's Rikuu Nishida (56) steals second base as Vanderbilt second baseman RJ Austin tries to apply the tag during the second inning of an NCAA regional college tournament baseball game Saturday, June 3, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn.

The Ducks never trailed Saturday after taking a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, getting their runs via an RBI single from Drew Crowley, an RBI groundout by Sabin Ceballos that scored Crowley, and Smith’s solo homer with two outs.

Thompson’s solo homer in the second put Oregon up 4-1, though Vanderbilt scored three in the bottom half of the inning to tie the score.

The Ducks took command in the fifth with an RBI single from Ceballos and then a three-run double from Jacob Walsh to make it 8-4 Oregon.

The Commodores scored once in the seventh and then Chris Maldonado hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off Oregon closer Josh Mollerus to cut the Ducks’ lead to 8-7 before Mollerus got consecutive fly outs to centerfield to end the game.

Nashville Regional schedule

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 games

Game 5: Vanderbilt vs. Xavier, noon

Game 6: Oregon vs. winner of Game 5, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)

Monday's game

(If necessary) Game 7: Winner of game 6 vs. loser of Game 6, TBD (TBD)

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter@chansen_RG or email atchansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.