Ducks baseball lose a wild game to Illinois as it ties up the series
With a strong wind blowing out to right, Illinois and Oregon battled where hitting was the name of the game and the Illini wins it 16-13.
With a wind blowing out to right field at a 20-mile-an-hour clip, Oregon and Illinois played home run derby. Unfortunately for the Ducks, the home Illini had the last turn at-bat and they came away with a wild 16-13 win over the visiting Oregon team. The Ducks' loss set up a rubber game in the series finale.
Oregon managed to take the first game 16-6 in seven innings. Now they are 27-11 on the season and 11-6 in conference play. As for Illinois, it improved to 20-17 overall and 8-9 in Big Ten action.
It was a tough day on the pitchers as they almost had no chance for either side. The wind played havoc on even the routine fly ball. Still, it was just 4-4 at the end of five innings.
But then it was circus time. Oregon was up 6-4 in the seventh thanks to Brayden Jaksa's two-run single. After that, the wheels seemingly came off for the Ducks as Illinois scored eight runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 12-6 lead.