Sunday saw both Diamond Duck teams in action in conference play. Baseball had a rubber match against Illinois on the road and Softball had the opportunity to sweep Washington at home.
The Ducks lineup got to work early on Sunday thanks to a leadoff double from Jax Gimenez followed by an RBI single from Brayden Jaksa to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead 2 batters into the game.
T1 | Ducks get a run on a @BraydenJaksa21 RBI base hit but leave the bags loaded. #GoDucks Oregon 1Illinois 0 pic.twitter.com/vXnlQptIeL
— Oregon Duck Baseball (@OregonBaseball) April 19, 2026
Shortly after, in the bottom of the 2nd, Illinois would take the lead on an RBI double that would score 2 runs. After being redhot in games 1 and 2 of the series Oregon’s bats couldn’t get much going early as they could only manage 3 singles over innings 2 through 4. But in the 5th inning they would be contained no longer.
First it was Ryan Cooney going yard, followed by Naulivou Lauaki, and then Maddox Molony as the Ducks put on a classic Oregon display of power hitting with 3 solo home runs in the inning to take a 4-2 lead.
𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐆𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐘𝐚𝐫𝐝@junior_lauaki gives UO the lead. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/1cY8JtPbXI
— Oregon Duck Baseball (@OregonBaseball) April 19, 2026
In the bottom half Illinois would answer with a solo home run of their own but the Ducks kept the lead after 5 innings 4-3.
In the 6th Oregon would extend their lead thanks to Ryan Cooney’s 2nd home run of the day
T6 | @Ryan_Cooney12 homers for the second time in two innings. #GoDucksOregon 6Illinois 3 pic.twitter.com/Cwq3ylSivL
— Oregon Duck Baseball (@OregonBaseball) April 19, 2026
Once again Illinois would answer with a solo home run in the bottom half but for every run the Illini were getting Oregon was putting up multiple as in the 7th Jax Gimenez would hit a delayed inside the park grand slam (Bases loaded triple and then would score himself on a wild pitch)
T7 | Ducks get four in the inning, three on this @JaxGimenez triple. #GoDucks Oregon 10Illinois 4 pic.twitter.com/TAelQRMp7V
— Oregon Duck Baseball (@OregonBaseball) April 19, 2026
That would give the Ducks 11 runs on the day which was more then enough as Illinois could only manage 1 more run and the Ducks were able to take the series with a Sunday win by a score of 11-5
After a shaky weekend from the bullpen the Ducks were able to get 6 outs from Cooper Markham and he kept Illinois off the board in his two innings of relief.
With the series win the Ducks vault into 4th place in the B1G, trailing undefeated UCLA, Nebraska (whom they defeated this season and have the tie breaker), and Purdue (whom they also defeated and have the tiebreaker).
Up next is a mid week game in Corvallis for game 2 of the Civil War season series against the Beavers before welcoming last place Penn State to town on the weekend.
Back in Eugene the softball team looked to pickup the sweep over hated rival Washington. The Huskies came into this weekend undefeated in conference play but after Oregon took the first 2 games of the series Sunday’s game was for the right to jump into 2nd place in the B1G.