Ducks baseball lose a wild game to Illinois as it ties up the series

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. Normally, that would have been more than enough to secure the victory, but in these conditions, no team was ever out of the game.

The Ducks responded with seven runs of their own on a grand slam from Jaksa and a two-run shot from Drew Smith to make it 13-12. Illnois tied the game in the eighth and it was 13-13. Oregon was unable to take the lead in the ninth, setting the stage for some heroics from Illinois' Kyle Schupman. He fouled off seven straight pitches before hitting one in that jet stream to right field that just cleared the wall and send the home fans back to their cars happy.

It was one of the few times Ducks closer Devin Bell was able to come through. He might get another chance on Sunday as the two teams will decide the series. First pitch is scheduled for 11 am PST.

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