Graham knocked a grand slam in the third, it was the second home run of the junior's career.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- No. 18 Oregon scored early and often against UC Riverside on Wednesday cruising to a 12-3 win against the Highlanders. The Ducks swept the two-game series after beating UCR in extra innings on Tuesday.
Oregon scored two runs in the first inning and added seven more in the third to build a 9-0 lead en route to the win. The Ducks got RBI singles from Mitchell Tolman and Josh Graham to take the first inning lead. Graham highlighted the seven-run third inning with a grand slam home run. Brandon Cuddy added a RBI single and Shaun Chase chipped in a two-RBI hit to account for the seven runs.
UCR (10-15) added three runs in the bottom half of the third inning to cut the lead to 9-3, but UO (17-8) scored another run in fourth on a Graham RBI single, as well as runs in the seventh and ninth to lock up the win. Jacob Corn (2-0) picked up the win allowing three runs on nine hits in 5.0 innings pitched.
Oregon has won three consecutive games after taking the series finale against Arizona State on Sunday.
Graham had the best game of his career going 3-for-5 with six RBI and a run scored. He hit his second career home run, a grand slam in the third inning. Graham’s three hits and six RBI were both career highs.
Freshman Cole Hostert burned his redshirt season coming out of the bullpen in the sixth inning to make his first appearance as a Duck. And it was quite a debut. The 6-foot-4 right-hander, retired 12 of the 13 batters he faced to record his first career save.
The only hitter to reach on Hostert came on an error in the ninth inning. Hostert’s final line was 4.0 innings pitched, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks and five strikeouts. He fanned the side in the sixth after entering the game with no outs and a runner on second. He retired the first 10 batters he faced.
