Oregon hangs on to beat San Diego 5-4 after Bryce Boettcher hits tie-breaking homer in 11th

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Bryce Boettcher homered leading off the top of the 11th inning and Logan Mercado worked out of trouble in the bottom half to give Oregon a 5-4 win over San Diego on Friday in the NCAA Santa Barbara Regional.

Boettcher, the Ducks’ No. 9 batter, had gone hitless in his previous 10 at-bats before he drove reliever Calvin Schapira’s 1-0 pitch over the fence in left.

San Diego had runners at the corners with one out in the bottom of the 11th when Mercado struck out Angelo Peraza and got Ariel Armas to pop out to short to end the game.

The Ducks (38-18) will play UC Santa Barbara or Fresno State in a winner’s bracket game Saturday. San Diego (40-14) plays the UC Santa Barbara-Fresno State loser in an elimination game.

Mercado (6-1) worked the final four innings, allowing one hit and one walk. Schapira (5-2) went 2 1/3 innings.

The Torreros trailed 4-1 before Jakob Christian’s three-run homer, his 24th, tied it in the eighth.

Oregon’s Carter Garate homered in the fifth to open the scoring, and he finished 2 for 4 with three RBIs.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports