The Oregon baseball team won its seventh game in a row, kicking off Pac-12 play with a 7-1 victory over the California Golden Bears on Friday night.

Oregon’s series-openers have been dominated by starter David Peterson lately, who won his fourth consecutive start after losing his first start to open the season. He came through with another strong outing on Friday and gave up nine hits and one walk with eight strikeouts in six innings of work.

Peterson extended his scoreless streak to 22.1 innings and hasn’t given up a run since February 24. Over his last four starts, Peterson has struck out 39 batters, and the walk he gave up to the Bears was only his second walk surrendered during his personal four-game win streak.

Offensively, the Ducks were led by senior outfielder Jake Bennett, who went 3-for-3 with a home run and two RBI. Freshman Spencer Steer had a pair of doubles and an RBI. Freshman Matthew Dyer added a 2-RBI bases loaded single in the third inning to put the Ducks out in front early. Junior Kyle Kasser went 2-of-4, reaching base in his 16th consecutive game.

The Ducks entered the ninth inning with a four-run lead, but back-to-back home runs by Bennett and A.J Balta gave the Ducks extra cushion for closer Kenyon Yovan to pick up his sixth win of the season. The freshman shut the door on the Bears, striking out three of the four batters he faced in 1.1 innings work to punctuate the team’s Pac-12 opening win.

Game two of the three game series is Saturday night at 6:05 p.m. in Berkley, California.

Follow Zak Laster on Twitter @zlast3445

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