As it turns out, Ducks can fly.

When Oregon’s Rikku Nishida rounded third base en route to the game-winning run on Friday in Oregon’s stunning comeback win over Oral Roberts at PK Park in Game 1 of their best-of-three Super Regional matchup, he barely slowed down.

Halfway to home, he hit another gear. A step later and he launched himself toward the plate, only to nearly soar past it before eventually landing while gliding across.

Nothing was going to clip the Ducks’ wings on Friday, not even a massive deficit. Oregon is now one win away from its 1st College World Series appearance since 1954 after pulling out the 9-8 win after falling behind 8-0 in the third inning. It was a historic victory for a program that hasn’t had many of them on the diamond.

It was just the latest in what is now a 10-game winning streak for one of the hottest teams in college baseball.

*****

Until Friday, Super Regional teams were 0-96 when trailing by 8 or more runs.

Make that 1-96.

“This team’s got a toughness to them that I’ve never seen before,” head coach Mark Wasikowski told reporters after the game. “They won’t quit. (To) come back from an 8-0 deficit, as disappointed as they were in the third inning. They’ve been working to build this thing to where a day like this would happen with this number of people here and this energy. To get really punched in the face in the beginning of this game, I don’t think I’d ever imagine another team being able to rebound from that — the disappointment of what probably our guys were feeling at that time — and yet they did.”

They did because Wasikowski has the streaky Ducks playing some of the most inspired baseball in the country. Despite dealing with some key injuries, including to stud starter Jace Stoffal, Oregon has won 10 straight including the Pac-12 title and a 3-game sweep in the Nashville Regional, knocking out highly ranked Vanderbilt and Xavier, twice.

Hired back at Oregon in 2020 after a three-year stint with Purdue in his first head coaching job, Wasikowski has taken the Ducks to the doorstep of history. Unlike the sensational football program and even Dana Altman’s typically consistent Oregon basketball team, the big Nike bucks have done little to lift the Oregon baseball program, which was dormant between 1981 and 2009 and relegated to a club sport.

In fact, it was the success of hated rival Oregon State on the diamond that spurred Oregon to bring back Duck baseball — the Beavers won the national title in back-to-back seasons in 2006-07 — and the Ducks were back in the NCAA Tournament by Year 2. But despite 8 tourney appearances since 2010, they’ve only been to one Super Regional before this year, 2012, which ended in disappointment.

There would be no disappointment Friday.

Not even with a daunting deficit.

*****

Facing a true freshman with all of two career starts who nonetheless has been one of Oregon’s top pitchers this year, Oral Roberts teed off on Grayson Grinsell in the 3rd inning. Blaze Brothers led off with a walk, followed by a Jake McMurray single. A Justin Quinn groundout scored Brothers, and after superstar Jonah Cox walked, masher Matt Hogan blasted a 3-run homer to right, his 19th of the year. After Mac McCroskey doubled, Masikowski pulled Grinsell, only for his replacement, Dylan McShane, to struggle as well.

The hot-hitting Golden Eagles plated another on a McShane wild pitch and then 3 more on a bases-clearing single by McMurray, his 2nd of the inning. Mercifully, Ian Umlandt entered the game and stemmed the bleeding for the Ducks, ending the inning with a Quinn fly out.

What happened next, though, turned the tide of the game.

Oregon’s Jacob Walsh led off the bottom of the third inning with a solo home run to left field, his 15th jack of the year. It was like a shot of adrenaline in the arm. Then Bennett Thompson smacked another on.

“First pitch after the eight, yeah, big deal,” Wasikowski said. “I mean, the last thing they want is for us to come out there and the first pitch of the eighth inning, boom, we’re here. And that’s kind of what Jacob said is, ‘No, we’re not going away.’ And so I thought that was a really big deal.”

Thompson added another home run an inning later, this one scoring 3, cutting the deficit to 8-5. In the bottom of the 6th, Drew Smith delivered just his 3rd homer of the year to cut it to 8-6, and Oregon scored two more in the 7th to tie it.

After Josh Mollerus shut down the Golden Eagles in the top of the 9th with the score knotted at 8, Oregon looked to close the game out with a walk-off.

And the Ducks did just that. Back-to-back four-pitch walks to Gavin Grant and Rikuu Nishida put Oregon in position, and after a grounder by Bryce Boettcher led to a fielder’s choice, nabbing Grant at 3rd, Drew Cowley stepped to the plate with a chance to be the hero for the second straight game.

Last Sunday, Cowley, Oregon’s best hitter, went 2-for-5 with 4 RBIs, a homer and a double. He’s been on fire in recent games, and on a 1-2 pitch, he smoked a Cade Denton offering to right field, scoring Nishida from 2nd.

That set off a celebration that will long be remembered by the Ducks.

“Our fans wouldn’t let us lose,” Wasikowski said. “Our fans were amazing. I don’t think PK Park has ever been that electric.”

Until Saturday, certainly.