Oregon uncorked a furious comeback effort Sunday afternoon, but came up just short in a do-or-die situation.
The Ducks needed a win — and a lot of help from other Pac-12 teams — to keep their chances at winning a conference title intact, but suffered a 5-4 loss to the Arizona Wildcats at PK Park on Senior Night. The loss means the Ducks are mathematically eliminated from earning an automatic spot in the NCAA tournament, and now have to hope for an at-large selection that is unlikely to come.
“I haven’t done the math,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “We were trying to control the controllable and keep our record at 12 losses. I don’t know how expensive this is gonna be, but we’ve got a game tomorrow and we better handle that.”
The Ducks (28-23, 14-13) had to win their final four conference games to have a chance at catching the first place Utah Utes (22-25, 16-9 entering Sunday), and also needed the Utes to lose their final five games. Oregon didn’t hold up its end of the deal, and now the Ducks will have to wait for the NCAA selection committee to decide whether their season will extend past next weekend.
Oregon was 82nd in the NCAA RPI rankings entering the weekend, and despite winning four of its last six games, the Ducks likely won’t move up much between now and the end of the season. Stanford is the Ducks’ only remaining conference opponent. The Cardinal is ranked 85th.
While it is still possible that the Ducks could earn a last-ditch spot in the 64-team NCAA tournament field, the odds are not in their favor.
“After tomorrow we can look forward to the Thursday through Saturday series [at Stanford] and see if we can impress the committee,” Horton said.
Trailing 5-1 in the bottom of the ninth, the Ducks scored three runs all with two outs to make it 5-4 and put Arizona on the ropes. Oregon sophomore Kyle Kasser stepped to the plate with runners on second and third and a chance to win the game. Kasser hit a sharp ground ball up the middle that could have reached the outfield, but it clipped off the glove of Arizona pitcher Rio Gomez, bounced to second basemen Cody Ramer and resulted in an out at first that ended the game.
“I thought it was going to maybe be a magical finish,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “We certainly could have pinch-hit for Kasser, but he’s been a magical guy. When the ball left his bat I thought it had a chance … Anyway, I’m proud of my guys. They didn’t roll over.”
Arizona jumped out to an early lead in the third inning when Ramer roped a one-out double and then advanced to third on a single by Zach Gibbons. Alfonso Rivas followed with an RBI single to score Ramer, and Gibbons scored from first after Jake Bennett fumbled the ball in the outfield. Two batters later, JJ Matijevic singled to drive home Rivas.
The Wildcats tacked on two more runs in the fifth when Oregon pitcher Matt Mercer forced Kyle Lewis to ground out with two outs, but the ball hopped past Oregon third basemen Daniel Patzlaff, and Ramer and Gibbons each came around to score to make it 5-0.
In the first start of his career, freshman Mercer allowed five runs, just two of them earned, and struck out six in five innings of work. Austin Grebeck went 3-for-5 with an RBI, and Jake Bennett went 2-for-4 for the Ducks.
The Ducks will head to to Palo Alto for their final regular season series with Stanford beginning on May 26.
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