We may not see a wilder game at PK Park throughout this entire Eugene Regional.
Entering Friday, 93% of Regional Champions since 1999 won their first game of the NCAA Tournament. The No. 12 Ducks will have to overcome those odds after dropping Friday’s contest to fourth-seeded Utah Valley 6-5.
Oregon (42-15) never led in its second-straight loss despite outhitting the Wolverines (33-27) 10-5. Both of the teams that recorded more hits in Friday’s Eugene Regional games lost.
Two fateful innings sunk the Ducks as they got pushed to the brink of elimination by the Western Athletic Conference Tournament Champions.
“I think they’ll play great tomorrow,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “These guys play their best baseball when (they have their backs up against the wall. I think we’ll play much better and probably cleaner tomorrow.”
Jason Reitz got the nod for Oregon as he hoped to help the Ducks punch their ticket to Saturday’s 1-0 game. He got off to an efficient start, retiring the first six batters he faced.
Utah Valley starter Corbin Kirk, however, ran into traffic early in Friday’s contest. Four different Ducks reached in their first time through the order, but Kirk was able to work around the runners, getting some key outs from his defense. He used 46 pitches across his first two innings of work, but kept the Ducks off the board until the third.
Reitz allowed back-to-back men to reach in the third on a walk and a single, setting Utah Valley up with a nice scoring opportunity. The Wolverines cashed in with back-to-back hits from Jimmy De Anda and Luke Iverson to take a 2-0 lead. Mason Strong doubled the lead three batters later with a two-RBI single into left field as Oregon fell into an early hole.
The Ducks nearly worked themselves out of their deficit in the following frame. A two-out single from Jacob Walsh led to Drew Smith and Anson Aroz going back-to-back to bring Oregon back within a run. Smith’s third homer of the year snuck out to the opposite field before Aroz’s monster blast hit halfway up the light tower for his 17th of the season.
“Our coaches set a really good game plan going into the game,” Smith said. “So we just trusted their game plan.”
Reitz settled in nicely after the four-hit, four-run third. He collected back-to-back clean innings in the fourth and fifth. He got Utah Valley to go 1-2-3 in five of the seven frames he appeared in.
Kirk’s day ended early in the fifth inning after relenting a leadoff single to Dominic Hellman. He reached second before an out was recorded, but was stranded. Oregon went 0-3 in the fifth with Hellman in scoring position and left five men on base through the first five frames.
Reitz set a new career-high with his 12th strikeout to open the top of the sixth. His final tally reached 14 (the most by a Duck since Kenyon Yovan fanned 15 against USC in 2018) after his six-inning outing was all said and done. His day ended after issuing back-to-back free passes to start the seventh inning.
“The 14 Ks is what it is,” Reitz said. “But the bottom line is I don’t feel like I did my job to the standard that I needed to help us win the game.”
Santiago Garcia inherited the jam and De Arda picked up two more RBIs with a single up the middle. De Arda finished 2-4 with three RBIs from the nine hole in the Wolverines’ win.
The decision to bring Reitz back out for a seventh inning despite being over 100 pitches cost Oregon. He finished with five earned runs (six total) in his outing, all of them coming in two fateful frames.
“He wouldn’t let us take him out of the game,” Wasikowski said.
The opportunities were there for Oregon in Friday’s loss. The Ducks took 19 at-bats with runners on base, but only tallied three hits in such opportunities.
“They threw multiple pitches over the plate for strikes, which is what you’ve got to do,” Wasikowski said. “We chased some balls out of the zone and we didn’t do enough with our opportunities.”
Oregon turned a double play to end an ugly top of the eighth inning as Landon Frei was gunned out at the plate on an attempted double steal. It gave Oregon some momentum to take into the bottom of the eighth, which Smith used to send his second homer of the game out to left field.
Then, the game turned on its head in a moment in Oregon baseball history that will be talked about for a while.
Now within two, Oregon worked runners to the corners with nobody out. Chase Meggers flew out to center and Aroz collided with UVU catcher Mason Strong at home plate. The Wolverines challenged for “malicious contact” and somehow, got the call. Aroz was called out and ejected from the contest, killing momentum and sending PK Park into a livid frenzy.
“They said it came from Pittsburgh and it was out of their hands,” Wasikowski said. “I’m really proud of the way that Aroz went into home plate. I was taught to play hard. I was taught to get after it by my dad and by my coaches growing up. Unfortunately, playing hard was not rewarded tonight by whatever rule was supposedly violated by a player that was playing hard.”
The crucial — and highly-controversial — sent Oregon to the ninth, trailing by two. The Ducks brought runners to the corners with one out in the ninth. Walsh missed what would have been a game-winning homer by mere feet, flying out to deep right-center field. Carter Garate scored to bring Oregon within a run, but that’s as close as the Ducks would get.
Oregon lost by a run, one that would have been scored if not for the controversy at the plate.
Utah Valley will advance to Saturday’s 1-0 game to face Arizona at 6:00 pm. The Wildcats beat Cal Poly 3-2 earlier on Friday to send the Mustangs to the elimination game. Cal Poly will play The Ducks on Saturday at noon. The loser of that game’s season will end.
“I guess the silver lining is we get a chance to be able to play for a regional championship four more times at PK Park,” Wasikowski said.
