Oregon baseball, which had a seven-game winning streak going five days ago, now has a three-game losing streak.

The Ducks lost two out of three last weekend to one of the worst teams in the Pac-12, Washington State. They followed that with a competitive midweek loss to No. 2 Oregon State on Tuesday. While their offense fought hard, their pitching inconsistencies caught up with them. The schedule ahead doesn’t get much easier for the Ducks, who have three games against conference opponent Cal this weekend and then four straight against the Beavers.

“It sucks. You’re not gonna sugarcoat it,” Oregon second baseman Gavin Grant said. “Losing three to anyone’s not fun. One of them being an in-state rival makes it even worse. You just gotta stay up and be positive, and get back to what we do best.”

The Ducks had one of their most impressive comebacks of the season on Friday, when they overcame a 7-0 deficit to win 8-7. However, they faced a seven-run deficit again on Saturday and couldn’t quite complete a comeback, falling 10-8. They then blew a 6-0 lead on Sunday to lose 10-8. Friday and Saturday continued their trend of starting pitching woes, while Sunday was a rare blip from the bullpen.

“We’re not gonna change anything in terms of what we do on a normal basis,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “I don’t think anything’s broken. We need to focus on the work and finishing games out.”

One bright spot is the team saw the return of third baseman Drew Cowley. The left-handed hitter took composed and mature at-bats all week, going 7-for-16 with four walks. He’s batting .433 this season with an absurd .553 OBP.

“Hopefully as his strength continues to come back in his hand, then we’ll see more and more power out of Drew, which we saw before the injury,” Wasikowski said. “Scoring runs is hard when you don’t get a bunch of free bases from an opponent… He obviously hasn’t missed a beat with his strike zone awareness and getting on base.”

Cowley makes an already deep lineup even deeper, with a strong bat in Colby Shade getting dropped all the way to the seven-hole. The Ducks have one of the best offenses in the nation, a group which still put up solid numbers in the losses to Washington State.

“There’s times where we joke in the dugout, ‘You might as well put him on base so he doesn’t do more damage,’” center fielder Colby Shade said of Cowley. “It almost feels like they get lucky when he gets out, so huge to have him back in the lineup and healthy.”

The Ducks’ offense was slowed down by Oregon State, a team which ranks second in the entire country. They collected eight hits, but all eight were singles. It was uncharacteristic for a team that on Saturday broke the Oregon single season home run record. Even still, Jack Scanlon hit one over the wall that Beavers right fielder Justin Boyd stole from him.

“We’re excited about any records that we can break,” Wasikowski said. “We wanted to bring a more exciting brand of baseball to PK Park, and I think we’re doing that. Guys are more physical. They’re hitting the ball better. I know people like that a whole heck of a lot more than standing around and not seeing that.”

The Ducks (26-14) will look to get back on track this weekend with better starts from right-handers RJ Gordon and Jace Stoffal. They have three games against Cal (20-20) starting at 6 p.m. Friday in Eugene before another midweek game against the Beavers (32-8) on Tuesday and then three games in Corvallis next weekend.