It had to happen eventually.

Oregon baseball, which had won 11 consecutive games, had to settle for breaking the modern school win streak record, coming one short of tying the all-time mark. 

“That winning streak was special,” Oregon pitcher Logan Mercado said. “It’s sad to see it come to an end, especially against your rival. But what we talked about is: Let’s start another one. Onto the next.”

The Ducks fell 4-2 to Oregon State on Saturday afternoon, as they struggled to rally after putting a two-spot in the third inning. Mercado gave them five strong innings, but the offense couldn’t respond to an Oregon State three-run bomb in the seventh. After scoring 118 runs in a 10-game span, Oregon has scored just four runs in two games this series.

“Good pitching on both sides is why the score’s down,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “Good pitching’s gonna stifle good hitting, and you see that on both sides right now.”

Mercado walked two in the opening inning, an issue that’s been more apparent for him this year compared to last. But he got out of it, going on to strike out five of the next six batters. The Beavers ended that streak in the third inning with back-to-back singles, but Mercado induced a groundout to escape trouble once again.

The Ducks struck first on an RBI single by Rikuu Nishida against Jacob Kmatz in the third inning, scoring Dominic Hellman, who led off the inning with a walk. Drew Cowley followed with an RBI double to the right-center field gap, giving Oregon a 2-0 lead.

The Beavers got on the board with two outs in the fourth, as Brady Kasper blasted one just inside the right field foul pole. Oregon’s bench, led by hitting coach Jack Marder, was adamant that Kasper didn’t touch home plate, but it wasn’t a challengeable call.

Mercado survived two more walks in the fifth. The inning ended on a nifty play by second baseman Gavin Grant as the crowd of 3,879 let out an excited cheer. It was the seventh-largest crowd in PK Park history.

Mercado’s day came to an end after five innings and 95 pitches. It was a solid bounceback outing for him, keeping Oregon State to one run after an abysmal showing against Arizona last weekend.

“My stuff wasn’t that great today. I think my release point on my fastball was pretty inconsistent today,” Mercado said. “When you have that type of day, I think it all comes down to mentality. I think I competed well for the five innings that I went. I think I gave our team a chance to win.”

Matthew Grabmann came on in relief for Mercado. He surrendered a walk and a single in the sixth, but Oregon State’s Easton Talt made a brutal baserunning mistake, overrunning second base on the single and getting thrown out easily. It was a big break for Oregon that helped Grabmann throw a scoreless frame.

Tanner Smith hit a single in the bottom of the sixth, extending his hitting streak to 12, but the Ducks couldn’t do anything with it. Like on Friday, they struggled to rally the way they’ve been recently.

Oregon’s pitching magic finally ran out in the seventh. The Beavers had been 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position this series, but Micah McDowell changed that in a hurry, swatting a three-run homer to left-center field to put Oregon State up 4-2. The left-handed McDowell got to the right-handed Grabmann, with the left-handed Grayson Grinsell warming up in the bullpen.

“Matthew didn’t make a great pitch on that one,” Wasikowski said. “We trust Matthew, and I’d do the same thing over again.”

Grinsell came in a batter later. He and Austin Anderson kept Oregon in the game with scoreless eighth and ninth innings.

With the top of the order up in the eighth, the Ducks smacked three well-hit balls to the outfield. But all three were caught in a quick inning, leaving Oregon empty-handed once again.

They suffered a similar fate in the ninth, hitting a couple balls hard but failing to record a baserunner against Oregon State reliever Ryan Brown.

“I thought the at-bats got better towards the end of the game,” Wasikowski said. “There were some balls in the eighth inning and the ninth inning that were hit well off of Brown. Not necessarily the at-bats that we wanted to sustain the pressure that we had on them earlier.”

Oregon (20-8, 7-4 Pac-12) will look to take the critical rubber game against Oregon State (19-11, 6-8 Pac-12) Sunday at noon.