Oregon baseball dropped in Monday’s national polls after a 1-3 week that included a series loss to USC.

The Ducks lost on Tuesday to rival Oregon State, 11-6. The Beavers, who have rebounded after a slow start to the season, have jumped into third place in the Pac-12 and lead Oregon by a half-game. 

The Ducks then went to Los Angeles and lost two out of three to USC. The Trojans are unranked, but are still in the midst of a better-than-expected season. Oregon lost without its ace, Jace Stoffal, who was scratched for unknown reasons and reported to not be injured. Leo Uelmen couldn’t adequately replace him on Friday, and the team evened the series on Saturday before falling 11-4 in the rubber game.

Baseball America and D1Baseball both moved Oregon down to No. 24, just barely hanging in the top 25. Collegiate Baseball and Perfect Game were much harsher. Entering the week, the Ducks were ranked No. 10 and No. 14 in those two publications, respectively, but they each booted Oregon out of the rankings entirely. Last week, the Ducks were in Collegiate Baseball’s top 10, and now they’re not even in their top 30.

It’s safe to say that Oregon will be playing for a national ranking this weekend at home when the Washington Huskies come to town. The Ducks would need to win at least two out of three to stay in the rankings; otherwise, they’ll almost certainly drop from all the polls entirely. On the other hand, a sweep of the Huskies could help get them back to where they were before this week.

What could also help a lot is if Stoffal returns. It’s unclear whether he was scratched because of fatigue or precautionary reasons, but last weekend showed that they can’t afford to play without him. They’ll also need to find more consistency on Sundays, as Matthew Grabmann struggled in the series finale and is yet to complete five innings this year.

No. 24 Oregon (31-16, 14-10 Pac-12) will return to PK Park on Friday at 7 p.m. to take on Washington (28-14, 13-10 Pac-12).