The Oregon baseball team (40-24) made the most of its first postseason experience of the new era. In just the second year, the Ducks made it to the final pairing of the Norwich Regional with Florida State before falling 5-3.
Oregon started the weekend on Friday with a 5-3 comeback win against host Connecticut. Oregon scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning to take a 5-2 lead and withstood a rally in the bottom of the ninth to move on. The next morning Connecticut beat No. 4-seed Central Connecticut State 25-5 to eliminate the Blue Devils.
The Ducks’ next game was the afternoon game against No. 1-seed Florida State on Saturday. Again, Oregon scored three runs in the late innings to make a comeback, but in the end the Seminoles won 6-4 to move within a game of winning the regional. The loss put Oregon in the second elimination game of the regional against Connecticut Sunday morning.
In that game, the Ducks won 4-3 after a 58-minute rain delay after the eighth inning. The Huskies scored a run in the top of the ninth, but reliever Madison Boer came in to save the game.
That set up the final pairing between the Seminoles and Ducks on Sunday evening. Oregon needed to win two games to advance, while FSU only needed one. The Seminoles scored four runs in the fourth and another in the fifth to run out to a 5-3 lead. Oregon had men on base all game long (11 left on base), but the Ducks could not get the runs in the clutch.
The regional trip marks the end of Oregon’s run from 14-42 in 2009 to fifth place in the Pac-10 in 2010 — a 26-win differential.

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