After a pair of competitive games against No. 16 UCLA, Oregon baseball hardly showed up on Sunday.

Jackson Pace had arguably been Oregon’s best pitcher this year, but the Bruins thrashed him for eight runs in 1 1/3 innings. While the Ducks showed fire in Saturday’s 8-7 loss, they were never in Sunday’s rubber game, as they plummeted and disintegrated into the thralls of a 16-0 defeat.

“Different club today,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “Obviously, the coaches didn’t do a good enough job preparing the team. That’s what went wrong.”

UCLA’s Cody Schrier doubled on the first pitch of the game from Pace. He came around to score on a groundout. 

The Bruins weren’t done there, loading the bases on a single, a walk and a hit by pitch. That brought up JonJon Vaughns, who homered in the first two games of the series. While he didn’t get all of this one, he hit a fly ball to left field that Tanner Smith got a poor read on. It dropped and brought three runs, giving UCLA an early 4-0 lead.

“That was a big play,” Wasikowski said. “Missing a routine fly ball, and it turned it into a big inning. It was a big deal.”

Pace’s struggles continued in the second inning. He issued a walk, hit another batter, then surrendered a run-scoring single to make it 5-0. After permitting yet another walk, his day came to an abrupt end. He issued five free passes while only getting four outs. He threw 43 pitches, just 18 of which were strikes.

Logan Mercado replaced him and gave up three consecutive singles, bringing in four more runs. It completely deflated the energy in a game that didn’t have much to begin with.

On the offensive side, the Ducks faced Kelly Austin, who started the day with a 1.17 ERA. They didn’t have a hit until the bottom of the fourth, when Rikuu Nishida poked one into the left field corner for his first double as a Duck. Sabin Ceballos followed with a walk.

The Ducks completely ran themselves out of the inning. Nishida was picked off second base, and Ceballos was easily caught while trying to steal second.

Even Wasikowski didn’t understand why those two plays happened, considering Oregon was already down nine runs.

“We didn’t have anything going on or anything like that, because we were chasing runs,” he said. “Rikuu’s an aggressive player, and so he tries to create things from time to time. I’m sure he might have been doing something like that. And I’m not sure on the second one.”

Mercado retired eight batters in a row, but the Bruins got back to business in the fifth. After a single and a walk, Schrier hit an RBI single. Mercado issued yet another walk — Oregon’s seventh free pass of the day — and he was taken out with the bases loaded.

Lefty Grayson Grinsell entered and gave up a grand slam, running the scoreboard up to 14-0.

Grinsell ended up going 1 2/3 innings, exiting with two on and one out in the seventh. Austin Anderson replaced him and issued Oregon’s ninth free pass, but he was able to strand the bases loaded.

Jackson Jaha, who went 0-for-3 as the DH, pitched the ninth inning for Oregon. He issued two walks, bringing Oregon’s total to 11 free passes on the day. He also gave up a couple run-scoring singles, climbing UCLA’s run total to 16.

“I don’t think that had anything to do with UCLA,” Wasikowski said of the free passes. “That was more self-inflicted. We just weren’t throwing the ball over the plate, and when you get behind in counts against good clubs, they’re gonna hurt you.”

The Ducks collected just one hit in the final four innings, falling meekly into the late afternoon.

Wasikowski said he’ll be looking for answers on what went wrong when he reviews the film from this game.

“In terms of the tape and the video, you’re looking at what pitches got hit, why we were chasing counts, what pitches didn’t get hit offensively when we were swinging,” he said. “I mean, you just look at everything.”

Oregon (9-5, 1-2 Pac-12) will look to get back on track in a non-conference game on Wednesday against Niagara (4-5) at 4 p.m.