When the pitching staff, fans, team and season needed it most, Oregon’s offense was nowhere to be found. The Ducks squandered several chances to strike early and set the tone, but couldn’t find timely hits as their Pac-12 Tournament run died. 

In a game that No. 3 Oregon had to have, its offense struck-out 10 times, went 1-10 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base. For the second-straight night, the Ducks lost 4-2 to a team they were ranked higher than.

The No. 3 seed in the tournament went two-and-out a year after winning the whole thing as the No. 6 seed. The Ducks scored four total runs in their two games in Scottsdale.

“We didn’t get the hits when we needed to to win the game,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “But the effort that we put out there we felt was a better effort [than yesterday] of what we’re about. 

RJ Gordon kept the Ducks in the game. 

His crucial outing got off to an efficient start. Through his first three frames, Gordon threw just 26 pitches — nine in the first and third, and eight in the second —  while allowing just one runner — a single from Jacob Galloway. 

In Gordon’s last outing against the Trojans, he went 8.1 innings while allowing just one earned run on five hits. Thursday’s outing wasn’t quite as spectacular, but was a quality start nonetheless. 

“[Gordon] pounded the zone with strikes,” Wasikowski said. “Credit to him. It was the sixth inning when they [finally] strung some things together.”

Early on, Oregon’s offense was nowhere to be found. In USC starter William Watson’s first time through the order, he tallied four strikeouts. Mason Neville ripped a one-out triple in the first, but was left stranded and the Ducks left a runner in scoring position in the third. There were early signs of the missed opportunities that would plague Oregon in its must-win game.

The Trojans finally got Thursday’s scoring going as Ryan Jackson opened the sixth inning with his fourth homer of the season. He took Gordon out to the opposite field with the wind blowing to right field. Jackson came around to score on an Ethan Hedges RBI single. 

The Trojans added another in the frame on a Brayden Dowd RBI single. Despite several scoring chances, the Ducks were on the wrong side of the game’s first run and faced a 3-0 deficit in the sixth. 

They pushed a run across in the bottom of the frame on a Chase Meggers RBI single, but stranded two more. In total, the Ducks left 10 on base in Thursday’s must-win game. 

“I think it’s a combination of some guys trying to do too much and the fact that we faced the conference’s Pitcher of the Year and the guy on the West Coast who’s getting the most draft [talk],” Wasikowski said of the offensive struggles. “We had opportunities, we just didn’t come through.”

Ryan Featherston came out to pitch the seventh for the Ducks, ending Gordon’s day. Oregon’s ace went six full innings, allowed three runs on eight hits, struck-out three and only walked one. It was a start that kept an offensively-lackluster Oregon team in the game. 

Featherston’s seventh inning was not a great one. The frame consisted of a single, a double and two very long fly balls — one of which resulted in a Kevin Takeuchi sacrifice-fly. As the scarce crowd at Scottsdale Stadium stretched, the Trojans possessed a 4-1 lead. 

Some credit, of course, has to go to Watson’s stellar day. He went six full innings and limited the Ducks to just one run on seven hits while collecting seven strikeouts. The Trojans turned to one of their best arms (because they didn’t use him earlier in the tournament) in the seventh inning as Xavier Martinez took over. 

The Ducks got one back off him in the eighth. Meggers again drove in a run with an RBI groundout. But again, the Ducks stranded a man at third, as they fell 4-2 for the second-straight day.

Featherston finished off the game with scoreless eighth and ninth frames. He too, like Gordon, was good enough to give the Ducks a chance. And chances they had, they just couldn’t capitalize. 

“We scored four runs in two games,” Wasikowski said. “Below the line. Below the standard.”

USC will move on to the semifinal round as the winners of Pool C.

Now, Oregon baseball sits and waits until Sunday to find out if it gets a spot in the NCAA Tournament or not. Entering the week as the No. 3 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament and No. 23-ranked team nationally, an NCAA Tournament bid looked like a lock. It still might be, but the Ducks performance in Scottsdale could leave their bid in jeopardy.

Either way, Oregon played its final conference game as a member of the Pac-12 on Thursday. The era ended in an extremely disappointing fashion.