After a short-lived stint in the Baseball America Top 25 rankings, it’s back to the drawing board for Oregon.
The No. 25 Ducks fell 10-4  to the Stanford, marking their fifth straight loss. It is the first time Oregon has been swept at home in six years and the Ducks are now 6-9 in Pac-12 play.
“It’s tough,” Oregon shortstop Kyle Kasser said. “Especially coming into today, we had a lot of hope. We were hungry to win. … But that’s how it’s done, gotta tip our caps to them. They put up runs in six of the nine innings.”
Oregon never led during the series, and the Cardinal beat them at their own game as the Ducks played catch up all weekend. Stanford made a habit of putting runs on the board early throughout the first two games of the series, and did so again on Sunday.
Oregon starter Isaiah Carranza was hindered by control issues in the first inning, and the Cardinal tacked a run on the board with two outs in the first when Quinn Brodey scored on a wild pitch. A brief rain delay halted Stanford’s offense, but they picked up right where they left off when play resumed.
Carranza walked Mikey Diekroeger to put runners on first and second, and then threw another wild pitch that gave the runners second and third. Duke Kinamon followed with a two-RBI single to right to push the lead to 3-0.
“We were very generous with some of the first inning things, like the wild pitches,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “I was a little disappointed in Isaiah, because he was slipping on the mound. Our guys are highly trained to do something about it when the mound gets like that before things go sideways. … It’s our own park and we only have ourselves to blame.”
The Ducks struck back in the fifth with RBI singles from Gabe Matthews and Jake Bennett to cut the lead to 5-3, but Stanford tacked on another run of its own in the sixth. The Cardinal then scattered five more runs over the next three innings and chased Stringer in the seventh.
Oregon reliever Kenyon Yovan entered the afternoon carrying a 19-inning scoreless streak, but gave up the first run of his collegiate career in a non-save situation when Stanford scored a pair in the eighth.
Kasser led the Ducks with a 3-for-5 performance, and Spencer Steer and Matthew Dyer each went 2-for-4 with an RBI double.
The Ducks will face Oregon State in a midweek nonconference matchup in Corvallis on Tuesday, but will have to reach into the well for a starting pitcher. Stringer has normally been the Ducks’ midweek starter since conference play began, but neither he or Carranza will be available on Tuesday.
With the Pac-12 schedule now at the halfway point, the Ducks find themselves at the bottom half of the conference standings among a cluster of teams. Oregon State (15-2) is the only team that boasts a record better than three games above .500.
“There’s still time, but it’s got to start now,” Kasser said. “You look around at the rest of the league and everyone’s beating eachother up. We’re still in the thick of things, but we’ve got to figure it out as soon as possible.”
Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney