It was a glance off the glove. 

It was a punch to the gut.

It was a routine grab on a more-than-routine pitch.

It was an extraordinary symbol of a season skidding.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Morgan Scott was looking to intentionally walk Utes’ second baseman Julia Jimenez. Scott’s 1-1 pitch was right on target but glanced off of Emma Kauf’s glove. The ball caromed off the backstop while Utah quickly tied the game.

Head coach Melyssa Lombardi elected to pitch out and around Jimenez. With Scott’s first two pitches far off the zone — the second of which was fouled off — Scott’s 1-1 offering was intended for Kauf’s mitt. 

It went to Kauf — Oregon’s longest-tenured player as a fifth-year senior. It even touched Kauf’s glove. But still, the ball never found the webbing, hitting the side of her glove instead before reaching the backstop. The Ducks’ (28-19, 13-10) Pac-12 Tournament hopes were instantly redirected with the blunder.

Four pitches later, Utah’s Shonty Passi blasted a three-run home run over the wall, only punctuating a loss made possible by the mistake. She circled the bases as her team erupted with glee; her blast signified the collapse of an Oregon team with 10 seniors. The game ended with one Utes’ masterpiece of an inning while the Ducks collapsed late, the ugliness of pretenders trumped by the beauty of champions.

One glance off the mitt of Kauf and all the big plays and tireless execution gone for naught. All of that goodwill. The Ducks took a one-run lead heading to the top of the seventh and were an out away from a win — suddenly microscopic. 

Kauf couldn’t catch, so the Ducks couldn’t win, and now their season might not survive after a deflating loss at Stanford’s Grant Scott Family Field. 

The Ducks’ Pac-12 Tournament hopes certainly won’t, the 7-4 loss sent the Ducks back to Eugene far sooner than they had expected. 

It was just the third home run of the season for Passi, who entered hitting .270 overall and .150 with two outs and runners in scoring position.

Scott’s poorly located fastball was deposited into the trees in left-center. The rest of the contest is history – an inexcusable one, at that.

To understand the gravity of the collapse, one must know where Oregon entered Thursday’s matchup. The Ducks came into Thursday’s game off a monumental 1-0 win over Stanford. 

“It is about momentum and you need that going into postseason so to come off a big win like that, a 1-0 win, to me it takes us into postseason in a good place and shows that in tough, gritty games like that, we can come out on top,” Lombardi said after the win over the No. 6 Cardinal. 

Oregon played the gritty game on Thursday but fell regardless. What’s more, they lost to a team they outscored 32-14 over three games in March.

The bottom six batters of Oregon’s lineup went 2-17. 

All season long, Oregon has echoed its placement in the Pac-12 and the tough competition that the conference no doubt presents. Entering Thursday five Pac-12 teams rank within the top 25. 

Still, to be the best you have to beat the best. The Ducks won’t even get that chance after the loss to a mediocre Utes (32-19, 10-13) team. 

 A Utah error brought home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh making Oregon’s postseason hopes appear endless. 

One moment, the Ducks were leading the Utes by one, the bench going ecstatic with three outs to go. The possibilities are endless.

The next moment, they’re faltering amid Utah’s quality at-bats, compounded by an inability to throw strikes — or catch the ball — the Ducks’ faces solemn, their final bid to champion the conference over.

Oregon’s season is far from complete, with its strong play in a tough conference resulting in a regional bid.  But the thud of the lone Pac-12 Tournament game should echo as a call to action.

“We did not do enough, offense, defense, pitching,” Lombardi said postgame. 

In catching — or lack thereof — the Ducks too fell short. 

Regional selection is set for May 12 at 4 p.m. The Ducks might want to work on fundamentals in the meantime.