Oregon Ducks Facing Elimination: Pac-12 Baseball Tournament

The Oregon Ducks still have a shot at extending Pac-12 baseball tournament play, but they will need to defeat a USC Trojan team in the last game of the round robin play. Oregon took two of three games from them in the regular season and looks to rebound after a lackluster performance.

Oregon outfielder Bryce Boettcher celebrates a home run as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at PK Park in Eugene, Ore. / Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA

The Oregon Ducks still have a shot at extending their Pac-12 baseball tournament play after falling to Utah, 4-2. in their first round robin game. They must defeat a USC Trojan team in the last game of the round robin play on Thursday afternoon.

The good news is, Oregon took two of three games from them in the regular season but will need a better showing to keep their Pac-12 Tournament championship hopes alive.

“We need to play with better details than we did today,” said Ducks coach Mark Wasikowski. “We didn’t do enough offensively to have any sort of sustained effort and that needs to improve.”

Oregon outfielder Bryce Boettcher celebrates a home run as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at PK Park in Eugene, Ore. / Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA

For a team known for its firepower, the Ducks were held in check by Utah starter, Bryson Van Sickle, the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, and reliever Merit Jones. Oregon was held to four hits and only eight base runners as they failed to score more than two runs for just the eighth time this season.

“When you’re facing a guy as good as (Van Sickle), you’re going to need to be at your best,” Wasikowski said. “And we weren’t.”

There were a few highlights for the Ducks that give fans hope for a better performance on Thursday. Bennett Thompson finished with two hits, Chase Meggers ripped a fifth-inning triple and Bryce Boettcher had a run-scoring single. Other than that, the rest of the lineup struggled despite boasting a team batting average of .286 and not to mention the second-most home runs (90) in program history during the regular season.

Next up for the Ducks is a “win or go home” game against the Trojans.

“We’re going game by game in this thing and one game at a time,” said coach Wasikowski. “It isn’t a situation where we’re looking forward to Saturday or Friday or whatever. We’re trying to win today to be able to get to tomorrow and the next day and so forth.”

Duck fans should keep in mind that there are still two paths to the NCAA tournament. The first is to win the Pac-12 championship. The other is an at-large selection when the full 64 team bracket is announced next week. No question Oregon would much rather win out and gain some momentum going forward.

Game time for Oregon and USC is Thursday at 2:30pm PT. Pac-12 tournament baseball games will be broadcast on Pac-12 Network May 21-24, while ESPNU will air the Pac-12 Championship game on May 25th.