No. 21 Oregon baseball is beginning to sound like a broken record, as the Ducks were unable to secure a sweep Sunday, May 5, despite a series win for the sixth time in conference play this season.
"Yeah, (it's) extremely frustrating," head coach Mark Wasikowski said. "We're trying to win the (conference) ... We're disappointed we weren't able to sweep the team that came in here in first place. The standard is high when you win a series and you're disappointed but I'm glad that's the standard here."
Oregon was able to pick up a pair of wins in Saturday's doubleheader. But with Kevin Seitter on the mound and the sweep on the line, the Ducks couldn't get it done.
The right-handed Seitter spun 5.1 innings for the Ducks, allowing a total of seven hits, four earned runs and issuing three walks against just three punch outs. He took the loss for the outing, allowing base runners in every inning he appeared in with the exception of the third and fifth. Seitter's record now sits at 5-4 on the season.
"I don't think (Seitter) had his best game at all," Wasikowski said. "(Utah) got to him pretty good... I felt like he had a good fastball early in the game but I didn't feel like his breaking ball was as sharp as it has normally been and that's probably why they were able to get to him a couple of times with two strikes."
Seitter was given some run support, with Justin Cassella and Maddox Molony both hitting solo home runs to get the Ducks on the board. Molony's blast was his seventh of the year and a record breaker. It put Molony atop the single-season home run record by an Oregon freshman after being tied at six with teammate and fellow freshman Ryan Cooney and current Tampa Bay Ray Jonny DeLuca.
Jaxson Jordan, Ryan Featherston, Logan Mercado and Collin Clarke came on in relief of Seitter to close out the game as the Ducks fought to stay alive.
It was Featherston's second outing of the weekend, the first time this season he had been asked to do that. He worked just a single five-pitch inning in the seventh, picking up a three-pitch strikeout and inducing both a ground ball and a flyout. Despite the effectiveness, he wouldn't return to the mound for the eighth.
"(Featherston) had an inning in him and that's what he had," Wasikowski said. "He was very effective in his inning ... he pitched very, very well today. It was good to see."
Logan Mercado would come on for the eighth in his third outing of the weekend after appearing against Oregon State on Tuesday, April 30, and in the ninth inning of game one on Saturday. Mercado would get hit around, allowing Utah's one-run lead to five by the end of the frame as he let up five earned runs over the course of his 1.1 innings on the mound.
Collin Clarke would be called upon for the final two outs in the top of the ninth, letting up a sacrifice fly RBI that was credited as Mercado's fifth and final earned run.
Oregon's offense did its best to claw their way back into the game following the rough eighth inning from Mercado, with Bennett Thompson lifting a three-run pinch-hit home run over the left field wall.
"It's a really hard thing to do," Wasikowski said about the task of pinch-hitting. "To come in late in a game and be ready to go ... It's a credit to those guys."
Centerfielder Bryce Boettcher followed up Thompson's with a tank of his own, sending a ball out of the yard for the fourth Oregon homer of the day and to bring the deficit to just one run before the Utes added their top of the ninth insurance run.
The Ducks went down in order in the bottom of the ninth to end the contest as the sweep slipped away.
Oregon falls to 14-10 in conference play and sits squarely at fourth place in the Pac-12 conference standings behind Arizona, Utah and Oregon State. The Ducks have no more midweek contests on the schedule and will see their next action in Seattle against Washington, with first pitch of game one scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on Friday, May 10.
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