Pac-12 baseball: Oregon falls to Arizona State and out of tournament
Both Oregon and Arizona State entered Thursday's Pac-12 Tournament game facing elimination after both lost Wednesday.
While the temperature was near triple digits outside in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Ducks were the ones who cooled down after entering the tournament on a five-game winning streak.
Arizona State (26-31) defeated Oregon (35-23) 4-2 in the Pac-12 Tournament to snap its five-game losing streak. The Ducks became the first Pac-12 team to be eliminated from the double-elimination tournament.
While the Ducks recorded 13 hits in its loss to Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament opener Wednesday, they didn't have the same success against Arizona State. Oregon registered just six hits and it failed to have a single one in the final three innings of the game. The Ducks also finished 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position.
Meanwhile, the Sun Devils recorded 12 hits, including a 3-for-4, and two RBIs from Kai Murphy. Will Rodgers and Sean McLain also finished with two hits apiece.
Pac-12 baseball tournament Wednesday: Oregon bested by Arizona's offense; Ducks move to loser's bracket
Turning point
Oregon had multiple opportunities to get on the scoreboard during the first three innings. However, the Ducks left five runners on base and failed to get anything going with players in scoring position.
That changed in the top of the fourth inning as Oregon not only scored its first run of the game, but the Ducks took a 2-1 lead. Not only after Galvin Grant's single scored Sam Novitske, but Tanner Smith also delivered another run for Oregon.
Smith's sacrifice fly to center field scored Bennett Thompson, which made the score 2-1.
Arizona State finally responded offensively in the sixth inning when Murphy hit a two-run home run into right field. That gave the Sun Devils a 3-2 lead and they never trailed again.
On the mound
Isaac Ayon was having a solid day pitching for the Ducks, that is until the bottom of the sixth inning. After a Will Rogers' single, Murphy hit a two-run home run against Ayon and that completely changed the game. Ayon hit the next batter and his morning was finished.
He pitched 5.1 innings as Ayon gave up three runs and 10 hits while striking out five batters.
Although the home run wasn't the problem like Wednesday's game against Arizona, the Ducks allowed a ton of hits, which eventually caught up to Ayon.
Oregon's bullpen kept them into the game as Rio Britton, Caleb Sloan and Kolby Somers allowed just one run in 2.1 innings of relief work out of the bullpen.
Arizona State's Tyler Meyer pitched 4.2 innings as he gave up two runs on four hits. He also struck out four Duck batters.
The Sun Devils' bullpen was also exceptional as they only allowed two hits in four innings of work.
Up next
On Friday, Arizona State will play the loser of the Stanford versus Arizona matchup. As for Oregon, it will wait to see where it will travel for the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
There was a chance if the Ducks had won a few games in the Pac-12 Tournament, they would host a regional in Eugene. However, that appears to be unlikely at this point after not winning a game in the tournament.
The field of 64 teams that will compete in the 2022 NCAA college baseball championship will be announced on ESPN2 at 9 a.m. Monday. The 64 teams chosen will be placed in 16 different four-team regions, with teams seeded one through four to compete in a double-elimination format.
The tournament will begin with regionals June 3 through June 6 and continue on to super regionals June 10 and June 13 before the men's College World Series begins June 17 in Omaha.
Contact Register-Guard sportswriter Antwan Staley at astaley@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @antwanstaley.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Pac-12 baseball tournament: Oregon falls to Arizona State
