Oregon's 11-game winning streak ends with 4-2 loss to Oregon State

The Oregon Ducks came one victory away from matching the longest winning streak in school history this weekend.

The winning streak was snapped, though, with a 4-2 loss at the hands of rival Oregon State Saturday at PK Park.

Beavers’ designated hitter Micah McDowell launched a go-ahead three-run homer in the top of the seventh to derail an otherwise solid day from Oregon’s pitching staff.

Junior right-hander Logan Mercado delivered his best outing of the season and tossed 5.0 innings while yielding one run on three hits. Mercado struck out a season-high six batters.

But the game was ultimately decided in the seventh, when McDowell, Oregon State’s cleanup hitter, smashed an 0-1 offering from freshman reliever Matthew Grabmann over the left field fence.

“(McDowell) got a change up — Matthew didn’t make a great pitch on that one — and hit it out,” Oreogn head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “That’s a guy who’s coming off an injury, he didn’t play last weekend. He did a nice job. Guy had to get a hit and he did.”

Mercado, who recently returned to the weekend rotation after some early-season struggles that led to a stint in the bullpen, held the Beavers in check for the most part.

While his fastball command was missing early, he limited hard contact for much of the afternoon.

“I think I competed well for the five inning that I went,” Mercado said. “I gave our team a chance to win. it didn’t work out, but onto the next one.”

Oregon struck first in the bottom of the third when Dominic Hellman drew a leadoff walk and then advanced to second on Gavin Grant’s sacrifice bunt.

The next batter, Nishida, ripped a single to left to plate Hellman and give the Ducks an early 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, Drew Cowley cracked a double to right to make it 2-0.

Meanwhile, Oregon starting pitcher Logan Mercado found his groove after a shaky start to the afternoon. Mercado walked two batters in the first inning, but escaped unscathed and then settled in from that point.

Mercado struck out six batters over the next four innings. The lone run he surrendered came on Brady Kasper’s solo homer to right field in the fourth.

Matthew Grabmann came on to replace Mercado in the sixth and produced a scoreless frame. In the seventh, though, the freshman right-hander issued a leadoff walk to Travis Bazzana and then a one-out single to Mason Guerra to put runners in the corners.

The next batter, cleanup hitter Micah McDowell, crushed a three-run homer over the left field fence to give Oregon State a 4-2 lead.

Left with three innings to stage a rally, the Ducks failed to put another run across the plate. Oregon State coach Mitch Canham called on all-conference closer Ryan Brown in the bottom of the eighth to face the top of Oregon’s lineup.

Nishida, Colby Shade, and Cowley all made hard contact but were retired in order.

In the bottom of the ninth, Brown stayed on and got Sabin Ceballos to ground out to third and Tanner Smith to line out.

With the Ducks down to their final out, Brown quickly got ahead 0-2 on Jacob Walsh and then got the sophomore first basemen to fly out to the warning track to end the game.

Oregon and Oregon State will face off for the series finale Sunday at noon with a chance to clinch the series after the Ducks won 2-0 on Friday.

Ducks’ freshman right-hander Leo Uelmen is scheduled to get the starting nod, while junior righty Jaren Hunter will start for the Beavers.