At No. 5 Oregon baseball’s home field of PK Park, the bats couldn’t be hotter, the bullpen couldn’t be sharper, the weather (for two games, at least) couldn’t be better and the games couldn’t be more meaningful.

Is it hyperbolic? Absolutely.

But in the Ducks’ most-dire hour, the three-dimensional Tetris pieces of college baseball’s postseason are falling into place for Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski and his team. A three-game sweep of Washington was the latest piece — one made up of several even smaller ones — to fit Oregon’s puzzle, ending its regular-season home slate on a seven-game winning streak.

The third dimension

No puzzle piece that Oregon has added to its equation over the last month has been more important than its bullpen’s performance.

Having Mason Neville — who’s 26 home runs don’t stop coming and have vaulted him into the Golden Spikes Award conversation — patrolling centerfield is great.  As is getting a minimum of five innings out of the starting rotation in each of Grayson Grinsell, Collin Clarke and Jason Reitz’s last four starts.

But in the 12 games since Oregon’s second ugly loss of the season to Portland on April 22, the relievers coming out of the Ducks bullpen look unhittable. They’ve pitched 44.2 innings of relief in the span, allowing just six runs on 27 hits and 11 walks while striking out 44 batters and recording nine saves.

Crunching the numbers, it works out to a 1.20 ERA in an 11-game sample size (Oregon has played 12 in the span, but got a complete-game loss from Grinsell against Michigan State). The complete night and day difference by a staff that finished April with an ERA north of 10 has given the Ducks its third dimension.

According to Wasikowski, the secret sauce has been the bullpen’s boss, pitching coach Blake Hawksworth.

“(Hawksworth) was patient with them,” Wasikowski said. “An immature coach would’ve blown them up and probably lost them for the season, to be honest with you. (Hawksworth) didn’t do that… He felt like he wasn’t doing a great job (and that) the guys weren’t living up to their potential. Instead of pointing fingers and name-calling or any of that kind of stuff… He was here, working nonstop trying to get those guys right, coming up with ideas on how we could use them better.

“He had a lot of great ideas, I think you’re seeing that in terms of how the usage has changed. But ultimately, regardless of usage, (our staff) wasn’t throwing the way they are throwing now. That has to come from the work players are putting in and the work the coach is putting in. (Credit) to the players and coach Hawk.”

The Bigger picture

The wins over the Huskies are keeping Oregon’s hopes of hosting a regional alive — even if just a month ago it looked destined for a No. 2 or even No. 3-seed in a regional.

“There was a time to scratch our heads because we had some real stinker losses,” Wasikowski said following Sunday’s win. “I don’t know how the chips all settled, but we’ve got a chance to go up against Iowa next weekend. I know they’re in front of us (in the Big Ten standings) and I know us winning three games against Iowa would put us in front of them.

“I don’t know how the rest of it shakes out, but I think that’s an awesome place for us. To try and challenge for a conference (regular-season) championship in our last weekend of the year? Yeah, that’s what we want.”

The tightrope Oregon is walking across heading into its final three regular season games may as well be made of dental floss. The path to a regular season conference championship is clear-cut, but the Ducks won’t control their own destiny to win the Big Ten tournament’s top seed.

A two-win weekend against Iowa on the road (who is coming off of a 0-2-1 weekend against Oregon State) would give third-place Oregon the head-to-head tiebreaker over the currently top-seeded Hawkeyes in the standings, as would a three-game sweep. However, the only way Oregon can pull off earning the top seed would be with a sweep.

UCLA, currently the Big Ten’s second-place squad, would have to drop at least one game out of its three against Northwestern (12th-place, 23-25) at home for the Ducks to leap up to the top spot. Even if Oregon handles business on the road at Iowa, a sweep by the Bruins over the Wildcats would make the Ducks’ best-possible finish a second-place one.

For the Ducks, the bottom line is this: Beat Iowa and pray Northwestern pulls through.