Oregon third baseman Carter Garate dives for home plate in a loss to Portland on April 2. Staff Photo: Jonathan House

Oregon baseball’s Big Ten Tournament run came to an end on Saturday, May 24, taking a 7-3 loss to Nebraska and being eliminated from pool play in Omaha.

“It was an honor to be in the Big Ten tournament,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “Disappointed we didn’t play at our best potential to show the people of Omaha (the) best reflection of our team. That’s the one disappointing thing, that I wasn’t able to get our team ready to play at a level we’re accustomed to seeing.”

The Ducks, who entered the conference tournament with a share of the Big Ten’s regular-season championship and as the top-seeded team in the field, were initially slated to play its game against the Cornhuskers on Friday night. Inclement weather in Omaha forced the game into a several hours of rain delay before being pushed to Saturday morning. Oregon would have had to win three games between Saturday and Sunday to win the tournament, but couldn’t get past Nebraska.

Wasikowski didn’t cite the schedule adjustment for throwing off Oregon’s performance and instead shouldered the blame of the loss.

“Obviously I didn’t do a good enough job getting them reset and ready to go for today,” Wasikowski said. “We left the field last night, went back to the hotel. Its shower, its eat, its sleep, wake up and get to the ballpark and away we go. One team showed up and they were ready to play and one team showed up and didn’t look as ready as the other team. And that was us.”

Oregon outhit Nebraska (12-11), drew as many walks (three apiece) and struck out less (six for the Ducks, eight for the Huskers); but a season-high four errors by Wasikowski’s team was too much to overcome.

“We didn’t play good defense today,” Wasikowski said. “Thats always been a staple of our program. We usually rally around our defense to create positive momentum and we weren’t able to do that. When you don’t play good defense, you’re going to (have) more traffic (on the base paths) than the game wants you to be in if you were playing clean baseball.”

Three of Oregon’s four errors — credited to first baseman Jacob Walsh, shortstop Maddox Molony and left fielder Anson Aroz — came in the first five innings, with the Cornhuskers jumping out to a 5-1 lead and ending Ducks starter Grayson Grinsell’s day early.

“(Nebraska) did a nice job with two strikes. I don’t think (Grinsell) did a fantastic at executing some of his pitches with two strikes… (But) any time you’re asking a pitcher to go get four, five outs an inning, thats not success.”

Grinsell (9-3), who was named an all-Big Ten conference first-team selection ahead of the tournament, exited the game after four innings of work. He allowed six runs (four earned) on eight hits and one walk, taking the loss. The junior left-hander struck out six, but his four-inning outing was his shortest of the season.

Sophomore right-hander Ryan Featherston carried the game to the ninth inning, allowing three hits and one run, before sophomore left-hander Toby Twist (two outs, one walk) and freshman righty Tanner Bradley (one out, strikeout) combined for a scoreless top of the ninth.

Oregon had mustered just one run — an RBI-single from Molony in the second — on nine hits entering the bottom of the ninth. Down to their last three outs, The Ducks rattled off three quick hits. A leadoff double from catcher Chase Meggers was followed up by a bunt single from second baseman Ryan Cooney, with Meggers scoring and Cooney advancing to third thanks to an RBI double from third baseman Carter Garate.

The NCAA’s home run leader, Oregon’s own Mason Neville, was next up, scoring Cooney on a sac fly, but Walsh and designated-hitter Dominic Hellman would both fly out to end the game.

The loss saw the Ducks fall six places in WarrenNolan.com’s live RPI, now sitting at No. 18 and No. 4 in the D1Baseball.com top-25 poll. Oregon remains a lock for the postseason, but its hopes of a top-eight national seed are murkier than ever. Wasikowski, however, still feels confident that his team has done enough.

“However the chips line up, there are 64 teams that get in and we want to be one of them,” Wasikowski said. “We really love our body of work. Didn’t love our moment today, but we love our body of work and have a lot to be excited about when it comes to Monday.”

The 2025 NCAA baseball championship’s 64-team field will be unveiled at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 26, on ESPN2.