Fans packed PK Park for No. 12-ranked Oregon Baseball’s (41-14, 22-8 Big Ten) first game of the NCAA Eugene Regionals, where the Ducks faced off against the Utah Valley Wolverines (32-27, 13-11 WAC).
Oregon’s starter Jason Reitz had a career day, but the mistakes of his teammates left too much of a mountain for him to climb alone.
“It is what it is,” said Reitz. “The bottom line is I don’t feel like I did my job to the standard I needed to, to help us win the game.”
The junior right-handed pitcher Reitz took the mound for Oregon and started out hot, striking out two in the first inning and trying to carry his energy to the offense. Junior slugger Mason Neville singled to begin the offense for the Ducks, but after junior left fielder Anson Aroz’s strikeout, he was left stranded along with Drew Smith at first base.
Reitz’s swing and miss stuff was electric on Friday. In fact they only made contact with three pitches through the first two innings. Utah Valley didn’t foul off a single pitch until redshirt-senior outfielder Nate Bach, the last batter of the second inning. He then punched Bach out on four pitches, ending the second inning with just 24 pitches thrown.
The 6-foot-11 righty eclipsed the season 60 IP mark after the second inning. Still no run support through the first two innings.
Reitz’s first base runner came in the third from a five-pitch walk to junior outfielder Brody Block. The trouble began to add up after Anson Aroz lost a liner in the sun from redshirt-senior utilityman CJ Colyer, putting two runners on with no outs to begin the third inning.
Jimmy Da Anda smoked one down the left field line, scoring the runner from second and advancing Colyer to third base. Once again, with no outs, the Wolverines hit a liner to right field, which Neville gets in quickly to hold De Anda at third, but scoring Colyer.
With runners on the corners, Reitz got ahead of senior outfielder Jayden Smith in a 1-2 count before striking him out, but unfortunately, surrendered the stolen base to put both baserunners in scoring position.
Reitz settled back in with another strikeout, getting senior infielder Landron Frei on the breaking ball high in the zone. With just one out needed to escape the pinch, junior catcher Mason Strong smoked one to left field. What looked like a routine base hit for Anson Aroz bounced off his heel and behind him in the outfield, allowing Strong to reach third and score two runners. Oregon then faced a 4-0 deficit. All four runs and hits came in the fourth inning.
Reitz was able to finish the inning strong and strike out the side, but not before Utah Valley scored four runs with the help of a couple of outfield miscues from Oregon left fielder Aroz.
The run support arrived in the bottom of the third inning, with two outs. Drew Smith got it started on a two-run bomb and then an Aroz no-doubter to left field the very next pitch. With the deficit just one run, Reitz settled back in.
Reitz appeared comfortable again, facing the 6-8 of Utah Valley’s order. He got started with a 0-1 popout and then striking out Block swinging and freezing Colyer looking for his eighth and ninth strikeouts of the day in just the fourth inning.
In the fifth inning, Reitz picked up right where he left off, getting back-to-back strikeouts. His 11th strikeout of the day tied his career high, which he set earlier this season at Maryland on April 13.With the pitch count sitting at 86, Reitz came back out for the sixth inning, trying to muster up one more inning to keep coach Wasikowski from going into the bullpen, and potentially break his career high in strikeouts.The swing and miss pitching from Reitz stuck with him into the sixth inning, getting the career high 12th strikeout after a 2-2 swing and miss from Landon Frei. Reitz wasn’t done at 12, he continued pushing his career day after a 13th and 14th strikeout, punching out the side for the second time this game.
The last Oregon Duck to strike out 14 hitters was April 28, 2018 , when Kenyon Yovan punched out 15 batters versus USC.
It was already a question if Reitz would come back out for the sixth, but as the seventh inning began, Reitz remained on the mound despite his 103 pitches.
Reitz’s streak of 10 batters retired in a row ended on a borderline call from the home plate umpire, which rewarded Nate Bach with a walk to begin the inning. Reitz followed the walk with a fastball right into the leg of Block, leaving two runners aboard with no outs. Reitz exited the game with 110 pitches thrown, 14 strikeouts, four hits, and just two walks.
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Santiago Garcia relieved Reitz in the seventh and allowed both of Reitz’s runners to score. Reitz ended with five earned runs despite his career day and had no choice but to watch from the dugout as Oregon’s deficit grew from one to three.
After Reitz’s exit, Oregon’s bats got going, but it proved to be too little, too late. Reitz himself said this wasn’t his best day despite the career numbers, but he executed well and didn’t receive the help he needed when he was on the mound.
“Jason was obviously electric tonight,” said head coach Mark Wasikowski. “Striking out 14 guys in six innings is ridiculous.”
Aroz will remember this game for a different reason: a malicious contact call that is going to keep him out of the next game. That being said, the struggle for Oregon began with Aroz’s mistakes in left field.
Routine plays are called that for a reason, and today Aroz didn’t make the easy ones that mattered. The team as a whole took too long to get the offense going, and it hindered Reitz every time he walked out to the mound after a scoreless inning.
In the double-elimination bracket, the No. 1 seed Oregon now has to win four straight games to advance to a Super Regional. If today is the trend, Oregon will quickly be out of the College World Series running.
“The message to the team is we need to be better,” said Coach Wasikowski. “Even though there were some parts of us that were really really good today, it wasn’t good enough.”
The Ducks need to back their pitchers up significantly better than they did for Reitz today. These games are the biggest stage this team will play in all season, and it needs to be a complete effort from all nine fielders if Oregon wants to stay in the hunt.
Now playing to keep their season alive, the No. 1 seed Oregon will face off against No. 3 seed Cal Poly on Saturday, May 31, with first pitch at 12:00pm.