Utah Valley stuns Oregon 6-5 in Eugene Regional at PK Park

This is why baseball is the greatest sport.

Sometimes it can be exhilarating, and then at times it can absolutely break your heart.

Oregon baseball suffered that heartbreak Friday night at PK Park as the Ducks dropped their opening game in the Eugene Regional of the NCAA tournament 6-5 to Utah Valley.

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So much went down in this game it could have been an entire season’s worth. But the biggest play of the contest came in the bottom of the eighth inning with Oregon doing it best to erase a 6-3 deficit. The Ducks scored one on Drew Smith’s second home run of the game. They had eventually put runners on the corners with no outs when Chase Meggers hit a fly ball to left.

Anson Aroz, who homered himself earlier in the contest, tagged up to score, but the Utah Valley catcher, Mason Strong, was seemingly blocking the plate and Aroz ploughed into him. Watching the play live, it looked as if Strong didn’t give Aroz a path to the plate in order to score. Knowing it was a crucial play, the Wolverines challenged, thinking Aroz was malicious in his intent to score.

After a nearly 10-minute review, the umpires decided the play was malicious and Aroz was out. Not only was he out, but he is disqualified from playing Saturday’s elimination game against Cal Poly. It was a double whammy that the Ducks just couldn’t recover from. They scored one in the ninth, but Smith grounded out to end the game.

Lost in all the controversy and action late in the game was the effort from Oregon starting pitcher Jason Reitz. The lanky 6-foot-11 hurler went six innings, allowed five earned runs, but struck out 14 Wolverines. The five earned runs are misleading as the Oregon defense didn’t exactly play its best. Aroz lost a fly ball in the outfield and then let another ball get by him for a two-base error.

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Utah Valley scored four big runs in third to grab a 4-0 lead. But the Ducks quickly bounced back on a Smith two-run homer and Aroz followed that up with a 426-foot bomb off of his bat. It was 4-3 until the seventh when the Utah Valley scored two insurance runs off of reliever Santiago Garcia.

Oregon will try to forget what just happened and focus on beating Cal Poly, who lost to Arizona 3-2 earlier in the day. First pitch is scheduled for 12 pm on Saturday.

This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon baseball faces uphill climb in Eugene Regional after 6-5 loss