As Oregon looks to regionals, specifically a Friday matchup with South Dakota State, the team can’t help but be reminded of the heartbreak the Ducks suffered in the ninth inning of their final game in Super Regionals and how they finished just shy of a trip to Omaha.

For senior J.J. Altobelli, this is his last chance to get to the College World Series. With the Ducks getting a national seed and an opportunity to play the next two weeks in Eugene, he couldn’t be happier.

“It’s the best case senario,” Altobelli said. “You can’t really ask for having anything else. Having the national seed is great but we still need to take care of business and reach our end goal which is go to Omaha. As a senior, that’s all I can ask for.”

Throughout his four years with the Ducks, Altobelli has become more than just a senior. He is the leader of the team. Horton has the highest confidence in him and believes that Altobelli plays the best in big game situations.

“J.J.’s a big piece of the puzzle,” Horton said. “He’s a young man we don’t worry a whole lot about. He’s always played his best in the biggest environment. He’ll be as focused today in practice as he will in the game Friday night. We have a little cliche that we like to use, ‘J.J. gets big in the box, big in the circle and big in big games.’”

One slight change for the Ducks headed into the postseason will be the starting pitching rotation. All-American Jake Reed, who started the season as the Friday starter, will get the nod for the first game.

Reed has struggled this season, prompting Horton to push him back to the Sunday slot. The change is in part due to the structure of regionals. In a double-elimination tournament, often times the second game, which could possibly be the second loss, is the most important.

Reed said that he texted his coaches after they got the national seed to tell them that he would be ready to go whenever they wanted him, hoping that he would get the nod to throw Friday. When Horton told him that he would be going Friday, Reed was excited. This has been a disappointing season for Reed, but now, in the postseason, he has a fresh start.

“It’s a clean slate,” Reed said. “I’ve had success in the postseason in the past, I’ve had success in the regular season in the past. It’s nice to just kind of put my struggles of the season behind me and just kind of get to start over.”

Oregon will face South Dakota State on Friday at 6 p.m. at PK Park. If the Ducks win, they will move into the winners bracket and go again on Saturday at 6 p.m., facing either Rice or San Francisco.

Oregon baseball, which tied a school record this season with with 45 wins, earned a national seed for the second-straight year. The Ducks were helped by four players who separated themselves with on field production, earning Pac-12 All-Conference first team honors.

J.J. Altobelli — Altobelli has garnered the admiration of his entire team and coaching staff by being the ultimate professional during his four years with Oregon. Oregon coach George Horton has repeatedly praised the leader, saying he focuses just as hard in practice and against lesser opponents as he does in the playoffs and that he is an ideal role model for young players.

Altobelli hit .290 this season with 24 RBI and eight stolen bases, but he does most of his damage at shortstop. Altobelli finished the year with a .982 fielding percentage, highest among Pac-12 shortstops.

Ryon Healy – The success Oregon saw this season would have been impossible without the bat of Healy. He continually put the team on his back and was often times the sole offense for the Ducks.

Healy’s 10 home runs led the conference, he drove in 50 runs, had a .548 slugging percentage, hit 17 doubles, and was second in the conference with 79 hits.

Last week when reporters asked JJ Altobelli and Jake Reed who they thought was the Pac-12 MVP, both said Healy.

Jimmie Sherfy – Simply put, Sherfy was a sure thing this season. If the Ducks led headed to the ninth, they could confidently turn the ball over to their electric closer. Finishing the year with a 1.67 ERA, Sherfy was a vital part of the Ducks success. His 20 saves are a school record and rank second in the country.

He also is on the watch list for numerous awards, including the Golden Spikes Award given to the top amateur baseball player in the nation, the Stopper of the Year award, and the Dick Howser Trophy given to the top college baseball player.

Tommy Thorpe – Headed into the season, Thorpe was considered to have underwhelming stuff compared to to the other weekend starters. That sentiment might still hold true, but he has been effective. Since moving to the Friday starting spot, he has gone 6-1 with a 1.10 ERA. He has a 2.22 ERA on the season and leads the team in strikeouts with 83.

As the Ducks head into the post season, they will need to play solid team ball. That being said, if these four perform to expectations, Oregon will be a tough out.

As announced last Wednesday by the Pac-12, the Ducks season opener will take place August 31 at 1 p.m. at Atuzen Stadium where they will take on Nicholls State. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1.

Their nonconference road game against Virginia on Sept. 7 will kick off at 12:30 p.m. and coverage will come from either ABC or ESPN.

Their game against Tennessee, the second of a home-and-home, this time at Autzen, comes Sept. 14 at 12:30 p.m. and will be televised on either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.

The Pac-12 Network will show both the Sept. 28 Cal game in Eugene and the road contest against Colorado on Oct. 25. Times for the two games have not been released.

Oregon will take on Stanford on Nov. 7, a 6 p.m. game in Palo Alto that will be televised on ESPN.

The Civil War, the Ducks’ final game of the season, will be Friday, Nov. 29 at Autzen Stadium. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1 with kickoff coming at 4 p.m.

Times and television coverage for the rest of their games will be released in season.

The semifinalist list for the Golden Spikes Award, an award given to the top amateur — in this case, college — baseball player of the year, has been whittled down to 30 players, with the Ducks Jimmie Sherfy being one of them.

He has an ERA of 1.67, and his 20 saves this season is second in the nation.

The three finalists will be announced on Tues., June 4, and the winner will be announced on June 19.

Fans can vote for the semifinalists at GoldenSpikesAward.com

Oregon was looking for its eighth straight victory, this one a home game with 1,329 fans looking on. Headed into the ninth inning, the Ducks nursed a 4-1 lead. Horton called up his most trusted arm: Jimmie Sherfy. He ran out from the pen, “Wild Thing” blaring from the speakers, as fans took to their feet, raucously cheering their beloved closer.

The first batter, Cory Lebrun, went down swinging. Next up was Marco Gonzalez, a pitcher projected to go number one overall in the 2013 draft. He knocked a single off the pitch. Caleb Wood, the next up, fell victim to Sherfy’s famous, and filthy, slider as he struck out swinging. Sherfy then got Clayton Eslick to pop up to right field, making easy work for Scott Heineman. Sherfy got his nation-leading 19th save to tie the Oregon school record he set his sophomore season.

Sherfy’s success during his two seasons at Oregon is unprecedented. In his first year playing for the Ducks (his sophomore year), he won second team All-American honors despite struggling with control over his pitches. This season he has surpassed the saves record from his sophomore year, leading the nation with 20 saves with three more regular season games to play. He has also corrected his only flaw from the previous season; this year, Sherfy throws nothing but strikes.

Sherfy has excelled as a closer at Oregon, which is surprising because he never had that role until the 2012 season. He was a starting pitcher all four years of high school. When he came to Oregon, Sherfy was in a battle throughout his freshman year trying to earn a spot in the starting rotation. Headed into his sophomore season, coach George Horton took him aside and informed him that he would be throwing out of the pen. Sherfy was crushed.

“I think initially he was pretty disappointed that he didn’t start,” said Brad Sherfy, Jimmie’s father. “I think they realized that and they were really supportive of him and said, ‘Hey look, we really need a big arm at the back-end and that’s where you’re going to help us the most.”

Sherfy admits that it was tough at first, but the transition was quick. Once he got his first opportunity to close during the season opening series in Hawaii, he never looked back and whole-heartedly embraced the intensity of the crowd and the pressure of being watched by everyone.

“I fell in love with closing, absolutely fell in love with it,” said Sherfy. “I never want to do anything else.”

His fit as a closer is ironic; in high school he was a slow starter, doing his best work in the final innings. Sherfy claims that it’s the pressure that gets him going right away.

“I love (the pressure),” said Sherfy. “I love it. If I go in with a four- or five-run lead, it’s iffy. Once it’s one or two runs I’m most dialed in. When the pressure is on, I love it.”

Coincidentally, one of Sherfy’s most prolific games came during his sophomore year of high school in a rare stint as a reliever on an April day in the Las Vegas desert.

Newbury Park High School had some how made it through the Bishop Gorman Easter Classic Tournament and were facing Bishop Gorman, host of the tournament and then No. 1 team in the nation. The problem was, after four and a third innings, they were down 7-1. With nothing left to lose, they threw in the 5-foot-7, 120-pound Sherfy.

He made light work of the MLB-bound hitters stepping to the plate for Bishop Gorman. It was one of the only days in his career that he had a great change-up, and he used it nearly every other pitch, dropping opposing batters like flies. In the final four and two-thirds innings, Sherfy threw one-hit baseball and Newbury Park came back to win 8-7.

“They just couldn’t score on him,” said Matt Goldfield, Newbury Park’s head baseball coach. “They couldn’t believe it — this little kid out there on the mound against these giants and he beat them.”

Sherfy’s family and former coaching staff, who are quick to bring it up when asked about his high school days, have immortalized the game against Bishop Gorman. Sherfy himself refers to the game as one of the best outings of his career. Maxpreps.com has it listed as the worst loss in Bishop Gorman history.

“It felt really good,” Sherfy said. “That was one of the highest (achievements) of my career. It was a great day.”

The David versus Goliath-like scene might have been jarring to the Bishop Gorman squad, the fans and probably even Sherfy himself, but not to Brad and Jenny Sherfy, Jimmie’s parents. Years of seeing Sherfy’s attraction to baseball morph into an obsession had prepared them for such an incredible game.

Ever since he started walking as an eight-month-old toddler, Sherfy enjoyed ball sports. As a young kid, he amazed his father with his natural athleticism and persistence as the two played ball in the front yard.

“We’d make up games,” said Brad Sherfy, fondly reminiscing. “We had a game where I’m throwing balls up against the fence and he’s diving for them and avoiding bushes and trees, we’d play that for hours.”

When his dad wasn’t available, Sherfy wasn’t deterred. He would take to the front yard himself and hit rocks across the street with a plastic bat. He would stay out there all day until it was dark and his parents had to force him to come inside.

“He just loved it,” said Jenny Sherfy. “We never pushed him. All he ever wanted to do was play baseball.”

Once at Oregon, Sherfy struggled with his command in his sophomore year. He hit 13 batters, walked 34 and threw four wild pitches that year, prompting the nickname “Wild Thing,” a reference to Ricky Vaughn from Major League.

Oddly enough, the lack of control that year was an anomaly; throughout his baseball career, Sherfy always displayed impeccable accuracy.

“Looking back at his pitching since he was six or seven, he’s always had good control,” said Brad Sherfy. “That’s the crazy thing. When he came out last year, he didn’t have the control, and it was really kind of out of character.”

He has since settled down. This season, Sherfy’s command of his pitches is nothing short of amazing. He leads the nation in saves (20) and strikeouts per nine innings (13.05). He has a 1.00 ERA and so far this season has only walked 13 batters and hit two, both coming in an out-of-character performance against Oregon State. The impressive season has put him on the watch list for four of the most prestigious awards in college baseball.

While he appreciates the awards, the most important thing for Sherfy is winning. Last season, the Ducks were two outs shy of a trip to Omaha when Sherfy dealt a ball that Kent State short stop Jimmy Rider popped up. It seemed like a routine out until it got lost in the sun and ended Oregon’s season. Sherfy isn’t to blame, but the trip to Omaha is still something that pushes him and something Brad Sherfy says he talks about often.

“Absolutely (he talks about it). The focus is going deep into the playoffs. Last year was a great year, it just came up a little short.”

Sherfy has come a long way since that day in Las Vegas. His 95 mph fastball and the “slider you can’t touch,” as fellow Oregon pitcher Christian Jones once put it, have made their mark on top-tier batters up and down the West Coast. However, behind all the hype, awards and nicknames is just a shy kid itching to get a shot at Omaha.

Oregon baseball was unable to seek revenge on Oregon State Tuesday as their final match up of the season was rained out and the teams decided that it would not be rescheduled.

Oregon coach George Horton said Oregon State head coach Pat Casey deferred to him on whether the game would be called. Oregon had just lost two of three to the Beavers and trail them in the Pac-12 standings. Casey wanted to make sure Oregon would have an opportunity to play his team if Horton indeed wanted to.

“(Coach Casey) kind of left the decision up to us,” said Horton. “(I) commend him for that. From his perspective, we might have wanted to play for our resume. I just thought common sense was better that we canceled the game.”

Horton might as well be right. Oregon, because of their opportunity to play in Hawaii to start the season, has played more games than the coach would like. He said the team isn’t feeling 100-percent right now  and that this as a chance to rest up after playing five games in six days last week and get healthy for their final series, a road trip to Utah.

Aside from their extensive schedule, Oregon State is a tough team that had their way with the Ducks in the final two games of their series last weekend. Horton said it might have been a “blessing in disguise” and that the risk of playing again and trying to win the season series might not be worth the reward.

“For our resume, we had more to gain by playing them only if we were successful,” said Horton. “That’s a big ‘only if.’”

Looking forward, the Ducks see their up coming series against Utah to be a crucial one. Currently sitting at 8 in RPI (rating percentage index), the Ducks feel that they are still worthy of a national seed. A rough weekend on the road would certainly change that.

“I think at this point, we can’t lose again,” said pitcher Jake Reed of getting a national seed. “We definitely would have had to win that game yesterday.”

With Oregon two games behind Oregon State in the pennant race for the Pac-12, their shot at the title isn’t gone, but it is unlikely. In the final weekend for the teams, both are playing against sub-par opponents in Utah and Washington State. The Beavers have the luxury of getting Washington State in Corvallis. A sweep for the Cougars isn’t impossible, but it’s a tough task.

“Hopefully we’ll get some luck, I think luck will have to be involved,” said Reed. “We’ll just see what happens.”

Oregon doesn’t can’t control the outcome of the Oregon State series, but they can control how they fare against the Utes. With their hitting, defense and relief pitching looking uncharacteristically poor against Oregon State, the Ducks can use this series as an opportunity to build momentum.

With the post-season looming, Oregon needs to be conscious about what version of their team is currently playing. Are they the team that swept Stanford or the one that got shelled by Oregon State?

The final meeting between Oregon and Oregon State, scheduled to take place Tuesday night in Corvallis, has been canceled due to rain and will not be rescheduled.

The game was supposed to be the second of two, nonconference games — both played in Corvallis, the first being won by the Ducks. The Pac-12 conference series, played between the two this past weekend, was won by Oregon State, two games to one.

Oregon will wrap up its regular season this weekend with a road series against Utah.

Going into their series with Oregon State, the Oregon baseball team knew the results would say more about them as a team this season than any other series.

The men had been successful, winning 15 of their last 16 games and sweeping the last three weekend series, but Oregon State was a measuring stick on many levels. Oregon State is the Ducks’ rival, their competition for the Pac-12 title, possible competition to host super regionals and the second-highest ranked team they face this season.

Oregon failed to make a statement in the series, getting blown out in the final two games with a -19 run differential. Now, in the final stretch of the season, the Ducks are far from where they want to be.

The Ducks have proved throughout the season that they are a strong team worthy of a top-10 ranking, but their slump, threatening to seep into the postseason, is ill-timed.

Oregon’s pitching, second in the conference and 10th in the nation in ERA, has always been the Ducks’ biggest weapon, but their staff ripped at the seams in the final two games. Oregon State had their way with them, scoring 21 runs in two games. Oregon’s collective ERA on the season is 2.58.

Their defense, best in the country for much of the season, has looked sloppy since mid-April and has dropped from first to fifth over the past month.

Their hitting, something they have struggled with all season, has gone completely cold. Ryon Healy, their best hitter throughout the season, has struggled at the plate over the past couple weeks, often times overthinking his at-bats.

In the final game against Oregon State, Healy had an opportunity he had relished all season: two runners on base, one out, looking at a 3-0 count. He took the fourth pitch and grounded out into a double play to end the inning.

“I thought it was a good pitch,” said Healy after the game. “That was the most frustrating thing, the fact that I wasn’t able to come through for (my team) in that situation.”

Healy showed his frustration after the ground out, throwing his bat into the air as he walked toward the dugout. The flip of the bat was telling of more than just one squandered opportunity though. The Ducks talk often about having a short memory, but their play on Sunday didn’t back up that sentiment.

After Oregon was shut out by freshman pitcher Andrew Moore on Saturday, a former North Eugene High School stand out that was heavily recruited by Oregon, Senior J.J. Altobelli said the solution was simple: just put it in the past.

“Gotta have a quick memory,” said Altobelli.

His thoughts on the solution were more complicated after Sunday’s loss: “I don’t know, (forgetting) is going to be tough. We have to find a way to do it.”

It will be tough as the teams play again on Tuesday, this time in Corvallis. Oregon won’t have their season-long backbone pitching, and with Oregon’s issues primarily being mental, a loss could quickly send them into a tailspin, erasing their Omaha aspirations.

Much like Saturday’s loss, Oregon’s 12-2 loss to Oregon State will be one they will quickly try to forget. Aside from Friday’s win, a testament to how incredibly well Tommy Thorpe pitched, Oregon didn’t look to be in the same league as Oregon State.

With the loss, Oregon falls two games behind Oregon State in the Pac-12 standings and with four games left in the regular season, one coming against the Beavers this Tuesday in Corvallis, Oregon State controls their own destiny.

“We got whooped, there’s no question about it,” said Oregon coach George Horton. “We got out pitched, out defended and out hit.”

“If things go the rest of the way in the Pac-12 like they probably will, if they handle their business like they have all year … It’s a hard thing to say, but their the best team in the conference. Sometimes you just need to call it as you see them.”

Jake Reed (6-4) got shelled, going just two and two-thirds innings, giving up seven runs (two earned because of two errors early, one on Reed himself) on eight hits while striking out two.

Oregon State blew the game wide open in the second inning when Reed loaded the bases, then walked in a run, giving Oregon State a 2-0 lead. Michael Conforto, 3-5, 6 RBI, ripped his second homer of the series, this time a grand slam, giving Oregon State a 6-0 early lead.

“Conforto is seeing (the ball) really well right now,” said Reed. “It’s tough to pitch to that kid when he’s seeing it really well. I played with him over the summer and when he’s going, he sees it like a beach ball.”

Oregon bounced back in the middle of the game thanks to a couple strong innings from Darrell Hunter and Garrett Cleavinger, but fell apart in the eighth inning for the second-straight game. Jimmie Sherfy, their most reliable pitcher out of the pen, had a forgettable two-thirds innings, giving up three earned runs on four hits.

Oregon State again scored a run in the ninth, giving them 12 runs on an unbelievable 17 hits.

Oregon, for the second straight game, and really since the third inning of Friday’s game, had their offense shut down. The Ducks could only muster two runs on six hits with Scott Heineman being the only Duck to have a multi-hit game.

Turning Point. Oregon’s best opportunity came in the bottom of the second inning as a response to the Oregon State five run second inning. With the bases loaded, J.J. Altobelli stepped up and hit a ball to the warning track in center field.

The hit would have been out of nearly every park in the country and looked like it would surely drop and score three for Oregon. OSU’s center fielder  Max Gordon robbed the Ducks of three runs with an incredible leaping grab. Instead of a 6-3 ball game with seven innings to play, the Ducks were staring at a six run deficit.

“It was carrying up there for awhile so I thought he might have a chance,” said Altobelli of the catch. “On Friday he made another play like that. It was just a good play. That was a big momentum changer.”

Oregon, having one the first non-conference game against Oregon State, has a chance to win the season series against their state rivals on Tuesday and carry some momentum going into their final series with Utah when they take on Oregon State in Corvallis. The game is the second of two non-conference games between the teams.

Going into the second game of the series between Oregon and Oregon State, it seemed like an exciting match up. Oregon got the better of their rival Friday night, winning 3-0, but it was a hard-fought game. Headed into game two, it was a showcase for each teams’ stand out freshmen.

For Oregon, it was Cole Irvin, who entered the game with a 10-2 record, a 2.64 ERA and having pitched three complete games so far this season.

For Oregon State, it was righty Andrew Moore, who, with his now 11-1 record and 1.34 ERA, is perhaps the more impressive of the two on the season.

It quickly turned into a game Oregon will try to wipe from their memory. Moore didn’t have overwhelming stuff, finishing with only two strikeouts, but he went a full nine shut out innings and allowed just two hits.

“His fast ball location was real good and he was throwing his breaking ball on the first pitch, which is a good pitch,” said J.J. Altobelli of Moore. “He just got after our hitters.”

Irvin started strong, shutting Oregon State out through the first five innings, but at times looked shaky. In the top of the sixth, Michael Conforto hit a powerful opposite field home run to left field to put the Beavers on the board.

“Conforto’s home run the other way was a good pitch,” said Oregon coach George Horton. “When a guy can hit an opposite field home run in this ball park … He didn’t sneak up on me though, I know he’s pretty good.”

The Beavers again struck at Irvin in the seventh with another home run. Ryan Barnes absolutely crushed the ball out of centerfield for his first home run of the season.

However, the sixth and seventh innings were small fries compared to the show Oregon State put on in the eighth.

Darrell Hunter took the mound to start the inning, promptly giving up three runs in two-thirds innings. Christian Jones was then brought in to snag the final out but first gave up an RBI single to Barnes, plunked Kavin Keyes and then threw a wild pitch allowing Barnes to score.

He eventually got the final out, but not before the Ducks had surrendered five runs in the inning and fell into a 7-0 hole.

The ninth wasn’t kind either as the Beavers smacked around Jared Priestly, who gave up hits to his first three batters faced and allowed two more insurance runs for the Beavers.

“We got out played,” said Horton. “Tip your cap to the Beavers. What you do when things don’t go your way Friday night, you get up off the deck and do something about it. I thought they were extremely good. Unfortunately Darrell [Hunter] didn’t make enough good pitches and their little second baseman (Andy Peterson, who went 4-5 with two RBI) is a scrappy little guy.”

As one -sided as the game was, the series is tied at 1-1 headed into Sunday’s rubber match and with a win, Oregon can tie Oregon State for first in the Pac-12. However, a loss would put them two games behind and, with three games left in the season, all but guarantee a Pac-12 title for Oregon State.

“Gotta have a quick memory,” said Altobelli. “It was a good ball game until the eighth and things got away from us a little bit. That kid for them pitched a great game. He’s a good pitcher. We got another one tomorrow.”

Oregon will have a chance to rebound from the loss and get a series win on Sunday. Jake Reed will get the start, first pitch is at 12 p.m.