The Oregon men’s tennis team kicked off conference play with a 5-0 loss against the No. 5-ranked USC Trojans.

Oregon came into the Pac-12 opener winning the doubles point in 13 of 16 nonconference matches. The same success didn’t carry over against USC.

The Ducks dropped the doubles point to give USC the early lead. Nick Crystal and Laurens Verboven topped Oregon’s Thomas Laurent and Cormac Clissold, 6-3. The Ducks’ No. 3 pair of Simon Stevens and Akihiro Tanaka also lost, dropping a 6-2 contest to USC’s Rob Bellamy and Jack Jaede.

USC earned the second point of the match when Crystal defeated Stevens, 6-4, 6-1 on Court 2. Akihiro Tanaka didn’t pull out the victory on Court 3 with a 7-6, 6-4 loss to Logan Smith to put the Trojans up 3-0 and one point away from the victory.

The Ducks needed a big time rally to pull out the victory. They hung around — all four remaining matches were pushed to three sets.

However, there was no comeback at Marks Stadium. The Trojans’ Jaede and Thibault Forget won simultaneously over Jayson Amos and Clissold to give USC the 5-0 win.

Laurent’s and Ty Gentry’s matches were unfinished.

With the loss, Amos remains at 90 career singles wins in his Oregon career. His next win will put him in sole possession of first place in program history.

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— The men’s basketball team has arrived in Phoenix for the Final Four. The Ducks will have to get past UNC on Saturday to have a chance to play for a national title on Monday. Gus Morris went over the keys to beating the Tar Heels. Find all of the Emerald’s Final Four coverage here.

— Oregon baseball continues its hot steak as of late, defeating Portland 1-0 on Tuesday night for its 11 win in the last 13 games.

— With an impressive win at Fresno State, women’s tennis improved to 10-6 on the season. The Ducks travel to Arizona this weekend to face the Wildcats and ASU.

— A pair of Oregon teams came away victorious to remain perfect on the season. Acrobatics and tumbling topped King to improve to 5-0 and softball took down BYU 1-0 to improve to 30-0. Both are the only undefeated teams nationally in their respective sports.

— The 28th Annual Duck Invitational was all Oregon. Men’s golf swept the event for the first time since 2013, winning the team event by 18 strokes.

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The Ducks softball team continued its winning ways to start conference play.

The Ducks (27-0) topped Cal 10-2 to earn the series sweep and remain perfect on the season.

“If you’re going to win the championship, you’re going to want to put some sweeps behind you, because this conference is very tough,” head coach Mike White said.

For the third straight game in the series, Cal took the early lead. The Golden Bears manufactured a run in the first inning without getting a hit, scoring on an error by first baseman Mia Camuso.

But as they did in the first two games of the series, the Ducks responded, scoring three runs in the second inning on only one hit.

“Every time we play on the field, we have a scrappy mentality,” said Danica Mercado, who scored two runs for the Ducks. “I think that feeds into our attitude on offense.”

The Ducks didn’t look back, run-ruling the Golden Bears in five innings.

After Kleist retired the Bears in order in the top of the third, the Ducks tacked on two more runs in the bottom half of the inning to make it 5-2. The floodgates opened up in the fifth inning: the Ducks scored four times on three hits and a pair of walks to put the game out of reach.

“We’ve got to be scrappy. We don’t care how we do it,” said White. “The most important stat to us on the scoreboard is the W.”

Mercado reached base to lead off the fifth inning on an error. She scored the final run of the game on a sac-fly from Camuso.

Megan Kleist (9-0) got the start on the mound for the series finale. The sophomore did her job — allowing one run on five hits, only walking one.

“She mixes speeds pretty well,” said White. “She can be pretty tough to hit.”

The Ducks’ offense had another shot at Cal’s Zoe Conley, after facing her in the series opener on Friday night. The Ducks scored five runs and didn’t get their first hit out of the infield until Nikki Udria smacked a double down the left-field line.

Conley was not nearly as sharp on Sunday, walking seven Oregon batters.

Besides the early error from Camuso, the Ducks were otherwise solid defensively. Infielders Udria and Lilley each made a handful of plays to help contain the Golden Bears offensive attack.

The Ducks travel to Utah for a three-game series beginning March 25. They have a chance to leave Salt Lake City with a 30-0 record.

“Utah has excellent pitching,” said White. “They’re a team that fights.”

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The Oregon men’s tennis team ended its nonconference schedule on a high note, winning the championship match of the San Diego invite over Tulane on Saturday.

The Ducks (14-2) won their third match in as many days, after topping San Diego State and Iowa to advance to the championship. Fittingly so, their biggest challenge of the tournament awaited against 13-ranked Tulane.

As they did on Thursday and Friday, the Ducks got off to the early lead by winning the doubles point. The Ducks’ No. 1 pair of Thomas Laurent and Cormac Clissold fell to Constantin Schmitz and Chi-Shan Jao, 6-4. But the other duos would come out on top – Jayson Amos, playing alongside freshmen Ty Gentry, defeated Tyler Schick and Ewan Moore 6-4. Simon Stevens and Akihiro Tanaka clinched the point for the Ducks with a 7-6 victory.

The Ducks needed just three wins in singles to clinch the match.

Jayson Amos won his 90th career match with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Schick. Amos is now tied with Robin Cambier for the most singles wins in Oregon history with 90.

While Amos’ quest for history continues, Laurent’s streak of his own is now snapped. The No. 40-ranked sophomore fell to the 38-ranked Schmitz, 6-4, 6-2. Laurent was looking to win his 12 straight match, a program record. The loss is his first of the spring season.

Tulane evened the match at 2-2 after Gentry fell in straight sets to Jao, 6-1, 6-1.

That would be as close as Tulane would get to the championship. Clissold defeated Luis Erlenbusch 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 5 spot, before Tanaka clinched the match for the Ducks with a 7-6, 6-3 win.

With nonconference now complete, the real test begins for the Ducks when they kick off Pac-12 play on March 31 at USC.

No. 25 Oregon vs No. 30 Tulane

University of San Diego – San Diego Invite

Doubles

1. Constantin Schmitz/Chi-Shan Jao (Tulane) def. Cormac Clissold/Thomas Laurent (UO), 6-4

2. Jayson Amos/Ty Gentry (UO) def. Tyler Schick/Ewan Moore (Tulane), 6-4

3. Simon Stevens/Akihiro Tanaka (UO) def. Sebastian Rey/Tim Ruetzel (Tulane), 7-6

Oregon wins doubles point

Singles

1. No. 38 Constantin Schmitz (Tulane) def. No. 40 Thomas Laurent (UO), 6-4, 6-2

2. Simon Stevens (UO) vs. No. 125 Ewan Moore (Tulane), UNF 7-5, 6-6 (unfinished)

3. Akihiro Tanaka (UO) def. No. 118 Sebastian Rey (Tulane), 7-6, 6-3

4. Jayson Amos (UO) def. Tyler Schick (Tulane), 6-0, 6-0

5. Cormac Clissold (UO) def. Luis Erlenbusch (Tulane), 6-4, 6-3

6. Chi-Shan Jao (Tulane) def. Ty Gentry (UO), 6-1, 6-1

Oregon wins, 4-2

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On Friday night the Ducks continued to do what they know how to do best. Win.

Freshman Maggie Balint went the distance in Oregon’s 5-1 victory over Cal at Jane Sanders Stadium.

“There’s some things we need to work on,” said head coach Mike White following the game. “But coming away with the win is what it’s all about.”

The freshman got the nod in the team’s conference opener and didn’t disappoint.

Cal took the early 1-0 lead in the second inning on an Alleah Laxamana sacrifice fly. That’s all the scoring the Beats got off of Balint, who improved to 12-0 with the win.

“The nerves come because it’s better competition,” said Balint. “My team was awesome and supportive. I’m excited for the rest of this weekend.”

Oregon bounced right back in the bottom half of the second after surrendering the early 1-0 lead. A sac-fly from Lauren Lindvall and RBI single off the bat of Alexis Mack turned out to be all the offense the Ducks needed.

But that’s not the mindset the No. 3 Ducks have. Balint retired the Golden Bears in order in a quick top of the third inning to get her teammates back in the dugout. The Ducks would respond – Danica Mercado and Gwen Svekis would lead off the inning with back-to-back singles. Mercado then came home on a groundout from Jenna Lilley, before Svekis got a free pass home on a balk from Cal.

“It wasn’t very clean this game,” said White. “We didn’t let the mistakes roll over into some big innings.”

Svekis provided the Ducks with their fifth and final run of the game with a solo home run – her fourth of the season – over the left field fence. Balint would slam the door shut in the final two innings of the game, retiring 6 straight to snuff any attempt by Cal to get back into the game.

“The least amount of pitches I can throw in the sixth and seventh [innings] is good for my team,” said Balint.

Just as impressive as her clean 1-2-3 innings was Balint’s ability to navigate around some trouble throughout the night. Balint came up with a big strikeout of Danielle Bowers in the second inning to prevent Cal from growing their early lead. The Golden Bears would get two hits apiece in the fourth and fifth innings, but with nothing to show on the scoreboard.

The Ducks look to make it 2-0 in Pac-12 play — and 26-0 on the season — when they take on Cal in the second game of the series on Saturday.

“This is another half to the season,” said White on Pac-12 play. “That’s the way we’re looking at it.”

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When ace pitchers Cole Irvin and Matt Krook left Oregon for the MLB last spring, they left two major voids in the Ducks’ starting rotation. This season, two sophomores have stepped into their roles with big shoes to fill.

Matt Mercer and Cole Stringer both made some spot starts at the end of the 2016 season, but most of their work came out of the bullpen. Following the disappointing 2016 season, head coach George Horton is leaning on them to keep Oregon competitive in 2017.

“I like the way they’re performing,” said Horton, whose Ducks are 11-4 to start the season. “I like their mental toughness. I think they both have outstanding stuff.”

The Ducks allowed 5.1 runs per game in conference play last season. Their lack of shutdown pitching resulted in them going 14-16 in Pac-12 play, good for a disappointing 10th place in the conference. But both Mercer and Stringer are off to strong starts as members of the starting rotation.

“They’re doing a great job,” said infielder Kyle Kasser. “The fact that they’ve been able to go pretty deep in games helps save our bullpen.”

Mercer has been pitching in the rotation’s No. 2 spot, with Springer right behind him at No. 3. David Peterson, now a junior, is the only member of the starting staff to return to the Ducks this year. Cal and Washington are the only teams in the conference that enter the season with fewer years of experience from their projected starting rotation than Oregon.

Mercer earned his spot in the Ducks rotation after posting a 2.82 ERA in five starts at the end of the 2016 campaign. He is now 2-1 with a 1.54 ERA through four starts this season.

“I knew I wanted to be a starter,” Mercer said. “I feel a lot better this year and a lot stronger.”

In both of his wins this season, Mercer has thrown 7 shutout innings without allowing a walk.

“Our defense will make plays,” said Mercer, who has the advantage of pitching in a spacious PK Park. “I’m just pitching to contact.”

Stringer came flying out the gates this season with 7 innings of one-run ball at Fresno State to give the Ducks their first win. The left-hander hasn’t been as sharp in his two most recent starts, allowing 5 ER in a combined 9.1 innings, but he likes the path he is on right now.

“I was ready to jump in immediately,” Stringer said. “To be able to get [one of the weekend starting spots] felt good.”

While Oregon has only come away with wins in four of their combined seven starts, it has either been tied or leading six of seven times when Stringer and Mercer left the mound. They are giving their team a chance to win more times than not, but will only be tested further when Pac-12 play begins.

“I think if they make a habit of pounding the strike zone, they’re not going to have to grind through those mentally tough outings,” said Horton.

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Making his first career start on the mound, James Acuna had plenty of offensive support behind him in the Ducks’ 6-2 win over Santa Clara.

“I was a little concerned about tonight and the mismatch in the pitching,” said Horton. “It’s a tribute to every guy we sent out there.”

In the first game of the weekend series, the Ducks (8-4) scored three runs in both the second and third innings to build a lead that the Broncos (3-9) couldn’t overcome.

Acuna threw 4.0 shutout innings on the night. That was all that was needed from the true freshman, who has yet to allow a run this season in five appearances.

Innings two through four were a lot smoother for Acuna than the game’s opening frame. Santa Clara loaded the bases on two hits and a walked batter. However, Acuna neutralized the threat and got out of the inning unscathed when Santa Clara’s Matt Smithwick flew out to left field.

“He definitely looked nervous,” head coach George Horton said. “He’s had some outings, but there’s nothing like your first college start.”

After Acuna escaped another bit of the jam in the top of the second, Oregon’s bats went to work. Tim Susnara started things off with a leadoff double and scored the Ducks’ first run of the game on a Spencer Steer RBI single. Daniel Platzlaff put Steer in scoring position after getting hit by a pitch, before Kyle Kasser roped one down the right field to give Oregon a 2-0 lead. Kasser continued his hot streak at the plate on Thursday, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

“Kasser is seeing it pretty good right now,” said Horton. “He’s making it look pretty easy.”

Morgan McCullough, who entered the night struggling, put together nice outing on offense. The freshman brought home Patzlaff in the second inning with a sacrifice fly before driving home two more runs in the third inning with an RBI triple in the right-center field gap.

“I don’t waver with my confidence,” said McCullough on his early season struggles coming into Thursday. “As long as the team is getting wins, that’s what it’s really about.”

With a healthy lead now on his side, Acuna settled in. He faced the minimum through his final two innings of work, forcing three fly-outs while also striking out two in the fourth. With Horton wanting to keep his rotation of Peterson, Mercer and Stringer in place for the final three games of the series, Acuna got through four innings on the mound.

“He was kind of teetering the whole time,” said Horton. “It’s always hard to take a guy out before the fifth when he can earn the victory, but we didn’t want to run his pitch count (78) up too high.”

No more runners scored for the Ducks after the third inning. Parker Kelly and Cooper Stiles stifled Santa Clara, retiring ten consecutive batters. After the Broncos scored two unearned runs in the eighth inning, Brac Warren sealed the deal in the ninth inning to give Oregon the first game of the series.

“Kelly continues to get better and better,” said Horton. “I thought Cooper [Stiles] did a nice job as well.”

The Ducks will start David Peterson on Friday looking to guarantee the series split. Peterson is coming off a career outing, striking out 17 in eight innings of work against Mississippi State in the Ducks home opener.

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Thomas Laurent stands alone.

The sophomore won his 16th consecutive singles match  — a new Oregon record — to help the Ducks (11-2) come back to defeat UC-Santa Barbara 4-3 in their first outdoor match of the 2017 season on Sunday.

Though all eyes were on the No. 36-ranked Laurent’s quest for history, the Ducks fell behind 1-0 after not winning the doubles point for the first time in 10 matches.

The Ducks’ No. 1 pair of Jayson Amos and Armando Soemarno lost 6-3 to the Gauchos. Simon Stevens and Akihiro Tanaka would drop their match 6-1 to UCSB to allow the home team to take the opening point.

Heading into singles, the Ducks knew they needed to win four out of six matches to pick up the victory.

The road to victory became even more difficult, as Stevens would not be able to pull out the victory on court No. 2, losing in straight sets to Morgan Mays, 7-5, 6-1. The only path to a win for the Ducks was to win four out of their remaining five matches.

Laurent — as he has done all season — continued to roll with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Nicolas Moreno to get the Ducks on the board. His 16th straight singles win breaks the mark previously held by Simon Stevens and Robin Cambier. Laurent remains perfect while playing in the No. 1 spot.

Tanaka, playing again at the No. 3 spot, evened the match at 2-2 with a 6-3, 7-6 win.

Cormac Clissold gave the Ducks their first lead of the match when he took down Anders Holm in three sets, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Playing in the No. 6 spot, Ethan Young-Smith had a chance to clinch the win for the Ducks. He split the first two sets against UCSB before dropping the third, losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Tied at 3-3, the match came down to Amos against UCSB’s Cody Rakela. The Oregon senior won, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5, to give the Ducks the victory. With the win, Amos is now at 87 career singles wins, three away from the program record of 90.

The Ducks will have 11 days off before competing in the SP Invite on March 16-18 in San Diego before Pac-12 play begins later this month.

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Oregon had an opportunity take the series from Mississippi State on Saturday following Friday night’s 1-0 win.  With Matt Mercer making his first start since his career best outing versus Seton Hall, the Ducks would take the early lead but fall just short of MSU by a score of 5-4.

“I was disappointed with the energy in the seventh, eighth and ninth [innings],” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “I thought [Mississippi State] did a better job and played hungrier than us.”

Mercer threw the ball well enough for the Ducks to get the win, allowing two earned runs in six innings pitched. But a costly throwing error by right fielder Matthew Dyer in the sixth set the stage for Mississippi State to tie up the game at 3-3, and the Bulldogs would not look back. “I thought in the first five innings, we could have put the game away a little bit,” said Horton. “The fifth inning we lost the momentum.”

In the top of the sixth inning, the Ducks had a 3-1 lead, and Mercer seemed to have recovered from a shaky third inning in which Mississippi State scored its first run.

With a runner on first and one out, a fly ball off the bat of MSU’s Harrison Bragg found some grass in shallow right field for a base hit. The right fielder Dyer then attempted to throw out Elijah MacNamee at second base, but his throw would sail down the left field line, setting up MSU with runners on second and third. MSU’s Josh Lovebody would then tie up the game with a two-out, two-RBI base hit.

“We let a lot of things slip through our fingers,” said Horton. “We gave them a couple of extra opportunities.”

Mississippi State would string together four hits in the eighth inning to give them a 5-3 lead. In the bottom half of the ninth, Jake Bennett would drive home Morgan McCullough to bring the Ducks within one. With two outs and runners on first and second, it was Dyer at the plate with a chance to tie or win the game for the Ducks. It wouldn’t be in the cards though, as Dyer struck out swinging to end the ballgame.

“He’s a good baseball player,” said Horton about Dyer, who had two hits, an RBI and scored a run on the night. “I like the way he’s playing the game.”

The Ducks put together four hits in the second inning on the way to grabbing an early 2-0 lead. Mercer couldn’t get the shutdown inning in the top half of the third and allowed Mississippi State to score. But the Ducks would get the run right back in the bottom frame of the inning with back-to-back two out hits from A.J. Balta and Dyer to take the 3-1 lead.

After throwing seven shutout innings versus Seton Hall in the Tony Gwynn Classic in San Diego, Mercer wasn’t as sharp tonight, but still battled his way through six hard fought innings.

“He’s a competitive bugger,” said Horton. “We believe in him when we give the ball to him.”

Oregon closer Brac Warren, who missed the beginning of the season with an injury, made his first appearance of the season during the Bulldog’s two run eighth inning. Warren would allow both of Connor Zwetsch’s runners to score. He would pitch the ninth inning as well, striking out four in 1.2 innings of work.

“It was a tough situation to enter,” said Horton. “He minimized it. Instead of a three or four run inning, he made it a two run inning.”

The Ducks will look to take the rubber match of the series on Sunday at 12 p.m.

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There is the old adage that “records are meant to be broken.” Thomas Laurent hopes for that to be the case when he aims for history on Sunday. Laurent is currently in a three-way tie for first place in Oregon history with 15 consecutive wins.

With a win on Sunday in No. 21 Oregon’s match at UC Santa Barbara, Laurent will stand alone.

“He’s playing like one of the best players in college tennis right now,” said head coach Nils Schyllander.

Laurent is a perfect 11-0 to start the spring season. His last loss – during the fall tournament season – came in the ITA Northwest Regional Championship.

“Obviously we want to give the best to the school and to the team,” said Laurent. “I’m really happy to bring this [level of play] to the team.”

The 6-foot-3 sophomore is tied with former Duck Robin Cambier and teammate Simon Stevens, both of whom have won 15 consecutive matches.

However, Laurent’s streak is something special. Unlike Cambier and Stevens, Laurent is doing it from the No. 1 spot, so he’s facing top competition every match.

“I start every match really focused,” said Laurent. “I know if I don’t focus and try my best, I’m not going to win.”

Stevens, who joined Cambier with 15 straight in 2015, hopes that Laurent can break the record.

“We joke about it,” said Stevens. “I’ll be happy if he wins more matches.”

Laurent came to Oregon after a strong prep career in his hometown of Montpellier, France. He cracked the top 10 of France’s U18 rankings.

Laurent was an honorable mention All-Pac-12 as a freshman. With his two wins in the NCAA Tournament, Laurent became the only player in Oregon history to have multiple wins in the tournament. Still, he knows he hasn’t met his potential.

“I knew I could be better,” said Laurent of his first year with the Ducks. “That was my goal, to play at this level.”

Laurent competed mainly in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots in singles for the Ducks last season, but now there’s no doubt who play in the No. 1 slot.

“He rises to the occasion when he plays the top players,” said Schyllander.

After starting the season ranked No. 105, Laurent has risen to No. 36. His most recent win came against Drake’s Vinny Gillaspie, whom Laurent lost to last season.

“I was mostly focused on beating [Gillaspie],” said Laurent after winning his fifteenth straight. “That’s what mattered for me.”

Laurent’s play isn’t limited to singles action. Along with Cormac Clissold, the pair is 29-3 all-time in doubles matches together, tied for seventh in Oregon history. Laurent is a combined 35-4 in singles and doubles matches dating back to the fall.

“We know its tough to play [in the No. 1 spot],” said Stevens. “What he does is great.”

Senior Jayson Amos, along with the rest of his teammates, is impressed with the level of growth and maturity that Laurent has shown since arriving to Oregon last spring.

“He’s improved so much from when I saw him last year,” said Amos. “He’s the real deal out there.”

Real deal indeed. An likely soon to be the Oregon career record-holder.

Follow Cole Kundich on Twitter @ckundich

Read about Laurent’s tie and more in this week’s Quick Hits.

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