Florida freshman Grant Holloway sprinted through the athlete recovery tent behind the west grandstand at Hayward Field, rushed through the media entrance and tackled his coach, Mike Holloway, mid-interview.

“Proud of you, cousin!” Grant shouted while embracing his coach.

When Grant made the decision to give up football last winter and focus solely on track, this was what he envisioned.

Holloway and the Gators captured their second consecutive NCAA outdoor track and field championships on Friday with a dramatic performance in the 4×400-meter relay, the last event of the day, to edge the Texas A&M Aggies.

The Aggies held a lead in the team standings heading in the final relay, and the Gators needed a finish of fifth or better to unseat them and take home the championship. Holloway received the baton with the Gators in fifth place and delivered a gutsy kick to move up one spot, giving Florida a fourth-place finish in the race and 61.5 points overall, two better than Texas A&M.

“I think what you saw in the 4×4 is indicative of who we are as a program,” Holloway said. “We have a lot of proud in who we are.”

Florida had revenge on its mind coming into the week. The Gators lost by one point to the Aggies at the NCAA indoor championships in March, leaving many of the team members — including Holloway — devastated.

Expected to deliver points in multiple events during that meet, Holloway came away with just a fourth place finish in the 110-meter hurdles and didn’t score a point in the long jump, despite earning the second seed in the event. He made a promise to his coach then that he would never let him down again.

“A man’s only as good as his word,” Holloway said. “That’s what my father told me. If I made a promise to coach Holloway, I was trying to keep it.”

A four-star wide receiver recruit out of high school, Holloway hung up his football cleats for good in January and chose to give his full attention to track. On Friday, that decision came to fruition.

Holloway finished with a win in the 110 hurdles in 13.49 seconds and a second place finish in the long jump to go along with his clinching anchor performance in the relay. Holloway and teammate Keandre Bates — who won the long jump and triple jump — combined to score nearly half of Florida’s points.

Florida head coach Mike Holloway holds the Men’s Championship trophy. The NCAA Track & Field National Championships are held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. on June 9, 2017. (Ramsey Sullivan/Emerald)

Texas A&M’s Fred Kerley cruised to victory in the 400-meter dash and finished the 4×400 with a dominant anchor leg to give the Aggies a win in that event as well. But it wasn’t enough for the Aggies, who also got a win from Lindon Victor in the decathlon on Thursday.

“My goal coming in this whole season was to win every race I was in,” Kerley said. “My main goal every track meet was to win the race; that’s what this whole season was about.”

Oregon finished ninth in the team standings with 19.5 points to take home its worst outdoor championship performance since 2012.

Kyree King delivered fourth place finishes for the Ducks in both the 100 (10.20) and 200 (20.61). He is the fourth Duck ever to take home All-American honors in each event. Tennessee junior Christian Coleman won each of the sprint events.

Tennessee sprinter Christian Coleman wins the men’s 100m final. The NCAA Track and Field National Championships are held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. on June 9, 2017. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)

Marcus Chambers finished sixth in the 400 for the Ducks to wrap up his college career. Blake Haney finished 11th in the 1,500.

“Definitely a different feeling being here on this day,” Oregon head coach Robert Johnson said. “Definitely would rather be out there nervous and on the hunt and in the grind. … Not a feeling that I want to get accustomed too, that’s for sure.”

Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney

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In a day that is typically devoid of drama, Oregon senior Kyree King gave Ducks fans a reason to watch at the NCAA Track and Field Championship preliminary rounds on Wednesday.

King, a former Western Kentucky standout who transferred to Oregon for his final year, played a part in three different school records on Wednesday and qualified for three finals.

King finished fourth overall in the 100-meter dash in 10 seconds flat to top Don Coleman’s school record of 10.11 that had stood since 1978. He finished second in his heat behind Tennessee junior Christian Coleman, who broke the NCAA record in 9.82 seconds — good for the fastest time in the world this year.

“I knew what (Coleman) was gonna do in the race,” King said. “He’s a great starter. So I just thought that if I could get out with him, I would be okay. He blasted off the blocks and threw me for a loop, but I had to keep it under control.”

King later went on to finish fifth and qualify in the 200-meter in 20.27 seconds, shattering another of Don Coleman’s school records in the process. To begin the day, King also ran a leg of Oregon’s 4×100-meter relay, which finished fourth and also broke a school record.

“This field — 100, 200, 4×1 — is so fast, I just knew prelims was gonna have to be a final,” King said. “All these guys are fast and if you don’t watch yourself, you might get taken out.”

King was the brightest spot on an otherwise bleak day for the Ducks. Oregon tallied just 3.5 points total and sits in 24th place with 6-of-21 events completed. Texas A&M leads the team standings with 21.5 points, while Virginia trails closely behind with 20. 

Senior pole vaulter Cole Walsh scored the Ducks’ only points with a fifth place finish to cap off his collegiate career. Walsh had no problem clearing the first three heights of the day, and cleared his final height of 17 feet, 10 ½ inches on his first attempt. But once the bar was a pushed to 18-2 1/2, Walsh and several other contenders had their progress halted.

“Once the bar moved up to (18-2 ½) the wind changed a little bit,” Walsh said. “As much as I would like to say it shouldn’t affect me, it did. I couldn’t really get the pole down.”

A clearance at that height would have tied Walsh’s personal-best. His fifth-place finish was an improvement over his seventh-place mark in 2016.

The Ducks had a chance to bring home points on several other occasions, but came up scoreless in three final events throughout the day. Oregon freshman Tanner Anderson finished 13th in the 10,000-meter run, Cody Danielson finished 12th in the javelin and Cullen Prena took 24th in the hammer throw.

“We’re trying to scrounge for as many points as we can anywhere else,” Walsh said.

Oregon could potentially get a large chunk of points from King on Saturday and Marcus Chambers will be in contention for a top-three finish in the 400-meter after finishing third in prelims.

Mitch Modin and Joe Delgado sit in 17th and 19th in the decathlon, respectively, and could each sneak into scoring contention with a strong second day on Friday. Blake Haney qualified for the 1500-meter final and will be among the favorites in Friday’s final. 

Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney

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Each time Oregon baseball reaches the ninth inning with a narrow lead, a telling sound takes over PK Park.

Bells.

“Rest in Peace,” the theme song the infamous WWE character, the Undertaker, booms over the stadium speakers as Oregon’s own mortician emerges from the bullpen.

Enter Kenyon Yovan, the Ducks’ freshman phenom, who has racked up more saves than any underclassman in the country and parachuted into the closer role to hold together an Oregon team during a rocky 2017 season.

“I just want to make sure my first five pitches are better than my last five,” Yovan said. “That’s always the goal.”

More often than not this season, they have been. Yovan owns a 2.08 ERA and has converted 14 saves in 15 tries. He has 34 strikeouts to just six walks and has recorded the final out in more than half of Oregon’s 29 wins this season. He has done all this during a freshman season when most 18-year-olds are supposed to be playing catch-up to the Pac-12 upperclassmen.

“Words can’t describe it,” Oregon head coach George Horton says of Yovan’s impact. “I continue to say he’s had a spectacular freshman year — not only numbers-wise, but presence-wise. You put a lot of burden on a young man to be ‘that guy’ on his college baseball team and he’s embraced that in a big way.”

Oregon boasts a star-studded list of shutdown closers in recent years, including MLB draft picks Jimmy Sherfy and Stephen Nogosek. None has made as strong an early impact as Yovan.

In truth getting on the field at Oregon was a bigger task for Yovan than any opposing batter has presented.

As a senior at Westview High School in Beaverton, Oregon, Yovan struck out 133 batters in 71 innings and racked up every possible individual award: USA Today, the Oregonian and Baseball America all tabbed him as the top player in the state.

Yovan committed to Oregon midway through his sophomore year of high school and stayed steadfast in his commitment, even after offers from Pac-12 powerhouses such as Oregon State and Washington came flooding in.

“It was April of his sophomore year,” Yovan’s father, Jake Yovan said. “Kenyon goes, ‘You know what, dad? I want a chance at that. I want a chance to help get Oregon to Omaha. If I go for it and it doesn’t happen, then I had my chance. But if I’m part of the reason we get there and do well, nobody will ever take that away from me.’”

Oregon pitcher Kenyon Yovan (21) points to call the strike. The Oregon Ducks fall to the Oregon State Beavers 6-1 in the first game of the Civil War Series at PK Park on May 11, 2017. (Amanda Shigeoka/Emerald)

But before he ever put on an Oregon uniform, Yovan’s dream scenario began to splinter.

He officially signed with the Ducks during his senior year of high school and turned down a pro contract from the Seattle Mariners after the team selected him in the 34th round of the 2016 MLB Draft. But he did not meet the academic standards of the university and had to take summer classes in order to become eligible in the fall. Early in the summer, he hurt his hand and was unable to perform any baseball activities, other than some light throwing, for the weeks that followed.

Then, two months into his freshman year of college, his mother, Kerry, was diagnosed with amelanotic melanoma. After two major surgeries and a handful of minor ones, there is no evidence that the disease has returned. Kerry hasn’t missed a single Oregon home series this season and is seated down the right field line at PK Park early enough to watch batting practice on most days.

“That’s the other part that was really tough about that freshman year,” Jake Yovan said. “He is behind in class, and his mom was diagnosed with cancer all in that same time frame. He grew up quick.”

The hand injury may have been a blessing in disguise; Yovan stashed himself away in the Jaqua Academic Center over the summer and did what was needed to become eligible. As Jake tells it, the family grew up in Gladstone, a suburb outside of Portland, before Kenyon transferred to Westview after eighth grade. It made for a difficult transition as Kenyon converted to a larger school and the curriculums between the two school districts didn’t line up.

“He struggled a little bit with his grades and understanding what the tutors are doing and how to have it together,” Jake Yovan said. “It was a lot on him, in my opinion.”

According to Jake, Kenyon finished winter term at Oregon with a 3.35 GPA.

Now, the biggest problem that Yovan has presented Oregon coaches is the nagging fear that he is being underutilized. Yovan has two-way potential as a pitcher and hitter and has started in the designated-hitter spot several times for Oregon. Horton has gone so far as to compare him to former Oregon State standout Dylan Davis, who hit .335 with five homers in 2013 while also working as a relief pitcher before being taken in the third round of the MLB Draft.

“(Yovan’s) got explosion in his bat,” Horton said. “Life in his bat. He’s got holes in his swing a little bit now, and we’d have to work on correcting that. … But don’t all young hitters?”

Oregon pitcher Kenyon Yovan (21) takes a swing. The Oregon Ducks fall to the Oregon State Beavers 6-1 in the first game of the Civil War Series at PK Park on May 11, 2017. (Amanda Shigeoka/Emerald)

There have been stints this season where Yovan has gone 10 days without taking the mound. With a starting rotation that has had its fair share of issues on Saturdays and Sundays, there has been plenty of temptation for Horton to throw Yovan into the starting mix.

“You go into our staff meetings, “ Horton said. “If we’re struggling on Sunday, and you’re sitting there, and Kenyon’s not getting to pitch when it matters, do you start training him for the starting job? … It’s something that we have considered.”

It may turn out, however, that Yovan’s best long-term fit is where he’s at right now in the closer spot.

He and Jake have a long-standing tradition of Jake bringing a Rockstar energy drink to him before every game. An adrenaline-junky who feeds off the emotion of the game, Yovan is now able to to channel all that energy into 15-20 pitches a game, as opposed 100.

“When you’ve got that guy at the back of the pen, you know it’s almost automatic. Just game over,” Oregon shortstop Kyle Kasser said.

Locking down the ninth inning is a skill that runs in the family. Yovan’s cousin, Keynan Middleton, grew up playing in the Portland area as well, and was recently promoted to the majors by the Los Angeles Angels after the team drafted him in the third round of the 2013 MLB Draft.

Middleton was drafted as a starter, but saw his career skyrocket once he made the move to the bullpen. He’s been a mentor for Yovan during the freshman’s own transition to the closer role.

“I’ve known (Middleton) since I was two years old and everything,” Yovan said. “Once he got drafted and he went through the minor leagues and everything, he told me what it’s like and what you’ve got to do to prepare and I took that into account. … I just try to play older than a freshman.”

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The drive from Springfield High School to PK Park is a short one: By Google Maps’ calculations, it’s just a six minute connecting drive from Centennial Boulevard onto Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

But for Oregon junior Taylor Travess, the journey was much, much longer.

Travess, a former three-sport star at Springfield, has become a mainstay in the starting lineup for Oregon baseball after arriving in the fall uncertain whether he’d see an inning of playing time. To get there, it took two years in a wood-bat junior college league and a summer of hopping fences just to get access to a batting cage.

“I always wanted to play at Oregon,” Travess said. “Even as a little kid in the backyard, I wore an Oregon jersey. I went to every Oregon football game growing up. I’ve always wanted to be a Duck. They never showed interest in me in high school, so I didn’t know if that was ever going to happen. So I had to walk into the office and demand for it to happen.”

Most of Travess’ scholarship offers coming out of high school were for football — he was an all-state wide receiver for the Millers in 2013 — but he was confident that if he carved a spot on a baseball roster somewhere, he would be able to improve and make it to the Division-I level.

Oregon Ducks outfielder Taylor Travess (46) talks with a young player before the opening of the game. The Oregon Ducks play the Arizona State Sun Devils at PK Park in Eugene, Ore. on Saturday April 29, 2017. (Kiara Green/Emerald)

That team ended up being at Mt. Hood Community College, a perennial league-title contender in the Northwest Athletic Conference. He played almost every game during his two-year stay with the Saints and hit a respectable .295 during his sophomore year in a league that is notoriously heavy on pitching talent.

“It was hard,” Travess said. “The program at Mt. Hood is tough. It’s gritty. That’s just the way it is. You work hard to win, and if you lose, you’re a failure. It creates a winning mentality, and that’s why I enjoyed being there. I mean, living in Gresham wasn’t fun. Playing community college baseball wasn’t ideally what I wanted to do. But I learned so much there; it made me such a better baseball player, and I love every bit of it.”

Travess initially received offers from Central Florida and Marshall University after his sophomore year, but his own hesitation to pick a location left him without a scholarship by the time summer came around.

Rather than move to the other side of the country to walk on to a team, he decided to take a shot at walking on with the team he grew up watching.

But even during the summer, while many Oregon players were taking cuts in the Cape Cod League, Travess was without a team. He had a 10-day stint with the Corvallis Knights and filled in the gaps by playing non-league games for his former American Legion team, the Willamette Valley Titans. But in-game chances that are crucial for development were still scarce.

He took to self-training during his time off the field.

“You jump the fence at Springfield High School and pull out a tee and hit,” Travess said. “That’s the only thing I really could have done.”

The same bellicose attitude that got him through those summer days was enough to earn him a walk-on spot with the Ducks. Travess plays with a certain edge to his game that makes for some uneasy moments in the outfield but also helped him jump straight from the NWAC to the Pac-12 in less than a year.

“I like to say that he’s an exciting player,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “Sometimes it’s negative excitement; he’ll be the first to tell you that. He plays with confidence and aggressiveness and sometimes that aggressiveness gets in the way.”

Travess joined the Oregon roster in the fall and played almost exclusively as a late-inning defensive replacement early in the spring. But by early April, Horton was experimenting with different lineups to try to shake away Oregon’s offensive struggles. He inserted Travess into the No. 8 spot in the lineup on April 7, and Travess went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a triple. Since then, he’s been in the starting lineup almost every day and owns a .254 batting average, good for fifth-best on the team.

“I didn’t even know I was going to be here until a week before the whole thing started,” Travess said. “So for [coach Jay Ulhman] and Horton to give me the chance to even put the uniform on in the fall is a blessing. I’m just trying to make sure I’m not taking anything for granted.”

Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney

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Oregon is running out of ways to win titles.

On Saturday, the Ducks climbed on the back of senior newcomer Kyree King, who captured titles in the 100- and 200-meter dashes to lead Oregon to its 11th straight conference crown. King became the first Duck to sweep the sprint events since Roscoe Cook in 1959 and his wind-aided 100-meter time of 10.09 seconds is the fastest ever by a Duck.

Not bad for his first time ever competing at Hayward Field.

“Unbelievable,” Oregon head coach Robert Johnson said of King. “He had been doing really well leading into this. To put it all together and run those races there. … It’s kind of creating a little inner-squad rivalry there between him and [Marcus Chambers].”

The Ducks finished the day with 175 points, a convincing 59.5 points ahead of runner-up USC, who were expected to at least give the Ducks a fight for the title.

Perennially a dominant distance school, Oregon held true to tradition and scored 44 points in five distance events. But it was King who finished as the Ducks’ high-point scorer. It’s also King who gives Oregon fans a reason to pay attention to events shorter than 400 meters.

“We’ve got a lot of tradition here in the other events that we love and we value,” Johnson said. “To be able to be well-rounded and balanced, and have those other kids step up in those other events is awesome.”

Oregon sprinter Marcus Chambers trails Arizona sprinter Zakee Washington before finishing second in the 400m final. The University of Oregon hosts the PAC 12 Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. on Sunday May 14, 2017. (Phillip Quinn/Emerald)

In both sprint events, King was followed closely by an Oregon teammate. Chambers (20.43) took second in the 200, while Damarcus Simpson (10.27) finished as runner-up in the 100.

“I mean, the girls speak for themselves,” King said of Oregon’s sprinting dominance on the women’s side. “But I wanna come out here and try to propel the men’s sprint team to be up there as well. I’m glad I was able to do that too.”

Oregon began racking up points early in the day, before track events even began. The Ducks got a huge shot in the arm from senior thrower Ryan Hunter-Sims, who won the discus title in dramatic fashion. Sitting in second place after four throws, Hunter-Simms unleashed a 192 foot, 7 inch, heave on his final attempt to win the event. In addition to Hunter-Sims’ victory, Cullen Prena and Drake Brennan placed fourth and sixth in the event.

Exceeding expectations became a common theme for Oregon’s athletes throughout Sunday afternoon. Braxton Canady finished second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.93 seconds, and Mick Stanovsek stole a fourth-place finish in the 800-meter run.

“All of you always talk about the people who win,” Johnson said. “But those unsung heroes — Ryan Hunter-Simms’s there with the comeback victory — those fifth, sixth, seventh points, those definitely make a difference in these championship runs. We’re going to definitely need those over these next few months.”

By the time the meet was down to just two remaining events, the Ducks held a comfortable enough lead that Johnson told Chambers that he would hold him out of the dreaded 4×400-meter relay if he ran the open 200.

Oregon will get a brief break before the Ducks head to Austin, Texas, for the NCAA West Regionals on May 25.

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When he hit the backstretch at Hayward Field Sunday afternoon, Oregon junior Blake Haney felt like “the old Blake” for the first time in a long time.

Haney finished second in the 1,500-meter run at the Pac-12 championships with a time of 3:55.55, less than a second back of Stanford sophomore Grant Fisher.  

The result in itself was a reassuring sign — Fisher is one of the top runners in the nation at any distance, and he didn’t pull away from Haney and a group of three others until there were 150 meters left. But more significant for Haney was simply the feeling of being back in the mix for a championship.

If he and fellow junior Sam Prakel, who finished fourth on Saturday, are each burning on all cylinders when NCAA championships roll around, Oregon could be in line for its eighth outdoor title.

“I’m feeling good,” Haney said. “I’m confident. This was a good race before regionals to get us sharpened up and ready to run some races that are really important. We’re excited for how it went and ready to get back to training.”

Saturday marked the first step in Haney’s quest to rediscover the form that made him one of the nation’s top distance runners during his first two seasons. After settling into the back of the pack for much of the race, Haney surged to the front and rattled off his third lap in 60.7 seconds. It took a late kick from Fisher to peel away from Haney and Prakel.

“Those guys are great racers,” Fisher said of the Oregon duo. “I knew they’d be coming so I just tried to get it all out there and go through my gears. I definitely went through all of them today.”

Haney burst onto the scene in 2015 — with a third-place finish at the NCAA outdoor championships as a freshman — and did nothing to simmer expectations when he finished second in the mile at the NCAA indoor championships the following winter.

But two successful seasons were followed by a sophomore outdoor campaign that ended in frustration. With no apparent injuries hindering him, Haney finished 15th in the Pac-12 Championships and 11th at the NCAA championships.

Though Oregon teammates Matthew Maton and Prakel enjoyed the same type of success in the 1,500 that Haney did the year before, Haney stayed at home while Maton and Prakel competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene.

“I think this year I’m just more in a routine and a lot more comfortable and a lot more just focused,” Haney said. “I think everything’s coming together just a little better than last year. Last year always felt like I was catching up and a little bit behind. This year feels like I’m more underneath myself and really confident.”

Many Oregon stars have gone through the same sort of slump following a breakout season. With one of the strongest distance crews in the country surrounding him, Haney didn’t have to look far when searching for advice.

“I had a great indoor last year and then spring just didn’t go my way,” Haney said. “I think it happens. I’ve learned from a lot of the guys on my team who have gone through similar experiences, and just kind of used them to help me move forward.”

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Oregon entered Thursday night with hopes of starting a late-season winning streak that could resuscitate its postseason hopes.

The Ducks picked the wrong team to try to start it against.

Oregon fell to the No. 1 Oregon State Beavers 6-1 at PK Park to drop to 9-13 in Pac-12 play and 26-18 on the year. The Ducks hung tight with a Beaver team that has topped the collegiate rankings all year, but Oregon never got the one big hit it needed.

Oregon gave Oregon State ace Luke Heimlich as tough if a battle as he has seen all year, but left 10 runners stranded and teed up just one extra-base hit against him. The win clinched atleast a share of the Pac-12 title for the Beavers and left the Ducks searching for answers once again. 

“I don’t know if (Heimlich) was as sharp as he usually is with all three pitches,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “He made some good pitches when he needed to. We set the table okay; we did okay with leadoff hitters and getting guys in scoring position. … I think we’re fortunate that we got as many chances as we did.”

Oregon sent Cole Stringer to the mound on short rest, and he made it through Oregon State’s lineup once relatively unscathed. But in the fourth, the Beavers jumped all over him when Adley Rutschman and Michael Gretler each hit solo homers to left field to give Oregon State a 2-0 lead.

The Beavers had a chance to do further damage in the inning after pair of errors from Spencer Steer and Kyle Kasser gave Oregon State extended life, but Stringer forced Steven Kwan to fly out and end the inning.

After a 5.1 inning, scoreless outing against Washington State on Sunday that was one of his best starts of the year, Stringer returned on three-days rest to face the Beavers so Oregon ace David Peterson could throw on normal rest during the series. He lasted four innings and gave up five hits.

“He was making pitches when he needed to,” Horton said of Stringer. “He got hit hard twice with leadoff hitters with nobody on base, and they hit it over the fence. Tip your cap to them; it’s not easy to hit the ball over the fence here.”

Oregon’s leadoff batter reached base in four of the first six innings, but poor bunting and a failure to put the ball on the ground left them empty-handed on almost every occasion.

The Beavers tacked on another run in the fifth when Rutschman singled home Jack Anderson, who doubled to left field to lead off the inning.

Heimlich entered Thursday with the lowest ERA in the nation by a wide margin, and saw it rise just slightly against the Ducks. Heimlich didn’t deliver many clean innings and he allowed the leadoff batter to reach four different times. But he used a low-90’s fastball and devastating curveball to limit the Ducks.

His lone earned run, and the Duck’s only run of the game, came when Heimlich hit Jake Bennett with a pitch with the bases loaded. That brought Oregon’s No. 3 hitter, Spencer Steer, to the plate, and after Heimlich worked a 2-2 count, he forced Steer into a 4-6-3 double play to escape the inning.

“We had a couple of shots right away,” Oregon shortstop Kyler Kasser said. “Those are the ones you need. You’ve gotta start throwing punches early; we didn’t throw a punch and they threw two solo shots there in the fourth inning. It goes to show that we’ve got to capitalize.”

James Acuna, Cooper Stiles and Connor Zwetsch all got work out of the bullpen for Oregon. That leaves Oregon with top relievers Kenyon Yovan and Brac Warren both available for the remainder of the series.

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Oregon head coach George Horton said earlier this week that freshman reliever Kenyon Yovan is capable of throwing 60 pitches, or so, if he were ever needed for that many.

The Ducks didn’t quite need that long of on outing from the standout closer on Sunday, but Yovan entered in the seventh inning and locked down a three-inning save as Oregon topped Arizona State 3-2. The victory gave Oregon a series win and marked Yovan’s 13th save on the season.

“Having a fresh Kenyon Yovan is a good thing,” Horton said. “No matter if its a one or two run lead.”

With the Ducks clinging to a 3-2 lead, Yovan replaced Cooper Stiles with no outs in the seventh inning and retired the Sun Devils in order. He then worked his way out of a two-out jam in the eighth when he fanned Lyle Lin with a curveball in the dirt to strand runners in the corners. In the ninth, he forced Taylor Lane into a 6-4-3 double play and then popped Zach Cerbo out to center to end the game.

“I knew for a fact I could go three,” Yovan said. “(Coach Jason Dietrich) told me coming into the weekend to be ready to throw a number of innings. … I tried to do my best to go out there and get my team the win.”

Oregon pitcher Kenyon Yovan (21) reacts after being struck out late in the game. The Oregon Ducks play the Mississippi State Bulldogs for their season home opener at PK Park in Eugene, Ore. on March 3, 2017. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)

Until April 23 when he tossed two innings in a non-save situations against Stanford, Yovan had gone 10 days without throwing an inning for Oregon. The Ducks are 1-6 in their last five games, and save opportunities have been few and far between for Yovan, meaning one of Oregon’s more effective arms has been left on the bench. It also means there are plenty of innings left in his arm whenever he is needed.

“I didn’t feel tired at all” Yovan said. “When I was a starter in high school and during the summer, I fed off the adrenaline and fed off the offense. … My goal is always just to prolong myself while also giving 100 percent at the same time.”

Oregon found the hits it needed early with a few seeing-eye singles to put pressure on the Sun Devils. The Ducks broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth when Jake Bennett roped a double down the third base line to score Kyle Kasser and Morgan McCullough. The 3-1 lead from Bennett’s double was all the Ducks would need, but their bats stayed hot throughout the game.

The Ducks finished with 11 hits for the second straight day, but also struggled to turn those hits into runs. They have struggled to hit with runners in scoring position throughout conference play, and Sunday was no exception. The Ducks left 12 runners on base after leaving the same amount stranded on Saturday.

“Good hitting is infectious; RBI hitting is infectious,” Horton said. “And unfortunately when you leave guys on base, it’s infectious. It’s like shooting a basketball. … We’re not always gonna have eight free bases and 11 base hits to pick and choose from. But I thought our pitch selection with guys in scoring position was pretty good.”

Cole Stringer earned the win for Oregon with one of his stronger outings of the year. Stringer tossed 5.2 innings and struck out three while giving up three hits and one run.

The Ducks will now set their eyes on a noncoference matchup with No. 1 Oregon State in Corvallis On Tuesday. Horton and Yovan both indicated that he could possibly be available out of the bullpen again in needed.

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In April, the Oregon athletic department declared that Duck football practices would be open to the media, which meant good news for local reporters.

However, the newfound availability also came with a catch: UO also simultaneously stated that Oregon freshman would not be available for interviews throughout the year. Now, reporters and fans are left to analyze and evaluate the members of Oregon’s No. 17-ranked recruiting class through the brief glimpses at the beginning of each practice.

Although Oregon’s freshmen are unable to talk directly to reporters, their teammates have done plenty of talking for them.

On the last day of spring practice Wednesday morning, several Oregon upperclassmen raved about the performances of the Ducks’ newcomers.

Among those who have earned positive words from teammates are defensive linemen Jordan Scott, cornerback Thomas Graham Jr. and quarterback Braxton Burmeister. Graham in particular has seemed to play himself into the discussion of a potential starting spot after a standout performance at Oregon’s open practice at Jesuit High School on April 16.

“Thomas Graham has just set himself apart from everyone else so far,” Oregon senior defensive back Tyree Robinson said. “He’s just a competitor from day one. He hasn’t backed down from nobody. We just love that toughness. That brings something different from our defense that we haven’t had in a long time; just coming with that swag.”

Graham, a 4-star corner out Rancho Cucamonga, California, has gone toe-to-toe with wideout Darren Carrington all spring and gotten the better of him in many instances. With a deep group of veteran corners set to return, they may find themselves playing catchup to Graham by the time August rolls around.

“He reminds me of Ugo (Amadi) when he played as a true freshman,” Robinson said. “But he has a lot of help. Coach (Charles) Clark definitely does a great job in making him feel comfortable and not putting him in bad situations.

Along with Graham, Scott, a massive interior linemen who coaches have called “a fire hydrant” this year due to his short stature and inability to be moved off the line of scrimmage, has wowed teammates. Oregon struggled along the defensive front last season due to injury, legal troubles and overall inexperience. Scott may provide the stopgap in the middle — even for brief periods of games — that Oregon sorely lacked last season.

“Just his size and athleticism are a huge upside,” Oregon offensive linemen Jake Hanson said. “He plays with great pad level and he’s just a load; just really hard to move. I love going against him in practice because he makes me a better player. He forces me to play with with power and great pad level, because if I don’t, you can’t move the dude. He’s huge.”

Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney

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With trips to the Elite Eight and Final Four notched in successive years, Oregon is now consistently competing with blue blood programs for the first time in school history.

As Oregon head coach Dana Altman is finding out, those games in late March and early April come at a price. Over the last two weeks, Oregon has watched six members of its seven-man rotation walk out the door, and Altman, a master of building programs from the ground up, will now undertake one of the trickiest rebuilding projects of his career.  

”It’s been a crazy two weeks,” Altman told reporters on Monday as he addressed the media for the first time since Oregon’s Final Four loss in Glendale.  

Dillon Brooks, Tyler Dorsey and Jordan Bell all declared for the NBA Draft in the weeks following the Final Four, and junior guard Casey Benson announced last week that he will graduate in the spring and then end his career elsewhere as a graduate transfer.

While many Oregon fans were surprised to see all four players go, Altman wasn’t so shocked.

“Dillon Brooks and Tyler [Dorsey], I knew before the season,” Altman said. “Jordan, until the run at the end, I wasn’t sure what he was gonna do. But you play that well for that many games, I can’t blame him.

“Casey, I knew he was down when he made a decision to go with Payton (Pritchard) to start. So I wasn’t surprised by him.”

With those four, as well as seniors Chris Boucher and Dylan Ennis, all on their way out, the Ducks will see players who were responsible for scoring 87 percent of their points last season depart. To make matters trickier, junior forward Kavell Bigby-Williams also asked for and was granted a release from his scholarship last week and is now free to explore transfer options.

Altman and company had already compiled a strong recruiting class before Pac-12 play began last January, and the cupboard was never going to be completely empty for the Ducks regardless of how many players left. Oregon will welcome 5-star guard Troy Brown Jr., the No. 18 player in the nation according to ESPN, and depend on him to take over a large chunk of the scoring load.

Along with Brown, the Ducks received early verbal commitments from two 4-star wings in Victor Bailey and Abu Kigab.

“It was hard recruiting people because you look at our roster,” Altman said. “Dylan Ennis and Chris [Bouche] were the only two we knew we were gonna lose. So it’s a balancing act there. I know a lot of schools go through it every year. … The Kentucky’s have to see a whole new team every year. This is the first year we’ve had to go through it, so it’s a little different.”

As Altman and Oregon now scramble to fill their suddenly-open scholarship spots, the Ducks have plenty of options to choose from. Oregon is one of three schools still being considered by 5-star big-man Brandon McCoy. A letter of intent from the 6-foot-10 recruit would likely catapult the Ducks into the Top 5 of the national recruiting rankings.

Altman has a knack for adding contributors late in the recruiting process, but the first domino for the Ducks fell just hours after Altman’s press conference ended on Monday.

Kenny Wooten Jr., a 4-star forward from Las Vegas, confirmed to the Emerald that he has verbally committed to Oregon. With four signees already in the fold and more potentially on the way, Altman’s “crazy two weeks” could end with the Ducks reloading their roster and remaining in national title contention without breaking stride.

“We are getting into homes a lot easier,” Altman said. “You go to a Final Four, so everybody at least picks up the phone. But it’s still about finding the right group of guys who can play together and work together. We’re gonna be younger next year, which is kind of exciting from a coaching standpoint.”

Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney

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