Oregon all-purpose standout Kirk Merritt will transfer from Oregon, according to a report from DuckTerritory.

According to the report, Duck head coach Mark Helfrich confirmed the news through an Oregon Sports Information Director. Merritt also confirmed the news via his Twitter account.

pic.twitter.com/o4TEUxZmeG

— Kwik™ ⚡️ (@kirkmerritt33) June 21, 2016

Merritt, who would have been a true sophomore at Oregon, played in 12 of 13 games for the Ducks as a true freshman in 2015. He caught five passes for 61 yards and was featured extensively on special teams. According to Oregon offensive coordinator Matt Lubick, the Ducks planned to give Merritt a larger role in the offense next season and were brainstorming ways to get him on the field during spring practice.

“[Merritt] is right up there … He’s probably one of the better athletes in the country,” Lubick told the Daily Emerald in April.

Merritt made national headlines during the summer of 2014 when he won the SPARQ National Championship at the The Opening, an elite football combine held annually at the Nike headquarters in Beaverton.

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— The Eugene Emeralds won their season-opener on “reverse the curse” night at PK Park Friday evening, and followed by topping the Boise Hawks 2-1 on Saturday. With a 2-0 start under their belts, the Emeralds will attempt to sweep the Hawks in the series finale Sunday evening.

— The Emeralds and the Oregon baseball program have found a way to seamlessly share PK Park each year since the two organizations began sharing the stadium in 2010. But as Austin Meek of The Register Guard writes, the park has been a money loser for the Oregon baseball program during that time.

— The Oregon athletic department announced the hiring of a new lacrosse coach on June 15th. Former North Carolina assistant Katrina Dowd will replace former Oregon head coach Jen Beck after Beck stepped down in May. Dowd becomes just the second head coach in the programs 12 year history.

— The Daily Emerald’s Jonathan Hawthorne has you covered with all the latest Oregon women’s basketball news in his most recent roundup.

— Oregon added a four star quarterback to its 2018 recruiting class Saturday afternoon. As Andrew Nemec of The Oregonian reports, the Ducks signed Colson Yankoff, a 6-foot-4 signal caller from Idaho.

The first two days of the 2016 season couldn’t have gone much better for Matt Rose.

Rose hit a walk-off single in the 11th inning driving home the winning run and giving the Eugene Emeralds a 2-1 win over the Boise Hawks Saturday evening. His late-game heroics came just over 24 hours after he hit a two-run homer in the Emeralds 6-1 win on Friday.

“I’m seeing the ball well,” Rose said. “Besides the two strikeouts today, but those things happen. Just gotta stay through the middle of the field and good things will happen.”

Andruw Monasterio started the bottom of the 11th with a leadoff walk for the Emeralds and was then bunted over to second by Kevonte Mitchell. With one out, Rose stepped to the plate and laced an opposite-field line drive that was nearly caught by Boise right fielder Bobby Stahel.

The ball clipped off Stahel’s glove as he was charging in, and Monasterio came around to score before Stahel could get a throw to the plate.

“I was just trying to score the run,” Rose said. “The guy throws hard; I just had to put the bat on the ball. I barely swung.”

Tommy Nance earned the win for the Emeralds in his first appearance of the season. Nance tossed two innings and struck out two while walking one. One of those strikeouts came on the final at-bat in the top of the 11th, when Nance punched out Stahel to retire the side with a runner stranded on first.

Nance combined with Michael Knighton and M.T. Minacci to toss six scoreless innings in relief of Eugene starter Bryan Hudson.

Hudson—a six-foot, eight-inch left-hander—was the Chicago Cubs third round pick (82nd overall) in the 2015 MLB Draft. Saturday marked his season debut with the Emeralds, and he threw five innings and surrendered one run while striking out two. Hudson is ranked as the Cubs 15th best prospect by MLB.com, and consistently spotted his fastball in the 88-90 mph range on Saturday.

“He’s a gamer,” Rose said. “He kept us in the game and then the bullpen just came in and shut the door.”

Boise scored its lone run of the game in the fourth inning when Luis Castro lined a one-out double to left-center. Stahel followed with a single to drive home Castro and later stole second to get himself in scoring position before Hudson worked his way out of a jam with a strikeout.

Eugene’s bats stayed silent for the early part of the game; they mustered just three hits in the first seven innings before they broke through. In the seventh, Rose reached on a leadoff walk, and Chris Pieters followed with a single. Later in the inning, Alberto Mieno grounded out to second, but Boise was unable to turn what would have been an inning-ending double play, and Rose scored from third to tie the game at 1-1.

Pieters went 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base and had nearly half of Eugene’s seven hits. Stahel went 2-for-5 with a double and RBI for Boise.

With the win, Eugene improved to 2-0 on the year and will have a chance to sweep Boise (0-2) when the two clubs play the series finale at 5:01 p.m. on Sunday.

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Oregon’s search for a new women’s lacrosse coach is over.

The Oregon athletic department announced in a press release on June 15 that Katrina Dowd has been hired as the programs head coach. Dowd replaces former Oregon coach Jen Beck, who stepped down in May after leading the Ducks to a 120-97 record during her 12-year tenure.

“Coach Dowd has the kind of championship-caliber experience, both as a student-athlete and a coach, that will be perfect for taking University of Oregon lacrosse to the next level,” UO athletic director Rob Mullens told GoDucks.com. “Her passion and commitment to an exceptional student-athlete experience made her the right fit for Oregon lacrosse.  We’re particularly excited to see the level of skill development she brings to the team, given her elite playing career.”

Dowd, who will be the second coach in Oregon history, spent the past four seasons as the lead assistant at North Carolina. She was a key part of a Tar Heels program that won national titles in 2013 and 2016. Dowd earned first team All-American honors as a player at Northwestern as a junior in 2009 and a senior in 2010.

“I am honored and excited to become the women’s lacrosse coach at Oregon,” Dowd told GoDucks.com. “I want to thank Rob Mullens, Lisa Peterson and the entire Oregon athletic department for this incredible opportunity.  I would also like to thank the University of North Carolina and Jenny Levy for a phenomenal four-year experience.”

The Ducks finished the 2016 season with a 9-8 record while playing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. In 2018, the Pac-12 will add women’s lacrosse as a sport when Arizona State welcomes a program, bringing the conference to six teams; the minimum for a conference to receive an automatic NCAA bid.

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Edward Cheserek spent the entire spring fielding questions about his health as fans and media speculated that his reign of collegiate dominance may be coming to an end.

On Friday, the runner that Oregon fans call ‘King Ches’ put all those concerns to rest.

Cheserek won the 5,000 meters in 13 minutes, 25.59 seconds at the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field Friday evening to capture his second title in two days and the 15th of his career. He now owns the most individual national titles ever by an NCAA athlete.

“What do you say about him at this point?” Oregon head coach Robert Johnson said. “It’s really special when you start to include his body of work and what he did during the indoor season as well.”

In a loaded field, Cheserek sat patiently for 11 laps as those around him either showed their hand either too early or too late. With 250 meters to go, Cheserek broke into a kick and moved from third to first. And with 150 meters left, the race was essentially over. Cheserek extended his lead to 30 meters and sent the Hayward crowd into a frenzy.

“I didn’t want to take the lead too early,” Cheserek, who also won the 10,000-meter on Wednesday evening, said. “I was just worried about the last 200. I wanted to run the last 200 as fast as I could.”

Patrick Tiernan of Villanova took an early lead and set the pace for much of the race as Cheserek sat on his hip with several other runners. Ultimately no runner made a move to breakaway from the pack until the final lap, when Cheserek took charge. By that point, it was too late for the rest of the group to track down Cheserek, who has now won three straight NCAA 5k titles.

Stanford sophomore Sean McGorty owned the fastest time in the nation coming into the meet and finished second in 13:26.10. Tiernan finished third in 13:27.07 and Oregon sophomore Jake Leingang placed 18th 14:01.30.

“I guess with the fact that he went at two laps, I thought that he might be panicking a bit,” Tiernan said. “Maybe he wasn’t as comfortable as he usually is. I was just confident that I would have the legs to go.

“Turns out I didn’t in the last 200 compared to previous races.”

Cheserek’s two-title performance this week was a thrilling end to what has been the toughest season of his career. Cheserek didn’t win a race until the Pac-12 Championships on May 14th, and owned just the 31st fastest 5,000 time in the nation coming into the meet.

There were numerous times during the season when, on the final lap of a race, Cheserek would find himself racing for a win, only to let an opponent pull away without giving chase like he normally would. Midway through the year, Cheserek said he was not racing at 100 percent, and he confirmed that on Friday.

“When I finished indoor, I took like a week break and then came back,” Cheserek said. “And my hamstring just felt really tight and had swelling… We had six weeks of training and I missed three weeks.”

With the Olympic Trials approaching, Cheserek is still awaiting word on whether or not he will receive a U.S. citizenship. He also has the choice of forgoing his senior season at Oregon to turn pro early.

For now, the most decorated runner in NCAA history still has his focus set on adding to his pile of titles.

“I feel, you know, there’s one more year to go,” Cheserek said. “I just want to keep getting more and more.”

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A trio of Oregon pitchers heard their names called on the second day of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft Friday afternoon. The group includes Matt Krook, Cole Irvin and Stephen Nogosek.

Krook was taken with the 125th overall pick in the fourth round by the San Francisco Giants. A San Mateo, California native, Krook grew up rooting for the Giants and told Steve Mims of the Register Guard “It’s exciting, especially to get picked by a team I grew up watching my whole life.”

Krook finished the 2016 season with a 4-3 record and 5.03 ERA, but walked 49 batters in 53.2 innings and was removed from the Ducks’ rotation midway through the year as command issues plagued him later in the season. Krook was a freshman All American in 2014 when he struckout 60 batters in 45.1 innings and finished the year with a 1.79 ERA. The Miami Marlins selected him with the 35th pick out of high school in the 2013 draft. He sat out the 2015 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Irvin was taken with the 137th pick in the fifth round by the Philadelphia Phillies. After being selected in the 29th round in 2012 and the 32nd round last year, Irvin drastically improved his stock with a solid season for the Ducks this year.

The Yorba Linda, California, native, finished the year with a 6-4 record, 3.17 ERA and 93 strikeouts to just 16 walks in 105 innings pitched. Irvin ranks second in Oregon history in starts (47), third in innings pitched and fourth in wins.

Nogosek, a Roseville, California Native, was taken in the sixth round, with the 178th overall pick by the Boston Red Sox. Nogosek stepped into the closer role for the Ducks this season and earned first team All-Pac-12 honors after finishing the year with 16 saves, good for third in the country. He ended with a 1.11 Era and struck out 45 batters in 40.2 innings to shore up an Oregon bullpen that had no set closer at the beginning of the year.

There have been 39 Oregon players drafted since 2009, and 60 all-time.

All three of the Oregon players selected are eligible to return and play for the Ducks next season. None of them have declared if they will choose to sign or return. The deadline for amateur draft picks to sign is July 24.

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For so much of his career, Matthew Maton was just “the high school kid.”

A year ago at the Oregon Twilight meet, Maton endeared himself to the Hayward Field fans when he ran the mile in a time of 3:59.38, to place third in a race that featured some of the top collegiate runners in the country.

Competing unattached, the Bend, Oregon-native became the sixth runner in U.S. history to run a sub-four-minute mile. A University of Oregon commit at the time, that historic performance was supposed to be the preamble to a stellar career as a Duck.

It took a little longer than he would have liked, but Maton has finally broken the mold of being just an elite prep runner. He has evolved into one of Oregon’s top athletes as the NCAA Championships draw near.

“The season started really rocky,” Maton said. “I was full of confidence last year and lost a lot of that for some reason. I don’t quite know why. As I started piling on the races again this year, I’m getting more confident.”

Maton finished fifth in the 1,500-meter run at the NCAA West Regional in Lawrence, Kansas, last weekend, and qualified for the NCAA Championships in the process. With a personal-best time of 3:39.97 this season, Maton is the fifth-fastest 1,500 runner in the nation and owns the best time of any Oregon runner.

Less than a month ago, it looked like Maton might not even make the travel squad to regionals.

After an up-and-down cross country season in the fall, Maton struggled through the first half of the outdoor track season. He didn’t run a race in an Oregon uniform until May 1, and by the time the Oregon Twilight arrived on May 6, he still hadn’t run a time that would be considered fast by Oregon’s standards.

Maton was entered in the 1,500 at the Oregon Twilight, and at the same meet in which he uncorked a record-breaking performance a year prior, he now needed something solid: a time that he could build upon.  

In his third race that week, Maton won with a time of 3:42.68, and one week later ran his PR time of 3:39.97 at the Pac-12 Championships.

“That was kind of the last opportunity to put their best foot forward,” Oregon head coach Robert Johnson said of Maton and several other Oregon athletes following the Twilight.

That performance, along with adjustments to his training workload earlier in the spring, likely extended Maton’s season.

After his sluggish start to the spring, Maton and Oregon associate head coach Andy Powell took a look at Maton’s old training logs. They noticed that during his high school career, he hadn’t done much low intensity training and would go “all-out” during most training sessions.

“So we started adding in more hard work at the end,” Maton said. “Like after a workout, we’ll just do something really hard at the end of it, instead of just calling it a day.”

Maton and fellow Ducks Blake Haney and Sam Parkel all qualified for, and will likely run, the 1,500 at the NCAA Championships on June 8. Parkel ran the fastest time of the three at regionals, and Haney finished third at the NCAA championships last year as a freshman.

But Maton is peaking at the perfect time, and may have the best shot of the three to capture a high finish. 

“I think he’s one of those guys that once he’s in a zone, there’s no stopping him,” Oregon distance runner signee Drew Hunter said  “When he’s on, he’s on, and so it’s cool to see that he’s kind of in a groove right now.”

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Oregon uncorked a furious comeback effort Sunday afternoon, but came up just short in a do-or-die situation.

The Ducks needed a win — and a lot of help from other Pac-12 teams — to keep their chances at winning a conference title intact, but suffered a 5-4 loss to the Arizona Wildcats at PK Park on Senior Night. The loss means the Ducks are mathematically eliminated from earning an automatic spot in the NCAA tournament, and now have to hope for an at-large selection that is unlikely to come.

“I haven’t done the math,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “We were trying to control the controllable and keep our record at 12 losses. I don’t know how expensive this is gonna be, but we’ve got a game tomorrow and we better handle that.”

The Ducks (28-23, 14-13) had to win their final four conference games to have a chance at catching the first place Utah Utes (22-25, 16-9 entering Sunday), and also needed the Utes to lose their final five games. Oregon didn’t hold up its end of the deal, and now the Ducks will have to wait for the NCAA selection committee to decide whether their season will extend past next weekend.

Oregon was 82nd in the NCAA RPI rankings entering the weekend, and despite winning four of its last six games, the Ducks likely won’t move up much between now and the end of the season. Stanford is the Ducks’ only remaining conference opponent. The Cardinal is ranked 85th.

While it is still possible that the Ducks could earn a last-ditch spot in the 64-team NCAA tournament field, the odds are not in their favor.

“After tomorrow we can look forward to the Thursday through Saturday series [at Stanford] and see if we can impress the committee,” Horton said.

Trailing 5-1 in the bottom of the ninth, the Ducks scored three runs all with two outs to make it 5-4 and put Arizona on the ropes. Oregon sophomore Kyle Kasser stepped to the plate with runners on second and third and a chance to win the game. Kasser hit a sharp ground ball up the middle that could have reached the outfield, but it clipped off the glove of Arizona pitcher Rio Gomez, bounced to second basemen Cody Ramer and resulted in an out at first that ended the game.

“I thought it was going to maybe be a magical finish,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “We certainly could have pinch-hit for Kasser, but he’s been a magical guy. When the ball left his bat I thought it had a chance … Anyway, I’m proud of my guys. They didn’t roll over.”

Arizona jumped out to an early lead in the third inning when Ramer roped a one-out double and then advanced to third on a single by Zach Gibbons. Alfonso Rivas followed with an RBI single to score Ramer, and Gibbons scored from first after Jake Bennett fumbled the ball in the outfield. Two batters later, JJ Matijevic singled to drive home Rivas.

The Wildcats tacked on two more runs in the fifth when Oregon pitcher Matt Mercer forced Kyle Lewis to ground out with two outs, but the ball hopped past Oregon third basemen Daniel Patzlaff, and Ramer and Gibbons each came around to score to make it 5-0.

In the first start of his career, freshman Mercer allowed five runs, just two of them earned, and struck out six in five innings of work. Austin Grebeck went 3-for-5 with an RBI, and Jake Bennett went 2-for-4 for the Ducks.

The Ducks will head to to Palo Alto for their final regular season series with Stanford beginning on May 26.

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Oregon baseball unleashed its most proficient offensive performance of the season Monday evening with a 15-4 beatdown over University of Portland at PK Park.

For a team that is fighting for its playoff life, the offensive outburst was a positive sign and could serve as momentum to carry Oregon through its seven remaining regular season games.

Following the Ducks’ series-clinching win over Oregon State in Corvallis last Sunday, Oregon head coach George Horton reaffirmed his belief that Oregon is still a team bound for the postseason.

“We probably kept our season alive,” Horton said. “The last nail is not in the coffin.”

But it may indeed be too little too late for the Ducks.

Oregon is 26-22 on the season and 12-12 in Pac-12 play. That puts them in a two-way tie with USC for fifth place in the conference and three games back of first-place Utah (21-25, 15-9).

The Pac-12 champion will automatically qualify for the 64-team NCAA Division I Baseball championship, and champions from the other 30 conferences in the country will gain automatic qualifiers as well. That leaves 33 at-large spots available for team’s that don’t win a conference title.

When taking recent history into account, Oregon’s best – and only – shot at locking up a postseason spot may be by way of winning the Pac-12. 

In the most recent NCAA Division I RPI rankings, the Ducks ranked No. 84 in the nation, with five other Pac-12 teams ahead of them. First-place Utah isn’t one of those teams. Last season, the NCAA selection committee awarded at-large bids to five Pac-12 teams, but the conference was much stronger then. All six Pac-12 teams that reached the tournament won at least 34 games, though it’s possible that not one team from the conference could win that many games this year.

Arizona (No. 24) is the only Pac-12 team currently in the RPI top-25. 

Following a game in May last season when the Ducks were fighting for a tournament spot, Horton told reporters that the “magic number” for a team to receive an at-large bid was 35 games, and he was almost exactly right.

The average number of wins for an at-large team coming from a Power Five conference (Pac-12, SEC, ACC, Big-12, Big-10) over the last two seasons is 36. With 26 wins and seven games remaining this year, the best Oregon can hope for is 33. Last year, only Clemson (32) and Ole Miss (30) won fewer than 33 games and reached the tournament.

Oregon hasn’t made much of a case for an at-large bid — the Ducks are batting .239 as a team, which ranks 279th out of 290 Division one teams — and winning the conference may be their only way in at this point.

The Ducks host Arizona (32-18, 15-12) at PK Park this weekend. The following weekend they’ll play at Stanford to finish the regular season schedule, and will host Saint Mary’s for a nonconference game in between those two series.

With just four games separating tenth place from first place, Oregon still has a shot at vaulting to the top of a messy conference and grabbing a title that would save its season. But it will need to win out, and receive a ton of help from other teams in the process.

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Oregon and Oregon State have both struggled through sub-par seasons this spring, and each team is making a late effort to sneak into the postseason.

The Ducks helped their cause Sunday afternoon with a 6-3 win over the Beavers in Corvallis to clinch their first series win at Goss Stadium since 1981. The victory improved Oregon’s conference record to 11-12 and allowed the Ducks to keep pace in a five-team log-jam in the middle of the Pac-12 standings.

“We probably kept our season alive,” Oregon head coach George Horton told reporters after the game. “The last nail is not in the coffin.”

Oregon starter Matt Mercer picked up his second win of the year in as many starts. The freshman right-hander tossed six innings and struck out three while surrendering three runs. Brac Warren and Cole Stringer each pitched scoreless portions of the seventh inning before Duck closer Stephen Nogosek came in to pick up a two-inning save.

A.J. Balta and Steven Packard each drove home runs in the fourth inning to get the Ducks on the board first. In the fifth, Carson Breshears reached on a fielders choice, stole second and then advanced to third on a throwing error before scoring on Austin Grebeck’s sac-bunt.

Oregon tacked on two more runs in the sixth, and the Beavers answered back with three runs in the bottom half of the frame, including a two-run home run by K.J. Harrison.

Balta went 2-for-4 with a double and a homer, and Tim Susnara went 2-for-4 with two RBI for the Ducks. Six different Beavers picked up one hit, and Logan Ice went 1-for-2 with two walks.

The Ducks now sit in fifth place in the conference standings and share that spot with Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA and USC.

Oregon made four errors in a 6-3 loss to Oregon State Saturday after winning game one of the series 7-4 Friday.

Oregon will play a non-conference game with Portland State at PK Park on Tuesday before hosting Arizona (32-17, 15-11) in its final home conference series starting Friday, May 20.

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