The Ducks fed their fresh meat to the dogs, and the hungry Huskies ate it up.

Washington thrashed Oregon 70-21 Saturday night, putting its 12-year losing streak to an end in front of a disillusioned Autzen crowd. It was a bad litmus test for true freshman Justin Herbert, who lacked pizzazz in his first career start at quarterback — but that was to be expected against the No. 5 team in the country.

Herbert learned he would be the starter midway through the last week of practice. He said he was “pretty nervous,” which manifested on his first throw of the game, a slightly underthrown ball to wide receiver Charles Nelson that defensive back Budda Baker snatched for an interception. He ended the game having completed 21-of-34 passes for 179 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Herbert said his performance was “not as great as I was expecting.”

“I can learn a lot from it,” Herbert said. “I’ve got a lot to grow.”

Head coach Mark Helfrich said he gave Herbert the start over fifth-year transfer Dakota Prukop because his team “needed a spark.”

“On that first throw, the biggest thing he didn’t do was trust himself,” Helfrich said of Herbert after the game. “But against that team, playing as well as they were, his poise — his composure was excellent. Now we have to help him out across the board.”

Helfrich said the team will “always reassess and compete,” but he sees Herbert remaining the starting quarterback for the foreseeable future.

Herbert at times showed great potential in his first career start. He flashed a strong arm and completed several running throws to receivers in tight windows downfield. He also overthrew his receivers on a number of routes, admitting after the game it’s something he’d need to clean up.

Helfrich didn’t make the move because Prukop’s play was poor enough to warrant it. Prukop’s 153.2 QB rating ranks 33rd in the country — higher than Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and UCLA’s Josh Rosen — and fourth in the Pac-12, behind only Washington quarterback Jake Browning and Steven Montez and Sefo Liufau of Colorado. Prukop missed a few throws in key moments of the Ducks’ losses, but he was not the problem.

Prukop, like Vernon Adams Jr., was brought in to keep the Ducks afloat while their young quarterbacks developed beneath him. But after three losses in five games, and with the No. 5 team in the country looming, Oregon coaches realized the season would no longer be as successful as they’d hoped.

That’s when they dumped Prukop.

The coaches had a choice to make, and they chose Herbert’s high ceiling over Prukop’s experience.

“We’re going to put the best person in there to win the game,” Helfrich said. “We truly believed that that was Justin tonight.”

Perhaps Helfrich truly believed a freshman quarterback gave Oregon a better chance to beat the Pac-12’s No. 1 defense than Prukop, who has 27 career starts at the collegiate level. Or perhaps starting Herbert marked the Ducks’ realization that the 2016 season was a wash.

Those who speculated Oregon’s quarterback situation would be a timeshare going forward were wrong. Prukop didn’t get in the game even with the Ducks down seven touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Instead, Helfrich let Herbert ride it out to get more experience under his belt.

Prukop remains the back-up in case Herbert goes down with an injury — Helfrich doesn’t want to burn freshman third-string quarterback Terry Wilson’s redshirt — but unless Herbert goes down, the Prukop era is over.

Helfrich said telling Prukop he was no longer the starter was “difficult,” considering he had offers to play for Alabama, Michigan and Texas this year.

“[Prukop] decided to come here when he had a lot of great options,” Helfrich said. “You can’t really factor that in when you’re making the decision as to what’s best for your program, but you have to factor that in when you have the talk with that person.”

Oregon will use its remaining games to prepare for the future, and as of now, its future is Herbert.

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby

The streak is over.

After losing their past 12 meetings, the Washington Huskies trounced the Oregon Ducks 70-21 at Autzen Stadium Saturday night.

Justin Herbert threw an interception on the first play of his first career start, and it was all downhill from there. The Huskies scored 28 points before the Ducks finally answered with a touchdown in the second quarter. Washington led 35-7 at halftime and piled it on in the second half.

The Huskies accounted for a whopping 682 yards of offense. Quarterback Jake Browning threw six touchdowns and ran for two more. Myles Gaskin ran for 197  yards and a score.

Herbert improved on his slow start to finish with 179 yards on 21-of-34 passing and one touchdown through the air.

Key Plays — second half: 

— John Ross caught his second touchdown of the game, a three-yard fade pass from Jake Browning. 42-7 Washington

— Taj Griffin scored on a 21-yard pass from Herbert. Oregon trails 42-14

— Dante Pettis hauled in a 28-yard touchdown pass from Browning. 49-14 Washington

— Pettis caught his second touchdown of the game, a 10-yard pass from Browning, just over two minutes after his first. 56-14 Washington

— Taj Griffin took a hand-off 10 yards to the corner of the end zone. Oregon still trails 56-21

Key Plays — first half:

— On the first play from scrimmage, Justin Herbert was intercepted on a pass up the middle to Charles Nelson. Nelson bobbled the ball and Budda Baker grabbed it.

— Jake Browning threw 34 yards to Dante Pettis down to the Oregon 1-yard line. Browning walked it in on next play. 7-0 Washington

— Browning connected with John Ross for a three-yard touchdown pass to cap a 10-play, 67-yard drive. 14-0 Washington

— After Oregon turned the ball over on downs, Myles Gaskin took it 65-yard on Washington’s first play of the drive for a touchdown. 21-0 Washington

— A promising drive for Oregon was spoiled by a Royce Freeman fumble at Washington’s 6 yard line.

— Following Freeman’s turnover, Myles Gaskin took the ball 65 yards into to the red zone. Browning finished the drive with a connection to John Ross for a 15 yard touchdown pass. 28-0 Washington

— Justin Herbert found Tony Brooks-James in the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown toss. Oregon still trails 28-7

— Just before the half, Browning took the ball seven yards to the house for his second rushing touchdown of the game. 35-7 Washington

Key Stats:

Oregon passing 
Herbert — 21-of-34, 179 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception

Washington 
Browning — 22-of-28 304 yards, 6 touchdowns

Oregon rushing
Freeman — 11 carries, 50 yards

Washington rushing
Gaskin — 16 carries, 197 yards, 1 touchdown
Browning — 6 carries, 21 yards, 2 touchdowns

Oregon receiving
Nelson — 7 receptions, 45 yards
Carrington — 3 receptions, 47 yards
Brown — 3 receptions, 18 yards
Brooks-James — 3 receptions, 19 yards, 1 touchdown

Washington receiving
Pettis — 8 receptions, 134 yards, 2 touchdowns
Ross — 9 receptions, 94 yards, 3 touchdowns

Oregon total offense
409, 230 rushing, 179 passing

Washington total offense
682, 378 rushing, 304 passing

A true freshman from Eugene will make his first career start against the No. 5 team in the country.

Justin Herbert is listed as the projected starter at quarterback for Saturday evening’s home match-up with Washington, the Oregon football team tweeted an hour and 15 minutes prior to kickoff.

Projected starters on O #GoDucks #UWvsUO pic.twitter.com/3dd5yRnO8s

— Oregon Football (@WinTheDay) October 8, 2016

DuckTerritory.com reported the Ducks were “planning to start” Herbert on Tuesday, but Oregon coaches downplayed the decision to start Herbert after  practices last week.

Herbert will get the nod over Montana State transfer Dakota Prukop, who was listed as the starter on the team’s two-deep depth chart released Tuesday. Prukop played every snap during the Ducks’ first five games until the fourth quarter at Washington State a week ago, when Herbert scored a rushing touchdown to cap off Oregon’s final drive.

Herbert completed three of five passes for 70 yards. His last start came in a playoff loss to Jesuit High School on Nov. 27, 2015.

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby

You can’t knock Mark Helfrich on accountability.

Oregon has lost back-to-back games in a season for the first time in almost a decade, and Helfrich wants the credit.

Sure, if Dakota Prukop’s final pass to Darren Carrington in the corner of the end zone travels three feet further, the Ducks beat Colorado. Sure, if Charles Nelson punches in a couple more two-point conversion attempts, the Ducks beat Nebraska. If those things happen, Oregon is 4-0 instead of 2-2.

But those things didn’t happen — so blame Helfrich.

“Anything that’s bad in this program is my responsibility,” Helfrich said during his post-Nebraska press conference. “Anything you think of that’s bad is my fault.”

The season is a third of the way complete, and the Ducks have not appeared ready to face the challenges that lie ahead. Their past two losses erased their shot at a College Football Playoff berth and made their odds at winning a Pac-12 title seem dubious at best. Even a bowl game berth — which requires a winning record — no longer appears to be a sure thing.

Helfrich was asked what areas Oregon must improve upon in order to turn the season in the right direction. The list is “long,” he said, adding, “we don’t have enough time to make that list right now.” Here’s how he addressed some of the team’s concerns over the past two weeks:

The young defense that has struggled against the run?

“One aspect that we need to improve a ton,” Helfrich said.

The vulnerability of the secondary?

“That is on us coaches to iron that out.”

Penalties?

“That’s on me 100 percent.”

Two-point conversions?

“We need to coach that better.”

Prukop’s pocket presence?

“We’ll coach that up.”

Missed assignments on third and fourth down?

“Just got to coach that up and move on.”

Dakota Prukop (9) and head coach Mark Helfrich talk in between plays. The Oregon Ducks hold the annual spring game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday, April 30, 2016. (Samuel Marshall/Emerald)

He and the coaching staff have their hands full. Rest assured, Helfrich is confident in his team and still believes the Ducks have something to play for this season.

“I told the team last night, ‘I believe 100 percent that this team can be special — this team, this year,’” Helfrich said Sunday. “As long as we’re accountable and we’re moving forward, we can do anything.”

Not everyone is so sure.

Each week during the college football season, USA TODAY’s Dan Wolken ranks the sport’s “five most miserable” teams based on their fan bases’ knee-jerk reactions to what they witnessed the previous game.

Wolken ranked Oregon No. 3 this week, only behind fallen powerhouse USC (1-3) and most-miserable Notre Dame (1-3), which fired defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder the day after suffering its biggest upset loss in two decades against Duke.

“This was the clearest piece of evidence yet that Oregon in the post-Chip Kelly era has slipped from national relevance since making the championship game two years ago,” Wolken wrote. “When you look at where the Ducks are trending in recruiting under Helfrich, it won’t be long before they’re operating with a talent deficit to go along with their coaching deficit.”

College Football Talk’s John Taylor wrote that the Ducks’ biggest concern should be its defense, which currently ranks 94th in the FBS against the pass and 95th against the run, while SB Nation’s Alex Kirshner implied Helfrich’s seat is beginning to “heat up.”

Oregon is a young team bound to endure growing pains, but losing to Colorado raises red flags regardless of age. Since the Buffaloes joined the conference in 2011, only one Pac-12 team they’ve beaten went on to play in a bowl game the same season.

It may have been the most troubling loss Oregon has suffered in the Helfrich head coaching era. The fact that it was Colorado’s backup quarterback who stole the win from Oregon brings Duck fans nauseating memories of losing to third-string quarterback Cardale Jones in the 2015 national championship and backup Bram Kohlhausen in the Alamo Bowl earlier in 2016.

Junior defensive back Tyree Robinson said after the loss to Colorado that some younger players took the game for granted because the Ducks hadn’t lost to the Buffaloes since 1998.

“A lot of the younger guys that haven’t been here in the program a long time … they don’t know what the culture is really like,” Robinson said. “You didn’t come to Oregon just to put on a magic jersey and play good.”

Defensive lineman Rex Manu called the loss to Colorado “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“Losing to Nebraska — that was maybe understandable,” Manu said. “But you could tell last week throughout practice that people were kind of slacking and taking Colorado for granted and that came back to bite us in the ass.”

Helfrich reminded reporters that Oregon suffered early losses and was “left for dead” each of the past two seasons, but managed to finish both strong. But those early-season losses came at the hands of eventual Pac-12 South champion Arizona in 2014 and Michigan State, Utah and Washington State last year, each of which finished the regular season with nine wins — not Colorado, who hasn’t had a winning season in 10 years.

Colorado is an improved team. But if Oregon had trouble against the Buffaloes, then match-ups with No. 7 Stanford, No. 10 Washington, No. 18 Utah, USC and even Washington State seem daunting.

Many onlookers believe the Ducks have fallen from grace — that the rest of college football has caught up to their innovation, and their time in the national conversation has come to an end.

A 6-6 season or worse would certainly affirm that belief and place Oregon alongside Texas, Tennessee, Miami, USC and Notre Dame in the heap of historically great teams that have fallen from the top.

True freshman linebacker Troy Dye, who leads the Ducks with 27 total tackles, said he isn’t worried about the future of the program after the Colorado loss.

“We have a bunch of freshmen, a bunch of sophomores and a bunch of juniors who are the future of this program, but I’m not just the one player,” Dye said. “It’s a whole collective unit.”

Senior offensive lineman Cameron Hunt echoed Dye’s sentiment.

“I think these young guys will learn the culture and try and fix it,” Hunt said. “Coach Helfrich has done a great job over the past three or four years and all of my trust is in him.”

Helfrich admitted that some players lose their hunger after early-season losses. But he insisted that players should remain motivated by the internal competition, rather than “what’s on the line.”

“These are all human beings. Humans have human faults, and that’s where you have to try to mix and match how you motivate guys and get guys to work every day,” Helfrich said. “But there’s a lot of ball left — a ton to play for.”

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @kennyjacoby

Coming off an upset loss to Colorado, the Ducks (2-2) are preparing to take on Washington State (1-2) at a tough road environment in Pullman. Wide receiver Dwayne Stanford talked about the state of the team and his experience playing the Cougars after practice Tuesday.

Emerald: As a veteran player, is the mindset of the team right now where it needs to be?

Stanford: I feel it’s good. Guys are hungry, upset about the loss and upset about their performance. Guys came out practicing hard, trying to change the outcome.

E: Mark Helfrich said the team was in a malaise before the Colorado game. How do you make sure you keep the energy up throughout the week up to the game Saturday?

S: Really just the veterans getting on the young guys and other guys on the team, making sure we’re where we’re supposed to be, doing the things we’re supposed to do and paying attention at all times. But that really falls on the veterans.

E: What do you see out of Washington State?

S: I don’t know, I didn’t really watch too much film, but I know they beat us last year, and that’s enough motivation for me.

E: When the team was .500 last year, Vernon Adams helped kickstart things. What is it going to take to kickstart things this year?

S: To me, it’s the receivers. I think if we get the ball on the outside past 10 yards, I think we can make some plays. If we just make some big plays, that can really get the offensive momentum going and the defense will feed off that.

E: What do you remember about playing at Washington State in 2014?

S: That’s a hard place to play. It took a perfect game pretty much from Marcus for us to win it. I think we had a lot of young guys on that team, as well, in key positions. But those younger guys then are older now, so it’s on us to make sure everybody knows what it’s like to play out there. They’re gonna bring it. They got a great offense and a solid defense and they smell blood.

E: It’s a different kind of loud environment in Pullman. Is it more hostile?

S: It’s definitely more hostile. You come out the tunnel and it’s like the crowd is right over the top of you; they’re yelling at you. The [field] is real close to the sideline so you can hear everything the crowd is saying. It’s a fun atmosphere to play in.

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– Oregon defensive backs coach John Neal said after practice Monday the Ducks aren’t going to change their formula after consecutive losses to Nebraska and Colorado. Oregon faces a tall task in defending Washington State’s Air Raid attack Saturday.

– Pass defense could decide Oregon’s road contest with Washington State Saturday, writes the Emerald’s Gus Morris. The Cougars’ Luke Falk passed for 505 yards in a double-overtime win over the Ducks at Autzen Stadium last season.

– The Ducks received a commitment from Jaylon Redd, the nation’s No. 4 athlete and a future defensive back, Monday. The Oregonian’s Andrew Nemec takes a look at Oregon’s 2017 recruiting class player-by-player.

– Jolie Rasmussen has emerged as a standout freshman on the Oregon volleyball team. A 6-foot-2 aerial threat, Rasmussen tallied 11 kills in the Pac-12 opener against Oregon State and 13 against Florida.

– Oregon baseball’s 2016 recruiting class was ranked No. 13 in the country by Collegiate Baseball. The class includes four players selected in the 2016 MLB Draft.

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2016 was supposed to be the year the Ducks made the College World Series — at least, that’s what starting pitcher Cole Irvin guaranteed before the season began.

“We are going to Omaha this year,” Irvin said. “I want to make that statement clear.”

Instead, Oregon’s season fell wildly short of his lofty expectations. The Ducks (29-26, 14-16 Pac-12) finished ninth of 11 teams in the conference and failed to qualify for an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2011.

It was a down year for the Pac-12 in general. Four Pac-12 teams — as opposed to six last year — earned berths in the 2016 NCAA Baseball Championship, including conference champion Utah, Arizona, Arizona State and Washington. None of the five teams ranked in the preseason Top 25 — Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, USC and Cal — qualified for the tournament.

Oregon’s starting rotation, which Manager George Horton called “potentially one of the best pitching staffs in the country” at the beginning of the season, was supposed to carry the team deep into the postseason.

“Two or three runs [per game on offense] is all we’re going to need this year, because we have the best pitching staff in the country,” Irvin said then. “The hitters know it, so the pressure is off them and on [Matt] Krook and I, and [David Peterson].”

This was not the case, either, as Irvin, Krook and Peterson posted ERAs of 3.17, 5.03 and 3.63, respectively, and a combined record of 14-12.

No pitcher fell shorter of his expectations than Krook, who was named a preseason All-American after missing all of last season to recover from Tommy John surgery. The former first round MLB draft pick’s command issues were so significant that Horton had no choice but to remove him from the starting rotation in early May. Krook walked 49 batters in 53.2 innings and pegged another 12, which will likely hurt his stock for the 2016 MLB Draft on June 9-11.

It wasn’t just Oregon’s pitching that struggled, though. The offense posted historically low numbers.

After intentionally moving away from the “small ball” approach the Ducks have employed in previous seasons, they posted the lowest team batting average in the Pac-12 (.232). They also  recorded the fewest hits per game (7.51). Phil Craig-St. Louis and Jakob Goldfarb, who seemed poised to take the reins of the offense after standout 2015 seasons, batted .169 and .217, respectively, and lost their starting jobs. Matt Kroon and Travis Moniot, who highlighted Oregon’s No. 8-ranked freshman class,  hit just .184 and .168, respectively.

An unlikely candidate, outfielder Jake Bennett, ended up leading the Ducks on offense. The junior transfer student from Western Nevada College posted team-highs in batting average (.312) and on-base percentage (.419), as well as a team-low strikeout rate (10.5 percent of plate appearances).

To almost no one’s surprise, closer Stephen Nogosek was the team’s most reliable bullpen arm. An intense competitor who carries a heavy workload, Nogosek finished with an outstanding 1.11 ERA in 40.2 innings, while striking out 45 batters and allowing just 0.96 walks plus hits per inning pitched. Nogosek is a contender for the Golden Spikes Award, given to the nation’s best amateur player, as well as National Pitcher of the Year and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association’s Stopper of the Year.

Horton has a lot to prove entering the final year of his contract, which is one of the most expensive in college baseball, in 2017. The Ducks have failed to qualify for Super Regional since their landmark 2012 season, and their performance has regressed in each successive year. Here’s how Oregon has done in each season under Horton:

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— Oregon football uniforms have become an important tool for recruiting, according to an informal survey by picksixpreviews.com. 72 out of 100 high school recruits answered ‘moderately true’ or ‘very true’ when asked whether uniforms have a great impact on their perception of a team. The prospects overwhelmingly agreed the Ducks had the best uniforms.

— Dillon Brooks and Tyler Dorsey announced they will withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to the Ducks next season. The team will now return four starters, including Casey Benson and Chris Boucher, giving it a good chance to build on its Elite Eight run.

— The Oregon men’s golf team will tee off in the NCAA Championships on their home course, Eugene Country Club, at 7:22 Friday morning. This will be the team’s last chance at an NCAA title for awhile, as sophomore Aaron Wise will turn professional at the season’s conclusion.

— Closer and Golden Spikes Award nominee Stephen Nogosek has been the bright spot of an Oregon baseball team that has struggled all season. Calm and easygoing off the field, he’s an intense competitor on the field, but has learned to control his emotions in tough game situations.

— In an interview with the Oregonian‘s John Canzano, Oregon tight end Pharaoh Brown speculated that the cold, slick turf (which has since been replaced) on Utah’s Rice-Eccles Field may have played a factor in his gruesome knee injury two seasons ago.

— Former Oregon tight end Colt Lyerla discussed his transition to the Arena Football League after making a run at professional rugby in France  last summer.

— Fugue, the Oregon ultimate frisbee team, will attempt to win back to back titles in the national tournament in North Carolina this Friday through Monday. The team has won three titles since 2010.

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby

Oregon’s baseball season hasn’t gone as planned. Despite a preseason ranking as high as No. 12 by Perfect Game, the Ducks have put together their worst overall record (29-23) since 2009, and will likely miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011.

Closer Stephen Nogosek, however, has modeled consistency for the Ducks in a year otherwise filled with ups and downs. In 28 appearances, he has put together a 1.13 ERA in 39.2 innings, while striking out 45 batters and allowing just 0.96 walks plus hits per inning pitched.

His teammates and coaches call him “No-Go,” a fitting nickname considering he’s a candidate for National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year, given to the nation’s top relief pitcher. He’s also a candidate for National Pitcher of the Year and the Golden Spikes Award, which goes to the nation’s best amateur player.

The role of the closer in baseball is one of the most pressure-packed jobs in any sport. A manager typically calls on his closer to pitch the final innings of close games and protect a tight lead. Closers earn “saves” by securing victories for their teams when the score is close in the ninth inning.

“Any time the game is on the line, I like to think that it’s ‘give it to me and let me go,’” Nogosek said.

Manager George Horton has no reservations doing just that. Nogosek has established himself as the team’s most reliable bullpen arm and Horton’s go-to guy in ninth innings. He carries a heavy workload, as evidenced by his school-record 39 appearances (out of Oregon’s 63 games) in 2015.

“There’s no situation where No-Go says ‘Oh, that’s too tough for me,’” Horton said. “In fact, it’s very rare if ever I asked him, ‘Are you good enough to pitch an inning today?’ and I don’t know if he’s ever said, ‘No, Coach, I’m a little tight.’ He can always give me something.”

Nogosek’s teammates are equally confident with him on the mound. In the eighth inning of a must-win game against Arizona on May 20, starting pitcher Cole Irvin got into trouble, allowing two runners on base. Oregon held a 3-0 lead. Instead of calling on sophomore Brac Warren, who had been warming up longer, to protect the lead, Horton summoned Nogosek from the bullpen. Nogosek proceeded to induce an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play with the bases loaded, then throw a scoreless ninth inning to record a five-out save, his 14th of the season.

“He’s the guy you want to come in relief when you go 7.1 (innings),” Irvin said after the game. “Nothing better than giving No-Go the ball and having him close it out.”

Horton described Nogosek as a quiet worker, who “leads with a soft fist.” He is not a “rah-rah” guy who’s chirping all the time, but is not afraid to speak up. He picks his spots to encourage and correct his teammates, which makes the feedback he gives and the times he does speak up resonate more.

“He’s got everybody’s attention and respect because of the way he goes about his business,” Horton said.

Nogosek is calm and easygoing off the field, a stark contrast from his on-field personality. He’s an intense competitor in games, and on occasion that intensity has gotten the best of him. When he was 14 and the star of his Little League all-star team, he struck out during a game in the northern California championships and threw his bat toward the dugout. The umpire promptly ejected him from the game, causing him to miss the next game, as well.

Nogosek said he had a bad temper back then and “no idea how to control it.” It was the first and only time he has been thrown out of a game, and it affected him deeply.

“It hurt me a lot. I don’t want to be known as that type of guy,” Nogosek said. “I don’t want to have my kids see me doing that and then they do it.”

Stephen Nogosek signs autographs for young fans after a 3-0 win over Arizona at PK Park on May 20. (Kenny Jacoby/Emerald)

Nogosek has since learned how to better manage his emotions. Earlier this season, Oregon was losing big to UCLA and a Bruin player was showboating — flipping his bat and, as Nogosek put it, “disrespecting the game.” The player made a gesture toward Nogosek’s family members, who were sitting in the stands, and he and his family took offense.

“I take that personal because I’m a big family guy, and that’s one thing you don’t mess with,” Nogosek said. “When you disrespect the game, I don’t take too kindly to that.”

Later in the game, Nogosek had the opportunity to pitch to that player.

“All he wanted to do was throw as hard as he could to jam the guy,” Horton said. “He got a little out of control.”

But Nogosek managed to calm himself down and handled it “how [he] should,” he said.

“There’s a lot of times you get fired up and you can’t go out there and show the emotion,” Nogosek said. “I’m learning those situations and learning how to handle it for the future. You’ve just got to be a man about it sometimes and take it. Other times you have the opportunity to, I guess, fix it, but you’ve got to pick your battles.”

Nogosek was raised to be “mentally tough.” It started with his grandma, whom he described as “old school.” He remembers his grandma washing out his mouth with soap for saying a bad word, spanking him and making him sit in a corner and stare at a wall for hours if he did something bad. She was “the toughest by far” in his family and raised his father and brother the same way.

“She was awesome,” Nogosek said. “She wasn’t going to take anything; that wore off on me.”

Coaches, teammates and scouts alike held lofty expectations for Nogosek entering this season. Following standout freshman and sophomore seasons and a stint with the USA collegiate national team over summer — the USA coaches told Horton that Nogosek was their “best guy” — he was tasked with taking over the closer role vacated by Garrett Cleavinger, whom the Baltimore Orioles drafted in the third round of the 2015 MLB Draft. Nogosek will be eligible for the 2016 draft at this season’s conclusion.

So far, Nogosek has lived up to the expectations. His gaudy numbers alone will likely make him the highest-drafted member of Oregon’s 2016 draft class; his 95-mph fastball doesn’t hurt his chances either.

Nogosek said he doesn’t think about the looming draft and impressing the scouts, though. He just goes about his business and does what he can to help his team.

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The University of Oregon rowing club is coming off a strong finish at the Pac-12 Championships, in which the men’s varsity 4 took bronze and men’s novice 8 finished second in the club division and fifth overall.

Now, the team’s sights are set on the 2016 American Collegiate Rowing Association Championships, held May 28 and 29th in Gainesville, Georgia.

Oregon head coach Marlene Kindorf said the team is rested and healthy in anticipation of the national regatta.

“Everybody’s in good spirits, everybody’s feeling good,” Kindorf said. “This year, each squad has a priority boat that’s looking really good.”

The team is bringing a total of six boats and 31 student-athletes — 19 men and 12 women — to ACRAs.

Its categorization as a “club” team, however, is simply a label to UO Rowing, which used the hashtag #ClubMeansNothing on its Facebook page. The team competed against Division I, II and III teams at various regattas throughout the regular season, and managed to defeat quite a few of them.

Women’s varsity 4 defeated Oregon State, Central Florida and Seattle Pacific at the Oregon State Classic, as well as Humboldt State, Portland and St. Mary’s at the Collegiate Covered Bridge Regatta.

It’s tough to compete against these well-organized varsity teams, which have coaching stability, resources and recruitment, Kindorf said.

Rower Emi Purice said the “biggest stigma” about club sports is that they’re just for hanging out and having fun.

“Club is competitive. The only thing that separates club from D-I is funding,” Purice said. “As a club, we do compete against D-I teams and we do really well against them.”

Historically UO Rowing’s performance at ACRAs has consistently improved. The men have taken home a silver medal in singles and bronze medal in novice 4, and the women have won a silver medal in novice 8 and a bronze medal in varsity 4. In the past two years, the team has medaled one boat per year.

UO Rowing made great strides at ACRAs last year, qualifying all five of its boats for the grand finals and winning one medal.

“If we can have similar results to that or better — if we can get all of our boats this year into grand finals and come home with at least one medal — that’s a consistency and solid improvement for the team again,” Kindorf said.

The team will arrive in Gainesville Thursday morning and will be at the race course first thing Friday morning to offload its equipment and hold a practice workout on the water, which it uses to acclimate itself to the time change, heat, humidity and new venue. Racing begins at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning with the women’s pair; all the boats will have one preliminary heat in the morning.

Depending on their finishes on the preliminary heats, the teams will advance to either the grand finals Sunday or a repechage Saturday afternoon, in which they will get another chance to qualify for the grand finals. The men’s varsity 4 has one extra step — a semifinal — before it can get to the grand finals. A team can compete in as few as two races and as many as four — two Saturday and two Sunday.

“We really hope to be bringing home some hardware and some more glory for U of O and U of O club sports,” Kindorf said. “We’re very excited and we’re ready.”

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby