EUGENE, Ore. – Rutgers baseball dropped a tight 4-2 decision to No. 9 Oregon in Sunday's rubber match at PK Park in Eugene. 
 
The Scarlet Knights (10-14, 2-4) once again held down the powerful offense of the Ducks (19-5, 7-2), but were unable to capitalize with runners on base and lost the series finale. 
 
After a clean first inning from Jack Kirchner, Oregon used a pair of walks to start a rally in the second. With the bases loaded and two outs, Chase Meggers doubled into right field to score a pair and make it 2-0. 

Matthew Cruz settled things down out of the bullpen, getting out of the second and throwing a scoreless third. In the top of the fourth, RU loaded the bases and got a run back on a sac fly from JD Jones. 

The Ducks extended their lead back to two runs in the fifth after a leadoff hit-by-pitch led to an RBI groundout to push it to 3-1. Dillon Ryan came in with the bases loaded and no outs in the inning and was able to get out of it with just that run. Ryan went on to throw clean sixth and seventh innings to give Rutgers three scoreless innings on just two hits, no walks and three strikeouts. 

In the top of the eighth, RU loaded the bases with one out. RJ Johnson Jr. hit a ball on the screws but it was right to the right fielder and he settled for a sac fly to make it 3-2. After a Jack Sweeney walk loaded the bases again, a groundout ended the frame. The Ducks were able to get the run back in the bottom half on a two-out single to gain a 4-2 advantage, which held as the final score after a 1-2-3 ninth. 
 
Notes 

• Pablo Santos recorded his sixth multi-hit game of the season.
• The Rutgers defense has not committed an error in its last 12 games, raising its fielding percentage to a Big Ten-best .984. 

Rutgers returns to action this week at home against Princeton for a 3 p.m. matchup on Wednesday. RU then welcomes Washington for a three-game series at Bainton Field for the first all-time meeting between the schools. 

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