By a score of 5-3 Florida State ended Oregon baseball ver. 2.2010 Sunday evening in Norwich, Connecticut. As they had in handing the Ducks a 6-4 loss a night earlier, the Seminoles let Oregon run wild on the bases all day, but wouldn't let them score. Florida State turned four of double plays in the two games and the Ducks left 20 runners high and dry.

The Seminoles also belted four out of the yard leaving Oregon's anemic offense in need of scoring runs in bunches to keep pace - and that's not how  these Ducks win baseball games.

Saturday's game started out on the right foot when first baseman Jack Marder gave the Ducks an early 1-0 with a homer in the bottom of the first inning.

But things went sour quickly from there. Florida State battered Tyler Anderson for six runs and eight hits - including a pair that left the yard.

Trailing 6-1, Oregon rallied with a three-spot in the eighth but it was too little too late and the Ducks would have to beat Connecticut again in an elimination game Sunday morning.

That they did when Justin LaTempa earned his sixth win of the year, shutting down the Huskies on seven hits in six innings of work. The senior right hander was touched for two runs - one unearned, and he walked three.

Joey Housey, Scott McGough and Madison Boer closed it out for Oregon, although McGough dodged several bullets before Boer picked up his fifth save.

McGough gave up a single to open the ninth with Oregon leading 4-2. Lightening in the vicinity halted the game at that point and 58 minutes later when play resumed McGough immediately gave up a base hit that was compounded by J.J. Altobelli's throwing error. Runners on second and third with nobody out.

Andrew Mendenhall had replaced left fielder Marcus Piazzizi after the delay and that turned out to be a fortuitous substitution by head coach George Horton. Connecticut's second baseman, Pierre LePage turned on McGough's next pitch, sending a rocket at the left field wall. Mendenhall tracked it down and his leaping catch limited the damage to a single run. At that point, Boer was summoned and he was able to get a fly ball and a swinging strike out to get a rematch with the Seminoles later Sunday afternoon.

In the nightcap Florida State opened the scoring with four runs in the third, getting to starter Alex Keudell for six hits in 2.2 innings. The Ducks closed the margin to 4-3 in the fourth when the FSU defense gave up three unearned runs. But the Seminoles added another run in their half and kept the Ducks at bay the rest of the way to claim the Super Regional berth and send Oregon home with a season record of 40-24 and the sense that next time Oregon's post season fortunes could be much different.

Seniors Eddy Rodriguez and Justin LaTempa were important pieces to the puzzle this season and will be difficult to replace. Added punch offensively is always a priority and this team has struggled most of the season to score runs but a deep pitching corps means Horton doesn't have to find a lot. Freshmen Jack Marder and J.J. Altobelli enjoyed solid rookie campaigns as did Steven Packard and Andrew Mendenhall. K.C. Serna and Danny Pulfer will anchor the middle of the infield as juniors and will likely continue to lead the way offensively.