By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The addition of four schools from the now dissolved Pacific 12 Conference was expected to make the Big Ten Conference stronger in virtually every sport, and especially in the case of baseball.

But with that added strength comes a price to pay and the Iowa baseball team certainly paid a heavy price over the past three days as it was swept by fifth-ranked Oregon with the Big Ten regular-season title on the line.

The Ducks crushed Iowa 13-4 in the series finale on Saturday at Duane Banks Field to compete the three-game sweep.

With the win, Oregon finished 22-8 in Big Ten play and has clinched at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season title, while the slumping Hawkeyes finished 21-9 in conference play and will be seeded third in next week’s Big Ten Tournament.

Iowa sat atop the conference standings for most of the season and controlled its own destiny heading into the final three series of the regular season against three former Pac-12 opponents: Washington, Oregon State and Oregon.

The challenge would prove to be too much as the Hawkeyes would go on to finish 1-7-1 against those three opponents.

And now because of its low RPI ranking, Iowa probably has to win the Big Ten Tournament to have any chance of making the NCAA Tournament.

Iowa head coach Rick Heller was asked after Saturday’s loss if he feels his team has accomplished enough to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“That’s a good question. I think so,” Heller said. “But I don’t even know what to say to that because we’ve been left out when I thought we were hot at the end of the year.

“Yes we have. But will it happen? I don’t know. We’re going to regroup, lick our wounds and try to go down and win some games, and hopefully, that will help.”

Iowa’s RPI ranking, which had sunk to the low 60s, would have obviously received a significant boost with more success in the final three series.

But it just wasn’t meant to be for a number of reasons, including the quality of competition.

Oregon combined to outscore Iowa 32-10 in the three games.

You name it and the Ducks probably had the advantage by using a combination of power hitting, timely hitting, solid pitching and reliable defense.

Oregon (41-13) dominated the series by belting multiple home runs, but also by manufacturing runs with precise bunting and aggressive base running.

“They are playing great baseball right now and a very talented team as you can see,” Heller said of the Ducks, who have won 10 straight games. “And we knew it was going to be that way because they had a shot still to win the championship. You’re going to get their best effort and they were locked in and had been playing their best baseball of the year the last 12 to 15 games.

“We knew the challenge, and we knew exactly how we had to attack it. But we just gave them too much to have any chance of beating a team that good, especially with the conditions and the ball flying.”

All three games were played with winds howling and the Ducks certainly used the wind to their advantage on offense as they pounded five home runs just in Saturday’s game.

Oregon third baseman Carter Garate, who entered the series with just one home run, smacked two home runs in Saturday’s game and finished the three games series with three home runs overall, pushing his season total to four.

Oregon first baseman Jacob Walsh also belted his 19th home run in Saturday’s game, while designated hitter Dominic Hellman had three hits in Saturday’s game, including his 12th home run.

A testimony to Oregon’s depth is that arguably its best hitter, centerfielder Mason Neville, only had one hit in the three-games series and struck out three times just in Saturday’s game. Neville entered the series leading the country with 26 home runs, but he barely made any contact against the Iowa pitchers.

And yet, it didn’t matter as his teammates picked up the slack in dominating fashion.

Iowa, on the other hand, only had six hits as a team in Saturday’s game and the Iowa pitchers also walked nine batters.

“You’ve got no shot of beating that team if you’re going to walk nine guys,” Heller said.

The challenge for Iowa (32-20-1) is to narrow the gap that currently separates it from a deep, talented and well-funded team such as Oregon.

Big Ten baseball has been changed significantly with the additions of Oregon UCLA, USC and Washington.

Oregon State, which finished 2-0-1 against Iowa in Des Moines earlier this month, now competes as an independent in baseball. But prior to this season, Oregon State was a Pac-12 power.

Heller was asked Saturday what Iowa has to do to keep up.

“Just keep doing what we’re doing, which is the best we can with what we have,” Heller said. “Try to develop kids and coach them up and get them to play harder.”

Heller can take some solace in knowing that Iowa finished higher in the Big Ten standings than all the other traditional  Big Ten teams.

“If you look, everybody in the old Big Ten, we were the only one in the top five,” Heller said. “It’s just frustrating. Sometimes, when you have to play perfect and you have to play so hard against everybody you play to win. And then you do that for 40 games, sometimes, you just wear out both mentally and physically.

“I think there was little of that just with our team hitting a wall.”

The Iowa seniors were honored before Saturday’s game.

But what started as a celebration ultimately turned into a costly loss that kept Iowa from winning at least a share of the Big Ten title for the first time since 1990.

Heller tried to focus on the positive as he met with the media after Saturday’s loss. He pointed out everything that Iowa is up against in baseball, including a lack of NIL support.

Iowa also was picked to finish no higher than ninth heading into the season.

“To find a way to be playing for a conference championship on the last day of the regular season with what we have in (financial) aid and nobody raising money for us for NIL, and playing teams that have a whole lot of money,” Heller said. “So, there’s a couple disappointing things to this season; one is that the guys kind of pulled off the miracle, but then they didn’t finish it. We didn’t get it done.”