TUCSCON, Ariz. –Despite two-hit nights from Alfonso Rivas and JJ Matijevic, the Arizona Wildcats dropped their first home contest of the season Thursday night, falling to Oregon 8-4 in front of 3,499 fans at Hi Corbett Field.
 
The loss drops Arizona to 24-9 overall, 7-6 in Pac-12 play and 17-1 at home. Oregon is now 23-8 and 6-4 in league play.
 
The Ducks, who have now won six games in a row, scored three runs in the second inning to get a lead off Arizona starter Randy Labaut, who gave the Wildcats 5 1/3 quality innings. The Ducks got their first run on an RBI single from catcher Tim Susnara, and then used a two-run, two-out triple from Morgan McCullough with two strikes to make it 3-0.
 
The Cats fought back right away, scoring a pair of runs in the third to cut the deficit to one. Mitchell Morimoto reached on catcher's interference and then moved to third on a single from Rivas. Jared Oliva followed with a single through the left side to score Morimoto and make it 3-1. After a hit by pitch and a strikeout, Kyle Lewis walked with the bases loaded to score Rivas and make it 3-2.
 
That remained the score until the seventh inning. Over the next three, Oregon's David Peterson held Arizona off the scoreboard, but the Wildcats got his pitch count up to 111 pitches and knocked him out after six. Peterson, who's now 8-1 and second in the nation in strikeouts, went six innings, giving up five hits, two unearned runs, and striking out five.
 
Labaut matched him after the second, holding the Ducks off the scoreboard, until he exited for Rivas with one out in the sixth. Rivas got the final two outs to get the Cats through the sixth.
 
Oregon managed to get a run in the seventh off Rivas to push the lead back to two. In the bottom half, though, Matijevic singled through the right side to score Morimoto, who reached earlier in the inning on a single. That made it 4-3, but was as close as the Cats would get.
 
Oregon added two more in the eighth and two more in the ninth. Arizona got a run in the eighth on an RBI single from freshman outfielder Matt Fraizer, but couldn't push anything across in the ninth.
 
Rivas, who finished 2 for 4 with a run scored, had two different pitching stints in the game. He exited with two outs in the seventh, and Michael Flynn got the final out of the inning. Rivas, who went to right field, came back on the mound to pitch the eighth. The game also featured a pair of catcher interference calls, both coming with Morimoto at the plate. Matijevic, went 2 for 4, and has multi-hit games in five of his last six contests.
 
The Cats will look to even the series Friday. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.