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EUGENE — Oregon led when Andrew Mosiello left the game after his first career start. It led when closer Kolby Somers entered in the seventh inning.

If you asked the Ducks before Monday night’s winner-take-all NCAA Regional final if they’d have taken a one-run lead with their closer on the mound, they unequivocally would’ve answered in the affirmative.

The first task, of building a bridge to get to Somers, was complete thanks to the constructive work of Mosiello and Isaac Ayon. But LSU lit a stick of dynamite to their efforts in the eighth inning and was able to hold on when Oregon mounted a ninth-inning rally.

The Tigers scored three runs, including on a go-ahead balk, during a dramatic eighth inning that was a strategy-heavy game-within-a-game, and escaped with a 9-8 upset of the No. 14 seed Ducks before a raucous 1,640 at PK Park.

With Oregon leading 7-6 in the bottom of the eighth, Gavin Dugas, the regional MVP who hit two home runs earlier in the night, worked a leadoff walk. Cade Doughty followed with a double and two batters later, Cade Beloso hit a fielder’s choice grounder to first and Dugas beat the throw home to tie the game at 7.

Somers, who entered the game in the seventh inning, was attempting to wiggle out of a jam with runners on the corners with one out, the go-ahead run 90 feet from home.

LSU initially called for a safety squeeze bunt by Jordan Thompson, but Oregon countered by having first baseman Gabe Matthews crash in order to try and get Doughty, who was going far off third against a left-hander pitcher, out at home.

“The first ball was a ball so he didn’t bunt it and fortunately for us, because if he’d have thrown a strike we would’ve bunted the ball and they probably would’ve made the play at the plate,” Mainieri said. “We actually were fortunate that we didn’t bunt the ball. After that I took the play off and we were going to just have Jordan hit. … They were going to force us to have to swing the bat to drive in that run there. After the balk Jordan came through with the big hit so who knows what would’ve happened.”

Somers repeatedly threw to first to both keep Beloso anchored but more importantly, attempt to induce Doughty to veer too far off third and get the go-ahead runner out on the base path. But the play backfired when Somers threw to Matthews when he was no longer on the base and the resulting balk put LSU ahead 8-7, then Thompson followed with an RBI single to make it a two-run lead.

“Your backs are against the wall and you need to use your plays that you’ve practiced to where you can get out of a situation that is a low-percentage time to get out of it,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “To sit back and not put those plays on would be giving somebody a tie or a win and we’re never going to give anybody anything. We’re always going to be on the aggressive. We’re going to use the plays that we have that are designed to eliminate runs and win games. Tonight it didn’t work out. It’s very disappointing.

“We definitely and clearly saw the energy of the runners and where available outs were in that scenario and we were using plays to get that available out and make sure that we won the game.”

Aaron Zavala and Matthews hit back-to-back one-out singles to put the tying run aboard in the ninth for Oregon and Josh Kasevich drove in one via a groundout.

An infield single by Tristan Hanoian moved the tying run to third and Sam Novitske battled in a two-strike count before flying out to right to end the comeback attempt for the Ducks (39-16), whose season comes to an end.

The late dramatics capped what was a spectacular back-and-forth game that, until the eighth inning, was going more or less to plan for Oregon.

The Tigers (38-23), who advance to a Super Regional at No. 3 Tennessee next weekend, took an early lead on a mammoth two-run blast by Dugas.

Oregon responded in the second with an RBI double by Novitske, who stole third and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly by Sam Olsson, then Zavala launched a two-run homer in the third to give the Ducks a 4-2 lead.

Olsson started a two-out rally in the fourth and scored on a single by Tanner Smith.

Dugas led off the bottom of the inning with his second home run of the night and third in two games against UO. Drew Bianco singled, stole second, then advanced and scored on back-to-back wild pitches by Mosiello to make it 5-4 after four.

Bianco lined a two-run home run to left-center off Ayon to give LSU a 6-5 lead after six, but Oregon responded immediately in the seventh as Kenyon Yovan smashed a two-run shot to give the Ducks a 6-5 lead to put in the hand of Somers, who has 11 saves on the season but none for three innings.

“We knew that getting to the top of their order in the eighth inning, the game was going to be won in the eighth inning,” Wasikowski said. “We knew that. We needed to prevent them from scoring in the eighth inning and we weren’t able to do that.”