Oregon baseball is headed to the Louisville Regional this weekend as the No. 2 seed. The placement was announced Monday morning in the NCAA Selection Show.
“Great opportunity,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “Looking forward to getting on the field again today with our guys to help get them prepared for the regional, for sure. Excited.”
The announcement comes after the Ducks took a quick exit in the inaugural Pac-12 Baseball Tournament. They lost to Arizona and Arizona State, becoming the first team to be eliminated from the tournament. The No. 1 seed Stanford won the tournament championship Sunday night.
“It didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to,” outfielder Tanner Smith said. “But going 0-2 and coming home and watching the rest of these tournaments on TV, it kind of gives you what that feeling was like last year, watching Super Regionals and Omaha from the couch. I think that it lit a fire for us as a team.”
This year is the second consecutive season the Ducks have made it to a regional. Last year, they hosted the Eugene Regional at PK Park but fell short in the championship game. It was Oregon’s first time in a regional since 2015 and first time hosting since 2013.
“It was a learning experience,” Smith said. “It was something new for a lot of guys on this roster. That, alongside with the Pac-12 Tournament, gets you a little more comfortable with that tournament-like feeling.”
The Ducks enter a bracket with the host Louisville Cardinals, the Michigan Wolverines and the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks. Their first matchup will be with Michigan on Friday.
“Excited to get into a tournament with those other three teams I’m very familiar with,” Wasikowski said. “With Dan McDonnell being the head coach at Louisville, and [Andy] Sawyers coaching at Southeast Missouri State, which is the place where I started my coaching career at the Division 1 level.”
As the Ducks enter the NCAA Tournament, they’ll look to shake off their poor showing in Scottsdale. Their hopes of hosting for the second straight year vanished with Thursday’s loss to Arizona State, but they said they’re looking to hit the reset button with a new opportunity this weekend.
“We’re all super pumped,” closer Kolby Somers said. “We were gonna be excited wherever they sent us. This is gonna be a lot of fun. The coaches are gonna give us the best plan to go in there and win the regional.”
