Going into the 2023 Oregon baseball season, it was easy to be skeptical.
There’s still a long way to go, of course. But after the Ducks secured a four-game sweep of the Xavier Musketeers, initial indications are positive — particularly in the pitching department.
There’s no sugarcoating that the Ducks were going to need their freshman pitchers to step up. An already uncertain pitching staff has been beleaguered by injuries to Isaac Ayon and RJ Gordon, leaving a boatload of freshmen to slide in and prove their worth.
This weekend, they did just that. Eight freshmen combined to throw 23 of Oregon’s 34 innings, giving up only two earned runs, total. Three more innings were pitched by transfers, leaving just eight innings thrown by members of last year’s team. And four of those eight innings were pitched by Logan Mercado, a reliever who isn’t used to being in the rotation yet. This staff has an almost entirely new look — and so far, it’s worked.
“Boy, if we could see that from our freshman pitchers every week, I’d be tickled,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “That would be fantastic if we could get that same type of an outing from all of our freshman guys. But we know they’re young, and so they’re probably gonna have their good times and their bad.”
Those outings didn’t come without some freshman jitters. But in most cases, they were able to buckle down when it mattered and weasel their way out of trouble.
Just look at Matthew Grabmann, the Ducks’ most highly ranked young arm. He came out on Saturday and had trouble pinpointing the zone at first, issuing a pair of walks in the first inning. But he kept his composure and got out of the frame with the aid of his first career strikeout. He gave up a homer two innings later, then got into some trouble in the fourth, but he finished the day with just one run allowed.
“It was good,” Grabmann said of his performance. “First inning was a bit rough… Got the nerves out then, and I felt like until the fourth, I didn’t really have any issues.”
Even when he settled in, he said he wasn’t finishing hitters off as quickly as he would have liked, which prevented him from going deeper into the game.
“Surprisingly, [during my] bullpen I felt completely fine,” Grabmann said. “It wasn’t until I got on the mound until I started to feel it. First two pitches went really well. My issue was I’d get up 0-2, and then I’d kind of just lose it from there. So ensuring that I don’t get into deeper counts in the future would probably be the main target.”
Fellow freshman Canadian Turner Spoljaric came in after him and turned in a similar type of performance. He displayed nerves, and a delay to argue a balk call didn’t help. But he got through three innings while only giving up an unearned run, and he was credited with the win.
It was somewhat of a full-circle moment for the two Canadians. Grabmann said he’s known Spoljaric since around 2018, and the two of them played together on Team Canada. Grabmann committed to Oregon during his sophomore year of high school, and he strongly urged Spoljaric to follow suit and join him.
“I kind of pushed him towards it because our coaching staff was really good,” Grabmann said. “Playing here is probably one of the greatest experiences of my life. I feel like he’s seen it pay off.”
Grabmann wasn’t the only freshman to echo that sentiment of gratitude. Leo Uelmen made his debut earlier on Saturday and had perhaps the best young performance of the weekend. He pitched five innings and gave up two runs, both of which were unearned. Even more encouraging was his zero walks. If there were nerves, he certainly didn’t show it.
“I was nervous during the national anthem and warming up in the ‘pen, but once I got out there, it just felt like normal, any time I’ve ever pitched before,” Uelmen said. “But it was a lot of fun, just in the dugout thinking about where I’m at and how big of a blessing it is. It was a really fun time.”
Rivaling Uelmen’s start was the 6-foot-5 Jackson Pace on Sunday. Pace had the longest outing of any freshman, going six innings while allowing one earned run. He credited his slider, which has a different look from the sliders thrown by the rest of Oregon’s staff. Each freshman brings his own unique qualities to the team, Pace said, which led to his and their success this weekend.
“We’re all really close. I love everybody on the team, and especially the freshmen in my class,” he said. “I think we’re all special in our own way. We all have different talents, and I think we all blend together nicely.”
Another freshman who impressed Wasikowski was lefty Logan Olson. It’s been a journey for Olson, another 6-foot-5 guy who throws from a deceptive angle. He had to recover from a UCL tear he suffered in 2021, along with a subsequent surgery he underwent last February. In his first game action on Sunday, he struggled with control and walked the bases loaded, but he flashed a nice curveball and escaped a crucial jam to help Oregon win 3-1.
“He struggled a little bit, but I’ll tell you what: He was also touching 92 miles an hour,” Wasikowski said. “And so that tells us really good news with things to come. When you’ve got a lefty that’s 6-foot-5 and he’s throwing 92 coming off of the arm injury that he had in high school, that’s great news… That was one of the best things that happened all weekend.”
Other freshmen who made successful debuts on the mound were lefty Ian Umlandt, the 6-foot-9 Dylan McShane and Grayson Grinsell.
Altogether, the freshmen kept things intact, even as the offense came in waves. Oregon really only had one dominant hitting performance in the series, but pitching actually proved to be the high point. Josiah Cromwick, who caught three of the four games, said he saw “a bunch of poise” in the young arms.
“They did an awesome job. I’m super pumped for those guys,” Cromwick said. “They did amazing this weekend, so I’m super proud of all of them.”
In the grand scope of the season, the Ducks are just scratching the surface. They still have the rest of their non-conference schedule to play, plus the entire Pac-12 season. Sustainability and endurance will be tested. But so far, they’re off to a pretty good start.
“I feel like we all understand that we’re gonna pitch this year, and we’re being put in the positions that we have to compete,” Grabmann said. “I think we did that well, and we’re all united in terms of just winning games.”
