The Oregon baseball team has hit a snag. The Ducks are 1-4 since their home sweep of St John’s earlier this month. The team has dropped out of Collegiate Baseball’s top-25 rankings. Emerald baseball reporters Andrew Bantly and Kenny Jacoby took a look at the situation of the team and predicted the series against incoming Arizona State this weekend.
Horton said Oregon had a “miserable” week last week. It dropped out of Collegiate Baseball’s top-25 ranking and fell a few ranks in others – did it deserve that?
Bantly: Regionals are months away and the Ducks are sitting tied for second place (1-2) along with four other Pac-12 teams, so how bad could it really be? Ok, it’s pretty bad right now. The NCBWA has them at No. 11 and Baseball America ranks Oregon at No.15, showing that even though Oregon might be ice-cold, it still has a solid roster – coaches and players. That’s fair. Whereas Collegiate Baseball thinks that Oregon, right now, isn’t playing at all close to its expectation. Also, fair. So I think the ranks are, yes, fair.
Jacoby: NCBWA and Baseball America are either crunching different numbers or watching a different team because the Ducks I’ve seen are nowhere near playing top-25 baseball. San Francisco began the year with nine straight losses but steamrolled the Ducks at PK park. Oregon escaped its conference-opener against Cal with a split but is averaging 2.4 runs per game in a 1-4 stretch. If that doesn’t warrant a significant drop in the ratings, I don’t know what does.
What aspect of Oregon’s game needs the most improvement? (A kind of broad question, let’s try and give a very specific angle with supporting stats)
Bantly: Heart surgery isn’t an option, so perhaps the Ducks need to use a defibrillator. They need something to get the heart of their lineup going. Mitchell Tolman, Brandon Cuddy, Shaun Chase and Phil Craig-St. Louis make up the core of Oregon’s lineup, and they’re struggling. Combined, the heart of Oregon’s lineup hit just .205 (8-39) in the series. They’ll need to step against Arizona State.
Jacoby: Phil Knight should bless Oregon with some new bats because its offense is sputtering. Its team batting average is now down to .244 after falling by an average of more .010 points in each of its last three series. Mitchell Tolman was benched Saturday after going hitless in his last 13 at bats, probably due to a sore back from carrying the team all year so far. Matt Eureste is now the lone Ducks starter hitting .300, and not a point over. Reversing those downward trends is imperative this weekend.
What’s your series predictions between Oregon and No. 11 Arizona State?
Bantly: This is a tough one. The Sun Devils are playing their first game as a visitor, to say nothing of the geographic differences. But they’re hot. Allthewhile, Oregon’s last memory of PK Park is, well, not very homey. Things will be interesting with Conor Harber pitching Friday and Irvin saved for Sunday, but the Ducks should matchup better that way. Oregon holds for a two-game series win.
Jacoby: With Cole Irvin tossing on Sunday, I’m confident the Ducks take at least one game in the series. The fate of match up will hinge on game one. Sun Devils ace Seth Martinez (28 IP, 1.61 ERA) will take on Conor Harber, who’s looking to establish himself as the Friday starter in his first start in a Ducks uniform. The question is which Harber will show up: the one who threw 20 scoreless innings to open the season or the one who’s given up eight runs in his last 5.2 frames?
Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @andrewbantly
Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @kennyjacoby