Two wins against the Beavers won’t revitalize Oregon’s season.
The Ducks (21-16, 4-8) are currently 10th in the standings of a conference it was projected to finish second. Again, two wins against the Beavers won’t revitalize Oregon’s season.
But there is something that could bring them back.
The win on April 12 wasn’t pretty — two errors, two unearned runs from a passed ball and a wild pitch, a poor starting performance and a general lack of fundamentals.
And I think Oregon agrees that it didn’t play its best baseball on Sunday. And I could write about that, again. But I’m not.
I saw something in this game I haven’t seen in a long time.
When Oregon was down 9-3 in the third inning, my roommate said while watching the game with me, “God, this game sucks.”
At that point, I’m sure many would agree. However, I was intrigued. As mentioned: Win or lose, this game won’t change Oregon’s trajectory. It’s not that easy.
So I told my roommate why.
A great season isn’t made from a win-loss record. It’s made on resiliency.
I wanted to see if Oregon’s the blue-collar team who fights for every last breath. I wanted to see, if they were going to lose, how would they lose. I wanted to see the anger from the past month of defeat.
I wanted to see them fight.
And for the first time in a while, I did.
Head coach George Horton showed fight when he argued with the home plate umpire when Mark Karaviotis was hit by a pitch, but ruled otherwise.
When Brandon Cuddy hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the third, I saw fight in Scott Heineman, the runner on base, when he flexed his arms together as if he went deep.
I saw fight in Cuddy, even more than his home run, when he hobbled on a hurt leg fielding an inning-ending, hard-hit ground ball.
Karaviotis showed fight when he leaped to grab a line-drive on the leg that was hit earlier.
In the second inning, Phil Craig-St. Louis committed an ugly error that cost his team a run. Then in the eighth, he smacked the first pitch of an at-bat for the go-ahead RBI. He fought.
In the final inning, I saw fight in Garrett Cleavinger while pumping 93-94 mph fastballs to strike-out the side and close the game.
But no player showed me more fight than Josh Graham. Graham, who caught the first two games of the series, battled and overpowered hitters in a 1-2-3 fourth inning, and continued in a 6.0 IP outing — the longest of his career.
Without Graham’s performance, Oregon likely remains in the pits of a slump.
Remember, two wins against the Beavers won’t revitalize Oregon’s season.
And I think Horton preaches it best.
“Baseball momentum is really only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher,” he said.
But it is sure nice to see Oregon gut one out, finally.
Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @andrewbantly