George Horton didn’t sugarcoat things after the Ducks 5-0 loss to the Beavers on Sunday.
“Today we played awful,” Oregon’s head coach said.
Despite the sub-par effort on Sunday, however, Horton feels confident the Ducks (42-17, 19-11 Pac-12) will be able to bounce back when they take the field for the Eugene Regional on Friday.
“This team has been an amazing team for me,” Horton said. “Because there’s only been about six or seven out of character efforts the entire year, which is a phenomenal percentage. It may be the best percentage I’ve ever coached.”
Horton said there was a clear difference between the way the Ducks played on Saturday and Sunday, even though they lost both games.
“I thought we had good balance (Saturday), I thought we were in character and lost a very tough game,” he said. “Today we were hoping and wishing instead of being what I call in the process of playing.”
It was the first time this season the Ducks were swept in a three-game series and equaled their second longest losing streak of the year, but Oregon has made a habit out of rebounding from tough losses, most recently winning nine straight games after a losing three in a row in mid-April.
The Ducks will learn who their regional opponents will be and if they are among the top eight seeds nationally tomorrow morning during ESPN’s selection show, though Horton said whoever the other three teams in the regional are, they’re all equally close to securing a trip to Omaha.
“Everybody that makes the playoffs is 0-0,” Horton said. “And the team that handles their objectives the best gets the rewards.”
It’s the second post-season appearance in the four year modern-era of Oregon baseball and the first time the Ducks will host a regional after traveling to Connecticut two years ago. Even after a disappointing weekend, the Ducks are welcoming the opportunity to play postseason baseball at home and put the sweep to Oregon State in their rearview.
“We’re really excited for that,” designated hitter Kyle Garlick said. “We just gotta flush this out, get past this, focus on what we gotta do this weekend, practice hard and come out firing.”
Playing at home might take some pressure off the Ducks, but Horton cautions that there’s no such thing as an easy win in June.
“There’s no easy ones from here on in,” Horton said. “There’s 64 teams and everybody wants the same thing.”
Oregon State (38-18,18-12 Pac-12) scored a run in the first and third innings and added three more in the seventh on Sunday, while the Beaver pitching tandem of Taylor Starr and Scott Schultz kept the Ducks at bay.
Starr and Schultz combined for the shutout — just the second time this year the Ducks were shut out — but they were far from perfect as the Ducks actually out-hit the Beavers 8-7. The Ducks put the leadoff runner on base seven times Sunday and still failed to score.
“There were no big two-out hits like we’ve had in the past,” Garlick said. “You can’t do anything about that, it’s just baseball.”
With the loss to Oregon State and a wins by UCLA and Arizona, the Ducks fell to second place as the Bruins and Wildcats finished as co-Pac-12 champions.
The Civil War was a mirror image of last season, when it was the Ducks sweeping Oregon State to deny the Beavers a Pac-10 championship. Entering Sunday, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA and Oregon could all have potentially won the conference title.
With such a high-pressure situation and a raucous Goss Stadium crowd, there were numerous distractions at play for the Ducks, but they aren’t using that as an excuse.
“I like it when there’s a lot of excitement and the emotions are running high,” Garlick said. “You’ve just got to use that in the right way.”
Oregon baseball swept at Oregon State, falls short of Pac-12 title
Daily Emerald
May 26, 2012
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