Jordan Kent can’t say it. Aaron Brooks couldn’t say it. Nicole Garbin can’t say it.
But when Oregon’s club baseball takes the field Friday against top-seeded Penn State in the National Club Baseball World Series in Fort Myers, Fla., four seniors will join a very exclusive group of Duck athletes.
The four, first baseman Travis Brown and pitchers, Greg Wells, Jonathan Jwayad and Jay Tlougan, can now say they are part of an exclusive club to have played in the National Club Baseball Association World Series every year they’ve been with the team.
Tlougan, the more soft-spoken half of Oregon’s pair of aces, is the only member of the group to have been a part of the team for all four of his years at the University. For the past four seasons, the thing that sticks in his mind the most is the idea that it’s never over until, like Yogi Berra says, it’s over.
“My first time there, we were kind of a wild-card team that just got let into the regional tournament and we ended up beating the team that won the national championship the year before. It just was a total upset team; we only had like 12 guys on the team,” Tlougan said.
Turn the calendar forward and quite a bit has changed. The roster has doubled, and the players’ mindsets have taken on an air of confidence. Brown doesn’t mince words when he says that this group of seniors came into the season knowing, not hoping, it will make the World Series.
“It’s kind of expected by us seniors,” Brown said. “We were expecting to go back every year. So, it really doesn’t surprise us as much as it does the younger players.”
Now that they have gotten to four World Series in a row, there is a tremendous feeling within the group that they’ve accomplished something special.
“Coming back from that first loss at Regionals, there’s a huge sense of achievement. We have a such a young team this year compared to the last year’s team. We had a lot of older guys. I felt it was a huge achievement. It was good to see us overcoming that adversity,” Brown said.
Adding to the awe of just being in the World Series will be the fact that this year’s version will be played at City of Palms Park, the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox. To help quell the first-timers’ nerves, Tlougan notes that he and his fellow seniors have taken on the task of setting the tone for the younger players.
“I feel that’s definitely something that all of us have tried to set. I feel that instead of trying to control things, just trying to be mellow, to make sure the younger guys have enough faith. A lot of them are playing, and you can’t be arrogant, you just have to be a strong individual to prove that.”
Whether or not this group becomes the first Oregon team to take home an NCBA crown, the four seniors realize that when the final out is recorded, their careers are over.
“A lot of emotion will probably be going through my body because this is my last year playing, and all the dedication and emotion just kind of flows through your body win or lose…I’ll just kind of take it back to where I’ve been in my baseball career and just take it as this is what I’ve done and it’s been a great run,” Brown said.
Of course, as Wells attests, if their days in Oregon’s green and yellow do have to end, these seniors would much rather it be with a World Series trophy to complement their four consecutive Pacific Northwest Regionals trophies.
“I’ve seen the top and I know I what they have to offer,” Wells said. “I’m not really afraid of any team in the tournament because I know they know what we have and I’ve been there, done it and I’m ready to come back with a title.”
[email protected]
Could the fourth time be the charm for Oregon’s senior class?
Daily Emerald
May 22, 2007
0
More to Discover