The baseball team is a week removed since starting its series with the No. 1 Arizona State Sun Devils, but players are still talking about the lessons learned from those pivotal games. They came back to practice Monday with a refreshed mindset, confident for this weekend’s series with No. 22 Stanford, but not satisfied with just one win.
“I think there’s a validation of what we’ve been telling them all along, that they can compete with anybody in the country,” head coach George Horton said. “(But) one game out of three is not a victory, even if we were the first team to beat ASU. I hope we can build on that competitiveness and go down to Stanford and win.”
For Horton and the Ducks (19-10), confidence has been the word of the week. The Ducks’ head coach didn’t like the way his team came into either the Arizona series or the ASU series, and he hopes this weekend his guys will start from game one with a renewed confidence.
“We kind of tip toed into our first two series with Arizona and Arizona State, wondering if we were worthy to compete with those two groups,” Horton said. “I didn’t like that very much. I didn’t like our personality that much down in Tucson, and I didn’t like our personality offensively against ASU. Had we handled that differently, maybe we get two out of three in both those cases. Again, it’s another step forward, but unless 100 percent of us have all bought into that, it’s another step we have to take.”
Outfielder Curtis Raulinaitis, who is batting .250 on the year, said the Pacific-10 Conference is a different animal than any other conference, but the team knows it can compete.
“We need to come out with the swagger from pitch one to the end of the game knowing we are better,” Raulinaitis said.
“Sometimes it’s confidence, and sometimes we try too hard,” left fielder Marcus Piazzisi said. “I feel like a lot of us have the confidence, but a lot of us just try too hard.”
Offensively, Oregon competed with the Sun Devils, but couldn’t get the timely hits except on Friday when it won in extra innings. Horton says it’s because of the continuity of the lineup and him not playing around with it too much.
“The lineup has changed a little bit; (Jack) Marder has moved down, but they are all used to hitting behind the same guy,” Horton said. “I think understanding roles are a key part to it … it adds to the comfort level of everybody.”
But one thing Horton thinks the team is missing is that big offensive presence in the middle of the lineup. Designated hitter and first baseman Stephen Kaupang was supposed to provide that. However, he’s been sidelined with a high tibia bruise for most of the year, and he can’t seem to shake it.
“Stephen showed all the signs through the fall and the spring,” Horton said of his ability. “He was going to be the DH and hit in the four hole, but he has this on-going issue with his high tibia sprain or bruise. He keeps trying to go, but he can’t. We’re not sure medically what it is. We miss that force in our lineup and nobody else can step in so far.”
Horton said the team is getting a second opinion, and trying some other remedies like acupuncture, but it’s still unclear when he will exactly be able to play again. Until then, Oregon will have to rely on the hitting of Piazzisi and second baseman Danny Pulfer, who are both batting over .400 in conference games. For Horton, seeing Piazzisi get back on track after the slow start to the season has been rewarding.
“Even though his batting average was on the low side for a two hitter, he was squaring up on balls and not getting rewarded,” Horton said. “He also walks a lot. He was showing up in quality in different areas, and now he’s getting the hits … it makes him the Marcus Piazzisi we’ve been expecting to see. Good for the team, and good for Marcus.”
Piazzisi says it’s been a relief and he hopes to continue it in Stanford, Calif., this weekend.
“I’m trying not to be all result oriented, but it’s hard not to when I look at numbers and stats and stuff,” Piazzisi said. “Towards the beginning of the season it was tough because I was squaring stuff up and nothing fell, and my average showed. Now it’s starting to pan out, and it’s feeling good.”
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