A season filled with adversity ended just a few wins shy of another World Series appearance by the Oregon club baseball team.
Despite losing nearly one-third of its roster for myriad reasons and then barely squeaking into the regional playoffs, the Ducks were in position to make their sixth trip to Fort Myers, Fla., for the club baseball world series in the last seven years.
The Ducks split the first two games of the double-elimination tournament, losing to Weber State and beating Utah State. The Ducks then found themselves in a rematch with Weber State for the right to battle Western Washington and reach the World Series.
The Ducks jumped ahead 1-0 in the first inning and carried the lead into the fourth inning before Weber State came back with a three-run home run to take the lead.
The score stayed 3-1 into the eighth inning when the Ducks staged a frantic comeback attempt. They trimmed the Wildcats’ lead to 3-2 on a Cooper Mandelblatt sacrifice fly. They had a runner on first and on second with two outs but were ultimately unable to get the evasive tying run.
“It was pretty tough just because we outhit them, and I don’t know if we outplayed them, but we were definitely playing equal to them from a fundamental perspective,” senior Cam Gaulke said. “It just didn’t work out.”
“It’s kind of one of those bittersweet moments,” Duck coach Chad Franke said. “We definitely started to play baseball like we should. It’s unfortunate we only had 17 games during the year to get warmed up for (the playoffs) because that’s when you start hitting your stride.”
Still, the Ducks’ increased level of play was evident from the start of the
regional tournament.
Facing Weber State and the team’s ace pitcher Kayleb Kester in the playoff opener, the Ducks fell behind early before mounting a comeback attempt.
Trailing 8-2 heading into the eighth inning, the Ducks put together a string of hits to trim the Wildcats’ lead to 8-6.
The Ducks were able to advance the tying run to second base in the eighth inning before finally succumbing to the Wildcats.
“We fought our way back and they threw their best pitcher, so I thought we showed a little fight,” Gaulke said. “(Weber State’s) home runs kind of hurt us early and then we made a couple defensive miscues, which you can’t really do against a team like Weber.”
Freshman Pat Canepa went 2 for 3 in the loss with the Ducks’ first home run of the year, while Sean Susa pitched seven innings and took the loss.
On the verge of elimination in game two, the Ducks bounced back in a big way. Oregon trounced Utah State 17-4, scoring a season-high in runs and producing a season-high in hits (18) along the way.
As could be expected, several Oregon batters had monster days at the plate. Alex Cole went 3 for 4 with four runs scored, and Ryan Redding had two hits and drove in six runs, while Jacob Schumacher was 2 for 4 with three runs scored.
“I think it was a perfect storm of everything,” Gaulke said of the Ducks’ staggering offensive output. “We were all a little pissed off because we lost the earlier game, and then Utah State didn’t play great defense so they let us have second and third chances every inning, and we capitalized on that.”
Evan Coller earned the win with five strong innings of one-run ball, but the Ducks dropped the ensuing elimination contest to Weber State and found their postseason run cut short.
But even though the Ducks didn’t advance to the World Series, they have no reason to hang their heads, Gaulke said.
“Although we didn’t make (the World Series), which was our ultimate goal, I thought we made a lot of positive strides and really set the team up for future success,” Gaulke said.
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Rally falls short as Ducks fail to grab World Series berth
Daily Emerald
May 10, 2010
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