I’m not sure how most of you spent your last weekend of spring break, but unlike myself, I know you weren’t cooped up in the press box at PK Park for three straight days watching Oregon and Wichita State crawl through a somewhat painful series.
I sat through 44 innings, with a 17-inning marathon that I was legitimately worried might never end, four ejections, and two rain delays over the course of the weekend.
But during that time, I learned a lot about the Oregon baseball team. It’s not a beat I’ve consistently covered throughout my Emerald career, so when the opportunity to cover a series presents itself, I try to soak it all in.
The opener on Friday night proved to be a pitcher’s duel, as advertised. Oregon ace Tyler Anderson picked up his fourth consecutive win, in the 2-1 victory and struck out seven, walked one, and gave up one earned run in his seven innings of work.
In the process, Anderson, a 6-foot-4 junior lefty out of Las Vegas — who recently captured the Oregon all-time record with 223 career strikeouts in the series with San Diego — brought his season total of strikeouts to 59. The come-from-behind victory — the Ducks trailed 1-0 going into the fourth inning — marked Oregon’s eighth straight victory, but it wasn’t indicative of what was to come.
In game two of Friday night’s doubleheader, Wichita State flipped the script on the home team, mounting a late comeback in the top of the ninth to end Oregon’s winning streak.
Despite great outings from Anderson and No. 2 starter Madison Boer, and strong relief work from the bullpen, Oregon struggled immensely with runners in scoring position — a reoccurring theme for most of the series.
The Ducks left 21 runners on base, and went 2-for-23 with runners in scoring position in the first two games combined. Several Oregon players admitted later on that guys went to bat wanting to be the hero, and their approach in the batters box suffered because of it.
As third-year head coach George Horton mentioned in practice this week, the RBI at-bats have been an Achilles heel for the Ducks this season, and that proved true in game three on Saturday.
Oregon got a big hit when the team desperately needed it from J.J. Altobelli in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra innings, but the Ducks couldn’t muster a single run over the next eight innings en route to the 7-6 loss.
Let me just say: That game, which lasted well over six hours, including a 22-minute rain delay, was without a doubt the longest contest I’ve ever witnessed in person. I commend the Oregon players for the way they competed, especially after losing Horton when he was ejected in just the fifth inning.
But to not be able to plate a single runner over the course of essentially an entire game after regulation ended was more than frustrating. I praised Altobelli for his timely hit in the ninth (the kid is proven clutch if you haven’t seen him play), but around the 13th inning, I started to curse the sophomore for prolonging what was nothing short of a circus. And for good measure, Wichita State head coach Gene Stephenson and two Shocker players were also ejected in the 16th.
To eventually lose another one-run game, which each of the first three games were decided by, was heartbreaking for a team that still hasn’t fully figured out its identity.
Oregon went on to blow the top off the series with a 6-1 win on Sunday afternoon to end with a disappointing 2-2 split heading into Pac-10 play.
The Ducks still haven’t found the consistency they’d hoped for heading into the league portion of the season.
The flashes of good, even great, baseball are constantly surfacing, but Oregon still needs to find a way to bring that level of play to each at-bat, each inning, each game.
Time isn’t on the Ducks; side, either, as they travel to Tempe today for their first series with Arizona State, currently the No. 5 team in the country. Oregon hasn’t been ranked in anyone’s top 25 for most of the month, and the team is still very much an underdog in the Pac-10.
It will be interesting to see how this first conference road trip goes for the young team, and it ought to be a good measuring stick as the Ducks look to make a run to the postseason.
They’ll finally get out of the rainy Eugene whether. Let’s just hope they bring their sunscreen and come back with a little more swag at the plate.
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