It’s not about to get any easier for the Oregon baseball team.
Last weekend, the Ducks played a four-game series with Wichita State that included a 17-inning game, numerous ejections, and a pair of close, disheartening losses.
Oregon’s reward for salvaging a series split with the Shockers is a date with No. 5 Arizona State in Tempe this weekend. The series marks the beginning of Pacific-10 Conference play.
The start of the Pac-10 schedule isn’t a mere footnote on the calendar, either. Year in and year out the Pac-10 is one of the nation’s toughest conferences, and it currently has six teams ranked in the Baseball America Top 25 poll.
Oregon is gearing up for the step up in competition.
“All the stuff leads up to this,” Duck head coach George Horton said. “As I told my team, we could be 23-0, we could be 0-23. This is the point in the season you point to and you hope that you’re ready and healthy and experienced and smarter than you were in game one.”
A recent eight-game winning streak is a testament to Oregon’s growth in the non-conference season; nonetheless, Horton isn’t completely satisfied with his team’s play in several facets of the game.
“We feel like we haven’t handled ourselves defensively as consistently as we’re capable of,” Horton said. “Some errant alignment throws and some bunt defenses that went sideways, some things that are uncharacteristic of our team.
“The closing part of our pitching staff is certainly capable of making that routine and boring for the most part, and that hasn’t been as consistent as maybe we thought.”
Horton remains most concerned about the offense’s inability to deliver clutch hits in RBI situations.
“Probably most glaring is just the consistency of the offense,” Horton said. “We’re in and out and have shown little bright spots of improvement, but then the real bug is the at bat with guys in scoring position that hasn’t been extremely successful for us. If there’s an Achilles heal of this team so far, it’s been that RBI at bat.”
In fairness to the Ducks’ hitters, a multitude of injuries have played a role in Oregon’s uneven start. However, all but two of Oregon’s contributors — catcher Stefan Sabol and outfielder Marcus Piazzisi — are now healthy. While Piazzisi is still a ways from returning after suffering a broken hand on March 12, Sabol could return to action as early as this weekend. It’s unlikely, though, that he’ll see major playing time right away.
“Right now we’re still trying to decide whether he’s going to be cleared to play for the weekend,” Horton said. “In his case, even if he is cleared to play, is his timing there, is the strength in the hand there, those type of things.”
On a more positive note, in Oregon’s 6-3 victory over San Diego earlier this month, starting pitcher Tyler Anderson set the all-time Oregon strikeout record, surpassing previous record holder Jon Wheeler’s mark of 222. While Anderson realizes the significance of breaking the record, he downplayed it.
“It’s a cool thing, don’t get me wrong, and I think it’s awesome,” Anderson said. “But I really completely try and stay away from stats.”
Anderson said he wasn’t even aware he had made his mark in the record books until he received a text from his parents.
“I had no idea, I didn’t know it was anything like that,” Anderson said. “My dad sent me a text being like, ‘Hey, can I get that last strikeout ball?’ And I was like, ‘Uh, sure.’ Then my mom said it was the Oregon career strikeout record, so it’s a pretty cool feeling, but it’s not something that matters to me one way or the other.”
For the record, Anderson was able to recover the historic baseball.
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