After a rousing victory over No. 3 Oregon State on Tuesday, Oregon baseball head coach George Horton knows exactly what his team needs to do this weekend against UCLA. The Ducks cannot win one game, or even two.
“We need to sweep,” Horton said. “That’s easier to say than to do, obviously … We need to win as many as possible to even have a snowball’s chance at getting into the playoffs.”
It may seem an unreasonable goal for a team that is barely floating above .500, but this is the reality for Oregon going forward. Every loss brings the Ducks closer and closer to missing the postseason altogether.
The most formidable challenges for Oregon (23-20, 5-10 Pac-10) will likely come on Friday and Saturday. UCLA (24-16, 11-7 Pac-10) trots out two of the nation’s top pitchers in Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer, and they will be matched against a Ducks squad that still ranks last in the Pac-10 in hitting (.242).
“It’ll be a good challenge,” sophomore pitcher Christian Jones said. “I just think we have to keep putting the ball in play, keeping putting the pressure on the defense. We did that against Oregon State, and they kind of fumbled on some of the plays … We need to keep doing that, especially against the pitching that we are going to face.”
Both Cole (4-5, 3.45 ERA) and Bauer (8-2, 1.47 ERA) are expected to be first round picks in the 2011 Major League Baseball draft, and Horton knows full well that Oregon faces an uphill battle.
“I told (assistant coach) Andrew Checketts that his job is to have Madison (Boer) throw a no-hitter on Saturday so we can beat Bauer,” Horton said. “And then the other guy, Gerrit Cole, he might be one of the first guys taken. He might touch 100 miles an hour and pitch at 97.”
Still, Oregon can rely on its own pitching rotation to keep the games close. Staff ace Tyler Anderson (6-1, 1.51 ERA) will match up with Cole on Friday, with Boer (3-3, 2.15 ERA) following on Saturday against Bauer. The final game on Sunday pits Oregon junior Alex Keudell (5-3, 3.10 ERA) against UCLA freshman Adam Plutko (3-3, 1.79 ERA).
Freshman infielder Ryon Healy has past experience against Bauer in high school, and is looking forward to going against both him and Cole.
“I’m excited to get to compete against two great athletes like them,” Healy said. “Go to war with my teammates and get a couple Ws out of this weekend.”
Yet even Healy had to admit that facing Bauer would be difficult.
“He’s always been good,” Healy said. “You know he’s a great athlete, and a great pitcher and a great competitor. I’m sure he’ll bring his A game.”
Perhaps an encouraging sign of things to come was Oregon’s seven-run outburst against the Beavers earlier in the week. The Ducks were the aggressors throughout the game, and never let their feet off the gas.
“We’ve been hitting the ball,” Healy said. “We just haven’t been hitting consistently throughout the game. We score runs early and then the fifth through the ninth inning our bats go quiet.”
That did not happen on Tuesday, and the consistency at the plate will have to continue if Oregon is to accomplish Horton’s lofty goal for the weekend.
“The quality of at bats that we’re getting has been subtly better,” Horton said. “And now we’re starting to put them together.”