The 10-game winning streak came to an end last weekend, and so the buzz surrounding the Oregon baseball team has died down a bit. Quietly, the Ducks arrive in Washington Friday for a three-game series against the Huskies to open Pac-12 play. @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=11401&SPSID=94835@@
Oregon (12-3) is off to a better start than most imagined, but the real fun begins with league competition, which head coach George Horton likes to call “a 30-game World Series.” @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205382700@@
“I think we’re in a good mindset and looking forward to it,” Horton said. “It’s so competitive every weekend that if you go into any weekend and you’re not ready, you’re going to walk out of that weekend hurting. Because anybody can beat anybody.”
Indeed, Utah is the only Pac-12 team to start the season with a losing record, though Washington hasn’t exactly dazzled in the early going. The Huskies (10-6) come into the weekend having lost three of their last four, including two of three at Cal Poly last weekend and a 4-1 home loss to Portland on Tuesday. Yet for Washington head coach Lindsay Meggs, such stumbles are to be expected for a young team that regularly plays four freshman.
“If you told me that we’d be 10-6 after our first 16 games, I would have been pleased with that,” Meggs said to The Seattle Times. “The fact that we let a few get away from us makes us feel like we should be even further along.”
Washington’s defense has been solid, with a fielding percentage (.976) that ranks at third in the Pac-12 overall, just behind Oregon (.979). At the plate, meanwhile, the Huskies’ team batting average of .287 ranks nearly ten points higher than Oregon’s (.281), with freshman first baseman Brandon Berry leading the way at a blistering .375. @@http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/m-basebl/stats/2011-2012/teamcume.html@@
Oregon, meanwhile, arrives in Seattle with its pitching rotation firmly solidified and a starting lineup that has taken shape nicely. The pitching, as usual, has been a strength, and Oregon’s team ERA of 2.64 ranks third in the Pac-12. Though Oregon’s anemic .281 batting average ranks above only Utah, four of the team’s starters are hitting above .300 (Kyle Garlick at .350; Ryon Healy at .345; Aaron Jones at .305 and Brett Thomas at .302), and others like Aaron Payne and J.J. Altobelli more than make up for their hitting with stellar work on defense. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205382700@@
“We’re still experimenting a little bit with a few guys here and there,” Horton said. “Some guys have cooled off a little bit, the younger guys that started out so well … There’s certain guys that are just never going to come out of there if they’re healthy — Aaron Payne and J.J. Altobelli — and hopefully they keep functioning as well as they have.”
Seven of Oregon’s 15 games have come down to one run, and Horton doesn’t expect that to change as Pac-12 play begins. If anything, the competition will only intensify.
“It looks like that’s the kind of team that we’re going to have,” Horton said. “I don’t think we can expect to blow anybody out, especially in the Pac. There’s been a lot of close games and hopefully we’ll fare (well) a large percentage of the time, and that’ll probably determine where we finish in the Pac.”
The Ducks, as Horton puts it, are “about as healthy as we could ask for,” and also appear to have stumbled into a bona fide closer in sophomore Jimmie Sherfy (2-0, two saves). The Camarillo, Calif., native leads the nation with 15.76 strikeouts per nine innings, and his ERA of 1.02 ranks fourth in the Pac-12. @@http://www.ncaa.com/stats/baseball/d1/current/individual/207@@
“Jimmie didn’t like that taste in his mouth that he served as a secondary pitcher,” Horton said. “And so the single most important thing that Jimmie did was he worked as hard as anybody that we have.”
Sherfy will be waiting in the wings as starter Alex Keudell takes the mound Friday night at 5 p.m. The Ducks and Huskies also face off at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.