An eight seed coming into the tournament, Oregon’s club baseball team now stands one win away from doing the improbable.
With its dramatic 2-1 victory over top-seed Penn State Tuesday afternoon, the Ducks eliminated the Nittany Lions and advanced to their first National Club Baseball Association World Series title game.
Leading Oregon’s way was junior ace Bryan Hansen. The righty from Sheldon High School shut down Penn State for eight innings, giving up one run on just four hits while fanning four.
Greg Wells relieved Hansen in the ninth and immediately gave Penn State fans a reason to believe and Hansen a reason to worry.
“I was very nervous actually,” Hansen said. “Wells always goes out there and gives a hundred percent. He’s such a competitor. In the back of my mind I thought ‘he’s gonna shut this down,’ but I definitely felt nervous. I think everybody in the dugout felt a sense of anxiousness and nervousness.”
After getting the first hitter on a lazy fly to center, Oregon’s closer walked the next two men to put the tying run in scoring position and the game-winning run right behind him. The next batter laid down a sacrifice bunt, advancing both runners, and pushing the potential game-winner in position to score on a single. Wells recovered, though, and froze Penn State’s final hope, sealing the win for a jubilant Oregon.
“It was a sense of accomplishment for everything we’ve worked for this year,” Hansen said. “Working hard and playing, going out to practice late at night, going to the batting cages, it all kind of comes to you at once. It’s actually a good feeling to feel a win that makes you feel you’ve done something good.”
The win marked Hansen’s second defeat of the Nittany Lions in the tournament, the first coming an eight and two-thirds inning gem in the Ducks’ 5-2 win in their first game of the Series.
The game was a big one for the Ducks, not only because it meant a crack at the title, but if they had lost this game it would have meant the end of their season.
Oregon lost for the first time in the double-elimination tournament on Monday, getting shutout 6-0 by the Nittany Lions. Senior right-hander Jonathan Jwayad was charged with the loss after giving up four earned runs on three hits in just two and one-third innings of work.
Afterward, Wells said, the mood throughout the team wasn’t as bright as it had been, but it was by no means one of defeat.
“The feeling afterwards was ‘OK, we still have one more, they still have to beat us again,’” Wells said. “Knowing that we had our ace Bryan Hansen going back out there, it kind of calmed a lot of the younger guys down.”
Now that Oregon’s made it through to the final game, though, the team is elated.
“We’re there,” Hansen said. “It was rough last night considering we were all kind of downish today. It actually feels real great to be back and into the national championship game and actually have shot at winning this thing.”
Superstition will not permit the team from doing anything different in preparation for tomorrow’s championship game against the sixth-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels, which defeated second-seeded Maryland to get into the title game.
The team has eaten the same free meal every night from the hotel buffet. They have all carved mohawks into their hair and they return to their rooms every night to watch parts of “Baseball,” Ken Burns’ nine-part documentary on the history of the game.
The most important thing that hasn’t changed about this team, though, is its attitude. Throughout Regionals and now, one win away from history, Jwayad says the team’s goal has remained the same: Win a title, no matter the cost.
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