Oregon baseball has had about three different seasons just 32 games in.

There was the undefeated start, good for the best nine-game stretch to open a year since 1963; the gritty, find-a-way-to-win slate of games against good competition; and now, what most would consider to be a letdown, the Ducks went just 2-4 over their last six games entering a midweek game against Portland. 

​It’s just six games, and in the grand scheme of things, the issues that Oregon has dealt with can largely be attributed to the randomness of baseball, but a surefire way for the Ducks to get back on track would be a return to normalcy for Dominic Hellman and Maddox Molony.

Neither player has been bad or even below average compared to the rest of the Big Ten, but head coach Mark Wasikowski likely expects a bit more from his two most seasoned hitters now heading into the meat-and-potatoes section of conference play.

Hellman’s .909 on-base percentage is only disappointing when compared to the .993 mark he posted a year ago. Most of that can be attributed to his average being consistently down due to the loss of protection from the Mason Neville/Jacob Walsh-less offense of a season ago. Hellman is hitting .267 through 116 at-bats, down from a .326 mark a year ago.

Molony’s season has included a more staggering drop-off. Widely considered a sure-fire top round selection in this year’s MLB Draft, Molony has struggled at the plate compared to years past, posting a .776 OPS and a lackluster .234 batting average compared to the impressive numbers he put up in his freshman and sophomore campaigns.

Both hitters’ track records of consistency and success point to better days coming ahead, especially for Molony, but it’s fair to wonder what Oregon baseball’s ceiling is without the absolute best performance from two mainstay starters from last season.

Drew Smith, Angel Laya and Ryan Cooney have all been great stories this season, but as it stands, Oregon’s offense is relatively top-heavy, with more needed from Hellman and Molony. It hadn’t hurt Oregon’s performance in the win column for most of this year, until the Ducks’ recent skid, which included the team’s first series loss of the season to Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Oregon scored just five runs over the four losses, but warmer weather and a return to what has essentially been a season-long effective offense should help the Ducks.

​Still, the best remedy for the Ducks might just be the return to form of both Molony and Hellman, two lineup stalwarts who haven’t enjoyed the season many expected.

With the recent skid, Oregon fell three spots in the RPI rankings to No. 38. The Ducks’ best chances to improve upon that number come in back-to-back May series with both USC and UCLA, two of the country’s top-ranked teams. The team travels to Hillsboro, Oregon on April 14 to face Oregon State at 6 p.m. before heading to Illinois to face the Fighting Illini in a three-game series beginning April 17.