On Sunday. Oregon baseball took down Oregon State at PK Park 4-1 in the final game of the Eugene Regional to advance to the Austin Super Regional against the University of Texas Longhorns (43-13, 19-10 SEC).

The Longhorns played host to the University of California, Santa Barbara, Tarleton State University and College of the Holy Cross last weekend and won all three games to secure a home Super Regional. At first glance, Texas had one of the more favorable draws among the Regional hosts, drawing zero top-ranked teams or teams from Power 5 conferences. That isn’t to say that hosting those teams meant they were guaranteed to advance, considering Florida State University lost under similar circumstances and upsets rang out across the nation.

The key detail people need to be aware of heading into this Super Regional is that Texas has not beaten a top-ranked team since May 3 and lost in its first game of the SEC Tournament against Arkansas 8-1. The Longhorns have been in surprisingly poor form in the last month against contending teams, including their play at the Regional, in which they narrowly escaped their final game against UCSB 6-4.

Usually, it’s hard to compare SEC and Big Ten teams game for game because they’ll often schedule non-conference games with teams in their region, but the Ducks also played UCSB this season. The series was a rough showing for Oregon, which took only two out of three games against the Gauchos after dropping Game 2 in a disastrous 8-2 loss. The Ducks allowed two unearned runs on errors and suffered from lackluster performances from the bullpen, something that would be a death sentence in a postseason run.

Outside of the lone loss to UCSB, the Ducks handled business in the other two games, winning 4-0 and 2-0 on strong starts from Will Sanford and Cal Scolari. Both pitchers will likely be starting against Texas this weekend after they each made starts in last week’s Regional games against Washington State and Yale University. Sanford had a career night against WSU after striking out 14 with only one hit in 6.1 innings.

The pitching is the focal point for Oregon heading to Austin, considering the Longhorns are the No. 23 best scoring team in the country with 8.3 runs per game, No. 21 in home runs (99) and No. 18 in on-base percentage (.419). The Ducks should be able to answer since they’ve been one of the country’s best defensive teams as they rank No. 11 in ERA (3.98), No. 3 in hits per nine innings (7.06), No. 8 in strikeouts per nine innings (11.2) and No. 2 in shutouts (9)

The Ducks’ offense is not one of the highest-ranked in runs per game, but they are No. 18 in the country (first in the Big Ten) in home runs with 104 and No. 31 in slugging percentage (.501).  Oregon relies on big swings from its power hitters in a lot of their games, which they’ll need to get past Texas, whose opponent batting average is only .225 compared to the Ducks’ .285 team batting average. While the Ducks hit lots of home runs, they also gave up, with 61 opponent home runs this season, compared to the Longhorns 46.

The most dangerous hitters for Texas are Aiden Robbins, Carson Tinney and Casey Borba, who have 61 home runs between them. Robbins and Carson are also among the most consistent hitters on the lineup, with averages of .347 and .333, respectively. 

Pitching-wise, there is one name that stands out above the rest. Dylan Volantis currently boasts a 1.94 ERA in 14 starts with one appearance out of the bullpen, leads the team in strikeouts with 116 and has an opponent batting average of a staggering .181. It would be shocking to see him not start in Game 1 of the Super Regional after his 6.2 inning night against Tarleton State at the Austin Regional, where Texas won 16-2.

The Ducks definitely have their work cut out for them heading into the June 6 showdown against the Longhorns at 5 p.m. PST at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas. Game 2 will take place on June 7 at 6 p.m. The time for a potential Game 3 is TBD.