The Oregon club baseball team is gearing up for a promising 2022 season.
The Ducks are coming off an excellent 2021 season which included a deep run in the Club Baseball World Series. However, they didn’t get there in traditional fashion.

“It was an interesting year with COVID,” team president Kelton Stowell said. “We didn’t get a regular season, and were fortunate enough to be one of the only schools in our league to be able to play.”

Given a direct admit into regional playoffs with only two games under their belt, the Ducks took full advantage of their opportunity. The team swept the field, earning a berth in the club baseball world series.

After coming out flat in game one and getting pushed to the loser’s bracket, Oregon was able to bounce back with a 6-2 win over Nebraska.

The victory sent them to the semifinals, where the team was posed with the challenge of beating Iowa State in two straight games for a shot at the championship.

The Ducks dominated in game one, winning 13-3. Unfortunately, a late collapse in game two saw their championship hopes fade away.

“That’s all it takes in baseball,” co-president Daniel Friis said. “One inning didn’t go in our favor, and we couldn’t recover from it.”

The end to the season left a sour taste in the team’s mouth.
On the bright side, their play in the club baseball world series did not go unnoticed. The team will start the 2022 season as the No. 3 team in the nation.
“We feel like we earned that spot,” Friis said. “But we do feel like we have a big target on our back.”

While acknowledging the Ducks would get every team’s best shot, Stowell’s belief in his team hasn’t wavered.

“I don’t think we feel any pressure,“ Stowell said. “If anything it just verifies the confidence we already have that we are a very high level team.”

One of the reasons for the team’s confidence is depth, especially on the mound. Oregon boasts a seasoned pitching staff, headlined by Jeremy Roschko and Kelton Stowell.

The team returns all but one pitcher from last season’s semi final run and expects pitching to be a strength of their team.

On the offensive side, the Ducks lost four key bats.

“We need new guys to step up,” Friis said.

As one of the team’s main offensive weapons, Friis pointed to freshman Zane Rutledge and fifth year Ian Cooney as players who the Ducks expect to carry the load at the plate.

Rutledge, originally from Minnesota, has gained the attention of the team during preseason practice. Rutledge will play right field, first base and also see some time on the mound. He is poised to be a force for the Ducks on both sides of the ball.

Up and down the lineup, Oregon does not lack talent. Both Stowell and Friis have expressed the utmost confidence they have in inserting any player into the lineup.

What the Ducks do lack is experience.

“The juniors and below have not seen a full season of baseball since the beginning of the pandemic,” Stowell said. “We really have no experience of how to deal with a long college season.”
However, as Friis pointed out, this challenge is not unique to their team.

“A lot of us are new at this,” Friis said. “But that’s also something a lot of other teams are going to be dealing with too.”

Despite the question marks and lack of experience, the team is focused and united around a singular goal: winning it all.

“It’s a very realistic goal for us,” Stowell said.

The returning players have been on the biggest stage in club baseball. They have performed. And now, they look to learn from the mistakes made in last year’s world series and finish what they started.

“We had some guys who left last year who put their heart and soul into the program all four years,” Friis said. “Our biggest goal is to not only win, but to win for the people who have done so much for us to be here.”

The Ducks will begin the quest for a national title on Feb. 18 when Eastern Washington comes to Eugene for the season opener.