When Oregon baseball coach Mark Wasikowski stepped into his weekly media session on Wednesday, upon being asked how he was doing, his first words were simply, “I’m alive.”
It was emblematic of how the entire team must have been feeling after Tuesday night’s dreary, rainy, sloppy loss to Portland. Yes, it was a very winnable game for the Ducks, and yes, the way they lost it — with Gavin Grant dropping a popup in the bottom of the ninth — was enough to strike a dagger into Oregon’s gut.
But at the end of the day, they’re alive. Not only that, but they’ve still won 15 of their last 19 games, and have a chance to gain ground in the Pac-12 standings against a weaker opponent in UC Berkeley this weekend.
“Plenty of excuses. Plenty of reasons. The bottom line is, it wasn’t good enough,” Wasikowski said. “There were a lot of great things about the ballgame yesterday. I really liked the way our guys came out swinging the bat. I liked a lot of the stuff that I saw on the mound yesterday, with specifically Jackson Pace. There were a lot of bright lights at the end of the day, and yet the end of the day wasn’t a very bright light.”
One of those bright lights was Tanner Smith, who finally broke the school RBIs record two weeks after tying it. It wasn’t for a lack of effort — Smith has still been productive, but he didn’t find himself in an ideal RBI situation until Tuesday, when he smacked a two-run double in the first inning.
Smith wasted no time in breaking the all-time hits record during the Northwestern State series, smashing a hit in his first at-bat and going on to a 13-game hitting streak. Despite how much longer it took him to get that one RBI, he said he tried not to think about it too much.
“The only time I really would is when Sabin [Ceballos] would apologize for being a little too slow on some of them,” Smith said with a laugh. “But no, it was just a matter of time, and just kind of playing a team role.”
All seemed to be going the Ducks’ way on Tuesday, at least early on. They were up 5-0 in the second and 6-1 in the fourth. But, battling a pair of rain delays, the Ducks’ usually reliable defense fell apart in two critical situations — once with the bases loaded in the sixth, and the other with just one out left in the ninth inning.
Smith didn’t deny that the outcome of the game tainted his personal accomplishment.
“More bitter than sweet, for sure,” Smith said. “That was one we really wanted to get. It’s a tough game, an in-state rival. It is what it is. Tip our cap to them, they played well, did what they needed to do, and we didn’t. Now we’re just looking forward to this weekend.”
With that loss in the rearview mirror, the Ducks can refocus their attention on Jace Stoffal, their trusty ace who’s gotten to soak in all the awards and accolades as of late. Stoffal has won Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week in back-to-back weeks, and was also named D1Baseball’s National Pitcher of the Week for his complete game shutout against Stanford.
Stoffal has gone 21 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run. He’ll look to continue that success against the Bears, who have struggled in Pac-12 play to the tune of a 5-13 record.
“Obviously, last night was not fun,” Stoffal said. “But just going into another Pac series and playing against Cal as the Friday starter, I want to set a good tone like always…and get the momentum going again.”
The Ducks will need to watch out for one hitter in particular this weekend: Kade Kretzschmar, who has an absurd 16 hits in his last five games. Cal’s offense might be less daunting than Stanford’s overall, but Oregon will need to cool one of the hottest hitters in the country.
“I think we’re just going to attack him the same way,” Stoffal said. “Just execute all my pitches; try to throw all four of my pitches for strikes. It’s been working alright so far, so hopefully I can continue to not just neutralize him, but neutralize the whole team.”
Playing a relatively weaker Pac-12 opponent, the Ducks have a chance to make a run at a conference title. Their current 9-6 record has them tied with UCLA for third in the Pac-12; they’re only two games behind Stanford and 2.5 games behind Arizona State (who they’re facing the following weekend). A sweep of Cal would give Oregon a chance to take over as the leader of the Pac-12.
It’s been a streaky season for the Ducks, one that’s included an 11-game winning streak, a tough series loss to Oregon State and sweeps both for and against them. But, all things considered, they’ve positioned themselves in a pretty good spot.
“It just seems like we get to a point — and have now several times — where we start feeling a lot of momentum and feeling a lot of progress, and ‘Are we over the hump?’ and the answer is no. There’s a setback,” Wasikowski said. “It’s been the story so far. And although that’s the story, the story is really good overall. We’d just like to see the guys take the next step, and take a good baseball team to an elite baseball team.”
Oregon is currently ranked between No. 16 and No. 25 in the country by all the major outlets. If the Ducks can succeed against Cal, then Tuesday’s non-conference loss will be just that: a fairly inconsequential loss amidst an otherwise impressive stretch of baseball.
First pitch in Berkeley is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday.
