The National Club Baseball World Series is old news for the Oregon club baseball team, which has made the field of eight teams in each of the past five seasons. They’re used to taking a week off from school to travel to Fort Myers, Fla. to play at the Boston Red Sox spring training facility. They’re used to the humidity and they’re used to the high level of competition. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t still exciting.
From the last series of the regular season through the regional tournament in La Grande, the third-ranked Ducks (25-6 overall) ramped up their level of play, trying to get back to Florida. They did it with a combination of offensive power and confidence. They never got too tight where they couldn’t joke around in the dugout or just enjoy playing baseball.
“It’s great,” junior Jeff Rogers said. “I mean, it’s a thrill every time you get the opportunity to travel to such a great place to play baseball.”
The light-hearted mood was on display at the team’s practice Monday at the turf fields behind Hayward Field. They did a simulated game, with head coach Kenny Swartwout lobbing pitches to them. The practice was more about keeping them loose than anything. Guys would yell from centerfield at the batter and every time the ball would go flying onto the bike bath they’d yell a quick warning before watching to see if the ball would hit an unsuspecting biker.
“Today was just a warm-up,” Rogers said of the practice. “Once we get to Florida we get a day to practice and acclimate to the humidity before opening play Friday at noon.”
The heat will be a welcome change for a team that has played in hail, pouring rain, and even snow this season.
The Ducks are seeded second and start play Friday afternoon against Baylor University, a seven seed from the Gulf Coast Conference. The Bears are 12-6, playing half as many games as Oregon. The limited amount of games might end up hurting them, as they come in with six pitchers and a team ERA of over 6.00. Meanwhile, the Ducks have 10 pitchers who threw in more than six games this season and an ERA of 3.77. Senior Bryan Hansen feels they’re pitching staff is underrated because everyone focuses on their hitting numbers.
“Having 12 or 13 guys on the pitching staff is great because you don’t have to worry about pitching one guy too long,” he said. “It gives us the confidence that no matter who is on the mound for us, we have a great shot at winning.”
But Baylor doesn’t come without some challenges, because as Oregon sophomore Geb Bumpus points out, they are in the field of eight teams. Second baseman Joseph Soto leads Baylor in hitting with 29 hits, 31 RBIs and a .492 batting average.
“They’re in the World Series. So they ought to be pretty damn good,” Bumpus said.
If the Ducks win, they would move on to play the winner of the No. 6 Central Michigan-No. 3 Colorado State game. On the opposite side of the bracket, No. 1 – and undefeated at 23-0 – Penn State plays No. 8 Virginia Tech. Fourth-seeded Arizona is slated to play No. 5 seed North Carolina State.
It’s a double elimination bracket, so the Ducks are guaranteed to play at least two games. But that’s not what the team has in mind. Sophomore Cam Gaulke said the reason they are there is to win.
“We’ve been here enough times now that we need to expect the next thing, and that’s winning a national championship. We feel like we lost last year’s title game more than the Tar Heels won it. It’s time we come through,” he said.
Talk of the championship sobered up the smiles of the players as they finished up practice Monday. Laughing and joking aside, they said they weren’t taking anyone for granted and the only way to win consistently was to never underestimate the opponent. Gaulke said it best, saying they couldn’t make the mistake of assuming a victory, but saying they still needed to be confident.
“We are going to represent the University of Oregon and show people what we are all about,” Gaulke said.
The World Series continues through the end of next week, with the championship game being played Thursday, May 29.