The Oregon baseball tryouts took place without a hiccup Saturday afternoon at the Moshofsky Center, despite the three-hour session being moved to the indoor practice facility after inclement weather made Thurston’s baseball
field unplayable.
Players with a wide range of abilities were present, ready for their shot at wowing the coaches. Some prepared for months while others hadn’t played baseball in more than two years.
University junior Andrew Rossi, who attended Mountain View High School in California, said he felt the nerves when he threw his bullpen, a certain number of pitches for the coaches, in the pitcher tryout.
“I felt like I was a nine-year-old again,” he said. “I thought I was back in little league.”
The tryout started with head coach George Horton talking to the players about their chances and what his team was looking for.
“I know there are some guys among you who can make this team,” Horton said. “But we already have to cut eight guys from our current 43 roster. So if any of you make it, I’m going to have to tell someone we recruited that he has to go somewhere else. But I’m going to take the best 35 guys I can for my team.”
After a few minutes explaining how the tryout was going to run, Horton ended the talk saying anyone whom he deemed good enough would get an invitation for an extended tryout by the end of the week. If the hopefuls didn’t get a phone call, they didn’t make it.
The first thing the players did was run the 60-yard dash, two at a time, and the coaches recorded their
numbers on clipboards.
After the sprints, pitchers and fielders broke up. While pitchers threw a short bullpen for the coaches with radar guns, the fielders received ground balls on a makeshift baseball diamond in one corner of the indoor practice facility. Outfielders caught ground balls and were asked to throw it a distance comparable to that from center field to home plate.
The three hours ended with batting practice in the batting cages, and as the hitters cycled through both cages, Horton and his staff evaluated.
“There’s probably a few guys I’ll invite back for another tryout,” he said. “I felt like I saw some good stuff out there. I feel that everyone here belonged here.”
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