In the life of a Pacific-10 Conference baseball team, it’s never a dull weekend. Two weeks ago, Oregon played the No. 1 Arizona State Sun Devils. Last week, the Ducks traveled to Stanford, Calif., to play No. 22 Stanford.
Now this week, Oregon (21-11 overall, 4-5 Pac-10 Conference), travels to Los Angeles, Calif., to play the current No. 1 — the UCLA Bruins.
“Now we can rest on our laurels because we’re just playing another No. 1 in UCLA down there,” head coach George Horton said jokingly. “Back in the fire and ho-hum, just another great Pac-10 series to look forward to.”
It’s the third time since Oregon was reinstated that the Ducks have played the No. 1 team in the land, and it’s the third straight week Oregon has faced off with a ranked opponent. Horton says the team is getting to the point where it feels it can play with any team in America and have a chance to win.
“We’ve gotten some shots,” he said. “Cal State was a top five team when we played them, Arizona had won 13 or something like that in a row, and of course ASU was undefeated. We’ve gotten a lot of proof that we can compete with anybody in the country.”
The belief finally paid off last week when the Ducks earned their first Pac-10 series win in two years with a two games to one series win over Stanford last week. Oregon lost 2-1 on Sunday, or the team would have had the sweep — something players and coaches alike said they wish would have happened.
“It was fantastic,” pitcher Scott McGough said. “It was a good thing to do. We came up a little short of our goal, which was a sweep, but it’s something to build on.”
“It’s a milestone and a step forward,” Horton said. “Quite honestly, it was a long time coming. From our perspective, it was kind of like, ‘Aw, shucks we could have won all three of them,’ and that really would have been something special.”
Either way, it was a big accomplishment. Curtis Raulinaitis said last week that it wanted the series win really badly, and coming close over the past couple of series was tough. But now the focus has shifted to the Bruins, a team that was undefeated up to a couple of weeks ago, and took two of three games from Oregon State last weekend.
“UCLA is doing a lot very well right now,” Horton said. “Their pitching is doing very well, and their team defense is complementing that pitching … like ASU was coming in here, they’re good in all three areas, and it’s not going to be easy to play baseball better than them. But I like my team’s chances. We can go toe-to-toe with anybody.”
A lot of the confidence Horton’s team has stems from the come-from-behind mantra the Ducks have sworn to this season. The last three series, Oregon has put together significant comebacks in the late innings to pull out wins. First came a four-run performance in the top of the ninth against Arizona to come back and win 9-8, followed by scoring a run in the bottom of the ninth to tie No. 1 ASU, followed by the game-winning run in the bottom of the 12th to win 6-5. Then the most prodigious comeback came last Saturday against Stanford when Oregon scored eight runs in the last two innings, including five in the ninth.
“It just shows how this team is,” freshman J.J. Altobelli said, who is batting .308 on the season with 20 RBI. “We’re shoulder to shoulder, and no matter how many runs our team is down, we can get together and win the game in the late innings.”
To Horton, the comebacks are a sign that his teachings are starting to take hold.
“It’s a small little sign that our culture is different,” Horton said. “Our swagger is different. Our confidence is different. When we talk about coming from behind, we can do this, I don’t think last year every guy in the dugout really believed it. But now we’ve gone through it and the fans believe it … It’s not just words, it’s actual actions. We understand that it’s passing the baton from Duck to Duck, and whichever guy who has come up with the chance for doing something special has been able to.”
Although Horton would prefer to be saved the stress of the late-inning heroics and instead have the game in hand well before the ninth inning, his players say the close games are just indicative of how tough the conference is. No week is a week off.
“This is exactly why we are all here,” McGough said. “It’s good for the Pac-10, and I’m excited to be here.”
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