After the Oregon baseball team lost their third and fourth games of the season at home against Seattle, head coach Mark Wasikowski was visibly frustrated.
“We have power arms and uncompetitive hitters based off of four games,” he said. “The coaching staff hasn’t done a good enough job to make them competitive at the plate yet, so that’s our fault.”
It wasn’t all bad as Oregon pitchers struck out 41 batters in the four-game series, including 16 in game four. Still,Wasikowski was far from satisfied.
“For me it’s about winning the game,” he said after their loss on Feb. 28. “It’s not about the number of strikeouts… They have great live arms and good stuff but the objective is to win the game, and we didn’t do that today — and we need to wear that as a ball club. I will as a manager for sure.”
The team has since taken Wasikowski’s critique to heart, and they’ve taken down some of the best teams in the country to climb into the national rankings. While the team appeared a mixed bag less than a month ago, all of the sudden they’ve jumped out of the gate as one of the top forces in college baseball.
It began on the road, as the team took on No. 7 UCSB and shocked them in a four-game sweep. They traveled to rival Oregon State next and took two of three, and it was then that they found themselves ranked in all six national polls for the first time since 2016.
“I liked what we saw in terms of a change in mentality at the plate,” Wasikowski said. “I’ve seen a much more competitive look.”
That change in mentality made a difference, especially in the UCSB series when the Ducks scored 38 runs, including 17 in game three.
Another aspect that provided a huge boost to the lineup was the return of Kenyon Yovan, who claimed National Player of the Week honors after the UCSB series. He went 0-for-3 with two walks in the first game, but went 7-for-12 with four home runs in the other three.
“My head hit the pillow the night before and I was like, ‘It’s not going to happen again. I’m not going to allow myself to fail in big situations,” Yovan said after game one of the UCSB series.
The team returned to Eugene on March 19 to begin conference play against Arizona State. They lost the first game 6-3, but won the next two to take their third consecutive series. They continued to move up in the polls, coming in as high as No. 13 by Baseball America and Perfect Game.
While Wasikowski is happy about the progress the team has made, he isn’t breaking out the pom poms quite yet.
“It isn’t like we’re sitting around celebrating, thinking that we’ve done something great,” he said. “But we have taken a step forward in terms of the accomplishments… and that’s great.”
Success to this degree is something the vast majority of this Oregon clubhouse isn’t used to. The only player on their roster with playoff experience is Stanford transfer Nick Bellafronto, and that didn’t even come in a Duck uniform. Navigating this success and learning how to handle it has been an area of emphasis for Wasikowski’s squad.
“Now we get a new task in front of us, which is trying to coach these guys up on what it means to be successful, and how you handle that stuff to continue to be successful,” Wasikowski said.
One thing is clear though: the Ducks haven’t let themselves be intimidated when facing tough opponents.
“The better the team we play, the more fun it is for us,” outfielder Tanner Smith said.
Smith has been a part of the improved offense that has been key to the Ducks’ success. He’s provided pop from the leadoff spot, slugging .649 and getting on base at a .391 clip.
Outfielder Aaron Zavala has also been a huge offensive contributor for Oregon, evidenced by his .440/.582/.620 batting line. While he was already known as an on-base machine, the power has come as a bit of a surprise, thanks to the help of hitting coach Jack Marder.
“Coach Marder’s really spent a lot of time with Aaron, and helped him understand what’s happening in his swing to where they’ve been able to develop the power side of it,” Wasikowski said.
Josh Kasevich has also shown some surprising power from the shortstop position. In addition to Marder’s guidance, the hitters have been using a piece of technology called BlastMotion, which Kasevich described as small censors that they put on the end of their bats to measure angles, rotation to the ball and acceleration.
“For me personally it was a lot of early connection — which is the angle of your bat before you launch into your swing — and getting that to right around where it needed to be helped a lot with attacking the ball,” Kasevich said.
While the offense took some time to get going, the pitching has been rock solid from day one. Junior right-hander Cullen Kafka has been the standout, allowing only one run in 21 innings pitched over four starts going into the Arizona series. He’s also struck out 32 and held opposing hitters to a .178 average. He said that he worked hard in the offseason to make his curveball more consistent, and now he’s reaping the benefits.
“It just makes pitching a whole lot easier if you can get a second pitch across,” Kafka said.
Junior lefty Robert Ahlstrom has been vital as well with a 2.12 ERA, and Brett Walker has put up a solid 3.48 mark.
The Ducks have a crowded bullpen filled with young faces. Freshmen Isaac Ayon, Rio Britton and RJ Gordon have all gotten chances and have shown flashes of dominance.
“We’ve got several talented young players,” Wasikowski said. “They bring joy, they’re always smiling and they’re just great kids to be around.”
Their young players have helped out in the field too. The Ducks struggled last year to find a true center fielder, but now they have two in Bryce Boettcher and dual-sport athlete Robby Ashford. Wasikowski also believes Anthony Hall has the potential to be a difference maker, although he hasn’t gotten the chance to start regularly yet.
“It’s quite a competition that’s going on out there right now,” Wasikowski said. “[The players] know that the roster has some talent on it that they haven’t seen on a wide-scale basis at Oregon before.”
After beating Portland on Tuesday, March 23, the Ducks’ record sat at 11-4 as they headed back on the road to face Arizona. They lost the first two games against Arizona to fall to 11-6, their first series loss of the season. They have a lot left that they want to accomplish, but for now they’re using their newfound success as fuel to work harder.
“The fun thing is it doesn’t feel like work,” Wasikowski said. “This is a fun group to come and be around every day. They want to work. They’re here extra so much so that we gotta send them home and tell them ‘Hey, go get some rest.’ … Those are qualities that championship-level teams have.”