In 1981, Oregon baseball went on a 28-year hiatus, returning in 2009. And for the first time since reviving the program, the Ducks will have a new head coach in Mark Wasikowski. For the last 10 years, George Horton piloted the program following his successful stint at Cal State Fullerton. But after a disappointing 2019 campaign, with the Ducks posting a record of 27-29, Horton left the program he helped rebuild.
“He built the program to a tremendous place for us to spring forward right now,” Wasikowski said.
Horton’s departure paved the way for Wasikowski to take over and lead the program in a new direction. Wasikowski has roots at Oregon — he was an assistant coach for the Ducks from 2012-16 before leaving to become the head coach of Purdue in 2017.
Wasikowski has also coached 133 players that were selected in the MLB Draft — with 38 of them playing on major-league rosters.
“He’s super caring and just wants the best for his guys,” big-leaguer Mark Melancon said, according to Wasikowski’s GoDucks biography. “He is the best, and there is nobody in college baseball who is going to care for his people more than Coach Waz.”
Melancon is a three-time MLB All-Star who currently pitches for the Atlanta Braves. He was coached by Wasikowski from 2004-06 at the University of Arizona.
At Purdue, he rebuilt a struggling program that had finished the previous three seasons with a .272 winning percentage. In three seasons at Purdue, Wasikowski was 88-83 and advanced to regionals in the 2018 season.
Wasikowski spoke about what he learned from his experience at Purdue, including how to generate fan interest in the team, a problem that Oregon baseball is familiar with.
“We put a product out there that was something that people wanted to pay their hard-earned money for,” Wasikowski said.
But Wasikowski will have a tall order in rebuilding the Ducks roster. Spencer Steer, one of Oregon’s best players in its recent history, was drafted by the Minnesota Twins and spent the summer playing for the Cedar Rapids Kernels in the minor leagues. One of the first tasks for Wasikowski is injecting star power on the team.
Already, in the first few weeks of the season, some Ducks have stepped up to the plate. Redshirt junior Kenyon Yovan, who missed the vast majority of the 2019 season due to injury, has returned to the plate in good form and already has two home runs on the season. Yovan, who was a second team preseason All-American in 2019, is a player that Wasikowski can rely on.
The first few weeks of the season have seen both highs and lows for the team. After opening the first four games of the season on the road, the Ducks lost close games to Grand Canyon and Wasikowski’s alma mater Pepperdine; however, the team has rebounded at home, winning their last seven games. This highlights what could be a volatile season for the Ducks.
Wasikowski was also a successful college baseball player in his own right. He is in the Pepperdine Hall of Fame after he was part of the team that won the College World Series in 1992. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 1993 Draft but he ultimately chose to remain at Pepperdine to earn his degree.
Wasikowski will have his work cut out for him, developing a program that has largely stagnated as its rival Oregon State competes for national championships on a yearly basis, winning as recently as 2018. But with an influx of new recruits and the development of returning players, Wasikowski will have a chance to improve the program.
