They said it so often, so matter of factly, that you almost started to believe them.
“We have to win out.”
This is what members of the Oregon baseball team have been repeating for the last week or so, usually in response to a question about their playoff chances.
They knew what kind of hole they had dug for themselves, and what it would take to claw out of it. It seemed next to impossible, especially when stated aloud.
And yet, for the better part of last week, the dream stayed alive. The Ducks took two of three games against a talented Stanford squad, then demolished Gonzaga in two straight shutout victories. Both on the field and during postgame interviews, they appeared relaxed, as if they had finally shrugged off the season’s immense disappointment and resolved to just have fun over the final two weeks.
That is, until this past weekend’s series against Washington State. The wheels finally came off the wagon, this time for good, as Oregon dropped two of three games and saw its playoff hopes go up in flames. Starter Tyler Anderson, normally so steady and dependable, got rocked to the tune of eight runs over just 4 2/3 innings. Two days later, the Ducks lost on a walk-off hit. @@http://www.goducks.com/downloads2/416642.htm?ATCLID=205153644&SPSID=94835&SPID=11401&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
Either they simply had a bad weekend, or the pressure finally got to them. It’s impossible to know for sure, but I’m guessing that it was the later. Asking any team to win its final nine games creates a burden that can become overwhelming. Talking to the players last week, there was certainly a sense of confidence, but you could also see that they recognized the difficulty of their task.
Now all that talk about a postseason push, and the subsequent anxiety that accompanied it, is history. The Ducks are virtually eliminated from the playoffs, and will likely finish near the bottom of the Pacific-10 Conference when the season comes to an end this Sunday.
Discussions over what went wrong, and how a team with sky-high expectations fell so short, will likely haunt George Horton and the Ducks until the dawn of a new season. It’s just the nature of the beast.
But Oregon still controls the ending of this narrative, and could at least go out on a strong note with an impressive performance in the Civil War this weekend.
The way it was laid out, this showdown was meant to be one final battle between two teams bound for postseason glory. I’m sure that’s how the Ducks envisioned it when they first glanced at the 2011 schedule.
A meaningful 2011 series, this is not. But it is a chance for Oregon to make a statement against the No. 2 team in the nation and head into the offseason with its head held high. The Ducks already defeated their in-state rivals once back on May 3, and there is no reason to think they can’t do it again at PK Park.
Imagine for a second that Oregon sweeps the Beavers this weekend. It would be meaningless in terms of the team’s overall record this year, but it would be a tremendous building block going forward.
Don’t believe me? Look at Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians. They finished with a woeful 69-93 record last season, but ended their schedule by winning seven of nine games. Seven months later, they stand at the top of the American League Central Division by a comfortable margin and have relit the fuse beneath Cleveland as a sports city. @@http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/#20101003@@
This will be remembered mostly as a lost season for the Ducks, but they still have a chance to finish it on the right note.
A little momentum, even going into a long offseason, has more power than you might imagine.
Malee: Oregon baseball’s Civil War series could prove impactful in the long-term
Daily Emerald
May 23, 2011
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