The formula for Oregon club baseball’s three-game series against Western Washington next weekend is simple: Sweep the rival Vikings and earn a berth in the four-team regional playoffs for the right to advance to the College World Series in Fort Myers, Fla.
Then, drop a few games, and possibly spend the next couple weeks at home in Eugene pondering what could have been.
Either way, the Ducks are in control of their own destiny — a position Ducks’ head coach Chad Franke is happy to be in.
“It’s way nicer to know that all you have to do is go out and win games,” Franke said. “You go out and win your three games that you want to win anyway, and the job takes care of itself.”
The Ducks are 5-3 and in prime position to finish first in the Northern Pacific West Conference and advance to regionals because of a solid stretch of recent conference play.
After taking two out of three games from conference foe Central Oregon Community College last weekend, the Ducks won their second straight series this weekend, taking two out of three games against Seattle University.
In the series-opening 6-2 Duck victory on Saturday afternoon, Oregon starting pitcher Logan Cooper earned his second consecutive victory with five strong innings of one-run ball.
Oregon jumped ahead early behind strong offensive performances from Cam Gaulke (2-for-4, one RBI) and Chase Pennington (two hits, three RBI), while Cooper and bullpen stalwart Carlos Borromeo combined to shut down the Seattle offense.
“It was nice to see us get out early and score some runs,” Gaulke said. “I feel like whenever we get out and get on the board early, we usually maintain it for the rest of the game.”
In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, it was the host Vikings’ turn to jump ahead early. Playing under wet and sloppy conditions, Ducks’ starter Evan Coller turned in an uncharacteristically poor performance, surrendering six runs (although not all were earned) and five walks in two and two-thirds innings.
Still, the Ducks showed some resolve, trimming a 6-0 deficit to 6-5 before finally succumbing to Seattle. Pennington did a nice job of stopping the bleeding out of the bullpen, while Cooper Mandelblatt led the ill-fated comeback attempt with a three-hit game.
“We battled back well at the end of the game,” Franke said. “We turned it on the last two innings.”
Unfortunately for the Ducks, whatever momentum they generated from the valiant comeback attempt seemed to be thwarted early on in Sunday’s series-deciding rubber match. Seattle jumped all over Ducks’ starter Sean Susa with a four-run second inning, and held a 4-1 lead heading into the sixth inning. That’s when the Duck offense caught fire. Oregon scored five runs in the sixth inning and added four more in the eighth as the Ducks cruised to a 10-6 victory.
First baseman Jake Schumacher led the offense with three hits and a pair of runs scored. Infielder Ryan Redding went 2-for-4 with a triple, and outfielders Travis Reed and Corey Johnson contributed two apiece as well.
On the mound, Susa bounced back from the difficult second inning to earn a workmanlike nine inning, complete-game victory.
 
But even with two consecutive series wins under their belts, the Ducks aren’t completely satisfied with their efforts of late.
“Right now, we keep dropping that one game a weekend that we shouldn’t be losing,” Franke said. “It’s focus, keeping our energy level up and going out and playing the game that we know how to play.”
 
Staying focused will be more critical than ever heading into the aforementioned three-game set against Western Washington this weekend.
Coller, Susa and Cooper will again take the mound for the Ducks, who should have more than enough motivation to keep their heads in the game this weekend.
“I think it’s going to help this weekend that Western (Washington) is our biggest rival in the league, historically,” Franke said. “We’ve had run-ins with them, they’ve had run-ins with us. It’s not a very friendly rivalry. I think that’s a lot of motivation in itself to get the guys fired up.”
 
The three-game series will be played at Hamlin Middle School in Springfield. It begins with a doubleheader starting on Saturday at noon and concludes on Sunday at noon.
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