Usually when a team goes 14-42, expectations for the next season are low. The baseball team was rebuilding a program that had been defunct for 28 years, and head coach George Horton’s squad was young. He had bolstered the roster with two top-10 recruiting classes, but in just the second year, it looked to be much of the same as 2009.
Instead, the Ducks roared out of the gates, beating No. 4 Cal State Fullerton to start the season in California. By the time Pac-10 play started, Oregon was 17-6.
In conference, Oregon lost the first two series to Arizona and Arizona State, but in a 12-inning marathon against the No. 1 Sun Devils, the Ducks won 6-5 to break the team’s undefeated streak. It was a turning point that translated into Oregon’s first Pac-10 series win in more than 28 years over No. 22 Stanford the following week. That started a string of four consecutive conference series wins by Oregon, including a 2-1 series win over No. 1 UCLA.
The Ducks continued to win, jumping to No. 15 in the nation by the beginning of May. However, the team lost four straight games and was swept by the last-place Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis. The Ducks turned it around the following Tuesday with a 13-4 win over No. 19 San Diego in Eugene, followed by a series sweep of East Tennessee State and a series win against the Washington Huskies.
Going into the last series of the season against California, the Ducks were 37-19 and 12-12 in conference. Speculation was that the team had enough wins to make it to an NCAA Regional, and if so, it would be the first time since the 1970s that Oregon would play postseason baseball.
[email protected]