“Swagger and confidence.”
These were not words we heard from George Horton very much throughout the first nine weeks of the baseball season. Ranked 15th in the country on opening day, the Ducks seemed to wither under the immense expectations surrounding them, and barely floated above .500 heading into a stretch of nine games in eleven days.
That’s why, on a Saturday afternoon at PK Park after clinching the season’s first conference series victory, it was so encouraging to listen as Horton described the newfound mind-set of his team.
At long last, Oregon is beginning to play like the top-20 team everyone thought it was.
The Ducks finished their chaotic two-week slate of games with a 6-3 record, topped off with that convincing series win over a talented Arizona squad. They were able to shake off a frustrating weekend at USC to win four of the next five games, and showed a mental fortitude conspicuously absent throughout most of the season.
This was particularly evident at the plate. Pitching has never been a problem for a team with a collective 2.73 ERA. No, Oregon’s struggle to hit and score runs was what plagued the early months, and its .242 batting average still ranks last in the Pacific-10 Conference.
But this past week showed plenty of signs that this alarming downward trend may be leveling out. The bats exploded for 14 runs on Thursday against Portland, a team that has given Oregon plenty of trouble in the past. KC Serna (batting .202 at the time) came up with a monster RBI single in the first game against Arizona, and the Ducks put up seven runs to close the series on Saturday.
Which, of course, brings us back to the aforementioned swagger and confidence.
This team, quite obviously, does not lack for talent. There was a reason for its high ranking to start the season; Horton had a top recruiting class to go along with established veterans and a dynamite pitching staff. It seemed a recipe for instant success.
And yet, baseball is the type of game that keeps sports psychologists in business. A few bad games, a couple of 0-for-4 days, and you’re in serious trouble. It seemed as if just about every Duck hit a slump of some sort in the early weeks of the season, and perhaps now they are finally regaining their rhythm.
There is plenty to be optimistic about. Junior second baseman Danny Pulfer has quietly reached base in 24 straight games, with at least one hit in 21 of those games. Freshman Aaron Jones leads the team with 22 RBI, while fellow first-year players Stefan Sabol and Brett Thomas are both hitting above .300.
It may not seem like much at first glance, but Oregon needs only a few timely hits each game to support a pitching staff that is nothing short of dominant. It happened this past week, and perhaps that was exactly what the team needed to get going.
Swagger and confidence. It was on full display even after Saturday’s game ended. Third baseman J.J. Altobelli was in the midst of his postgame interview when catcher Jack Marder surprised him with a shaving cream pie in the face.
After wiping himself off — “it doesn’t taste very good” — Altobelli could only smile. It was a moment that would have been unimaginable just one week before. Horton recently told his players to stop thinking so much, to play like they would “on a Sunday afternoon with their brother.”
They listened to him, and it might just save the season.
Swagger and confidence. It’s back in abundance for the Oregon baseball team, and doesn’t look to be departing anytime soon.
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