Tag: Mark Wasikowski

Oregon rallies for four runs and stuns Seattle in 10 innings

Drew Smith’s two-run single completed the four-run rally in the 10th inning as the Ducks stunned Seattle U 5-4.

It was just how Mark Wasikowski and the Ducks drew it up.

That plan, obviously, was to wait out a 70-minute weather delay, give up three runs in the top of the 10th, and then use two infield hits, a deflection into center field, two hit batsmen, and a single from Drew Smith to score two more and stun Seattle University 5-4.

All right, this scenario wouldn’t be No. 1 on the list in ways to win a game, but that’s exactly how Oregon captured the opening contest of a four-game non-conference series with the Redhawks.

It was 1-1 after nine innings that was a rare midweek pitching duel. But that ended quickly in extra when Seattle’s third baseman Derek Gellos deposited a pitch over the left-center wall for the three-run home run and give the Redhawks a 4-1 lead.

Things were looking quite bleak for the Ducks, who were trying to avoid a two-game losing streak. The rally began harmlessly when Bryce Boettcher hit a high chopper to third that he was able to beat out at first. Chase Meggers hit his own tapper off the end of the bat for another infield single and the Ducks were in business.

Anson Aroz didn’t waste any time by smacking a liner off of pitcher Brady Liddle’s foot that got past the shortstop into center to score Boettcher.

After a sacrifice fly from Mason Neville Liddle didn’t help his cause by hitting Justin Cassella and Jacob Walsh to reload the bases. Only needing a fly ball to tie the game, Smith did much more with a liner down the left field line to score both Aroz and Cassella.

It was Oregon’s second walk-off win in five days. The Ducks defeated Arizona 3-2 on Saturday.

These two teams will meet up again for Game 2 of the series, set for a 5:05 pm PST first pitch streamed on Pac-12 Insider.

Oregon baseball finds itself ranked prominently in all season-ending polls

Oregon baseball finished the season as high as No. 12 and as low as No. 19 in all of the college baseball polls.

With the College World Series ending with an LSU dogpile on the mound, all six college baseball polls have been released one final time and the Ducks are squarely in the middle of all of them.

According to these polls, Oregon baseball finds itself ranked as high as No. 12 and as low as No. 19.

D1Baseball.com was the poll that gave the Ducks their highest ranking and well … USA TODAY Sports gave the lowest.

Baseball America ranked Oregon 13th and the National College Baseball Writers of America said the Ducks were No. 14 in the country.

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper also gave Oregon a No. 13 ranking as did Perfect Game.

All in all, it’s a solid ending for the Ducks, but obviously it’s not where Oregon or its head coach Mark Wasikowski envisioned at the start of the season. The goal is and always has been to reach Omaha and the CWS, a goal that’s still elusive for the Ducks.

For the 2024 season, Oregon is expected to field another strong team that will contend for its first Pac-12 regular season title and hopefully its first trip to Omaha since 1954.

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Twitter Reaction: Oral Roberts gets walk-off win to beat Ducks, force Game 3

After experiencing a walk-off win on Friday night, Duck fans unfortunately saw the flipside of that coin on Saturday. Game 3 Sunday. Buckle up.

The Oregon Ducks were two outs away from advancing to their first College World Series. Two outs away from continuing their 10-game winning streak and making it further than any Oregon team has since 1954.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t get the job done.

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In the bottom of the ninth inning against Oral Roberts, the Golden Eagles strung together a pair of singles and got a batter walked to load the bases. Then a line drive down the left field line ended up bouncing out of play, giving the Golden Eagles a walk-off ground-rule double to keep their season alive.

It was the second walk-off in as many days at PK Park, with the Ducks getting a walk-off RBI single from Drew Cowley on Friday night to end Oral Roberts’ 21-game winning streak.

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Now the two teams will play in Game 3 on Sunday afternoon for a chance to move on to the College World Series. Buckle up, I’m sure it will be a classic.

For now, here are some of the best reactions on social media throughout the night, ending in a brutal loss for the Ducks:

‘This team won’t quit;’ UO coach Mark Wasikowski credits heart, fan electricity for comeback win

“Our fans wouldn’t let us lose,” Coach Wasikowski said. “Our fans were amazing, and I don’t think PK Park has ever been that electric.”

It was a roller coaster ride for your average Oregon fan on Friday night in attendance at Game 1 of the Super Regionals between the Ducks and Oral Roberts Golden Eagles on Friday night.

While the electricity was present and pumping before the first pitch was thrown, with the second-largest crowd in PK Park history, the energy was quickly sapped from the ballpark as Oral Roberts hung an eight-run third inning on the Ducks and blew the game open.

Coming into the contest, everyone knew that the Golden Eagles were no joke — you don’t go 49-11 with a 21-game winning streak by accident. Duck fans were learning the hard way.

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A once raucous environment turned quiet. However, while the fans may have been frustrated and solemn in the stands, the Ducks stayed calm and looked to right the ship.

“This team won’t quit. This team’s got a toughness to them that I’ve never seen before,” said head coach Mark Wasikowski. “They won’t quit. To come back from an 8-0 deficit, as disappointed as they were in the third inning… They’ve been working to build this thing to where a day like this would happen, this number of people and this energy. And to get really punched in the face in the beginning of this game, I don’t think I’d ever be able to imagine another team rebounding from that.”

Back-to-back home runs from Jacob Walsh and Bennett Thompson in the third gave Oregon life, and then a three-run bomb again from Thompson in the fourth inning gave the Ducks a spark. From that point, the comeback was on.

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“You can’t hit a seven-run home run; I’ve never seen it,” Thompson said. “So I was just trying to put a good swing on the ball. That guy had been throwing a lot of strikes, and so I was just able to get a fastball in the zone and not trying to do too much. Ultimately the ball left the yard but I wasn’t trying to do that; it just ended up happening. So that was awesome to get the momentum back on our side there.”

The Ducks tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, and then a walk-off RBI single from Drew Cowley in the bottom of the ninth put Oregon over the top, completing the largest comeback in Super Regionals history.

“Our fans wouldn’t let us lose,” Wasikowski said. “Our fans were amazing, and I don’t think PK Park has ever been that electric. I think it can even get better, but they would not let us lose.”

It was an incredible win, and something that will give plenty of momentum going into Game 2 on Saturday night. Despite the craziness, the Ducks know that if they aren’t able to win one more game against Oral Roberts, then all of this will be for not.

“We’re obviously excited, grounded in the moment, but we understand that we’re still one win away,” Wasikowski said. “So it’s not like anything’s been accomplished other than the fact that it was a fantastic environment, a great game.”

First pitch for Game 2 is scheduled for 6 p.m. on ESPNU Saturday night. ‘[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Oregon baseball to participate in 2024 tournament at Globe Life Field

The Oregon baseball program will open the 2024 season in style as it will play in the College Showdown at Globe Life Field Feb. 16-18, 2024.

The Texas Rangers have made good use of their relatively new stadium of Globe Life Field since it opened in 2020.

Major League Baseball held both league championships there and the World Series due to the pandemic. The facility has also been host to “The College Baseball Showdown,” a tournament with the top baseball programs in the country. In 2024, the Oregon Ducks will be a participant in the tourney that will be held Feb. 16-18, 2024.

Sponsored by Shriners Children, the tournament will also have Baylor, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas Tech.

“The Oregon Ducks can’t wait to open up the 2024 college baseball season at Globe Life Field for the Shriners Children’s College Baseball Showdown,” Ducks head coach Mark Wasikowski said in a press release. “It’s going to be an awesome experience with the people out there in Texas. We can’t wait to see our fans come pack the house and root the Ducks on. We can’t wait to get down there.”

This year’s Ducks are fighting for a possible NCAA Regional as they are currently 31-16 overall and 14-10 in Pac-12 play. They have one more regular season series at home against Washington this weekend before closing it out at Utah next week.

Baseball recap: Ducks win ninth straight with a sweep in the desert

Oregon baseball keeps rolling with a nine-game winning streak which includes a sweep over Arizona down in the desert.

The offense was a problem for the Oregon Ducks baseball team early in the season. The key word in that previous sentence is “was.”

It’s not a problem anymore.

The Ducks scored 15 runs on Friday, 13 more on Saturday, and eight in the series finale at Arizona. With the completed sweep, Oregon moves to 18-7 overall and 6-3 in Pac-12 play. They have also won nine straight.

Before this winning streak, Oregon had a team batting average under .230. Now it’s over .300. A big part is the resurgence of power hitter Jacob Walsh. The sophomore first baseman crushed three homers in this series, including an absolute bomb to right-center to give the Ducks an early 2-0 lead.

Oregon had a 7-1 lead and held on to win 8-5 in Game 3 against Arizona. It’s the second straight series sweep over Arizona for the Ducks.

Drew Cowley homered twice and drove in five while closer Josh Mollerus managed to get a five-out save for his fourth of the year. Walsh also homered. He might not want to return to Eugene after nine hits of the series, including a trio of round-trippers.

This series started out with a bang as the Ducks scored a season-high 15 runs and 22 hits in a huge 15-3 win. Sabin Ceballos led the way with four hits and four RBIs. Walsh hit a homer and Jace Stoffal threw seven solid innings for his third win of the season.

In Game 2, it wasn’t how coach Mark Wasikowski would have drawn it up, but a win is a win. Arizona scored 10 runs in the first two innings of the game and about 98 percent of the time, it would be over. But the Ducks were able to scratch and claw their way back.

Still down 11-5 in the seventh, Oregon managed to plate five runs to make it 11-10 Wildcats. Dominic Hellman and Rikuu Nishida each had run-scoring hits to cut the big deficit to just one.

In the top of the ninth, Oregon scored three runs to take a 13-11 lead and eventual win. Colby Shade’s double tied the game and Nishida’s single scored two more runs.

Mollerus came in to pitch a scoreless ninth for his third save of the season.

Now the Ducks come back home for a 10-game homestand beginning with a single game with Portland before hosting rival Oregon State, beginning on Thursday. The Beavers are 18-10 overall and 5-7 in conference action.

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Oregon cruises past the Bears 8-3 with a five-run first inning

Oregon scored five runs in the first and cruised to an 8-3 win over California at PK Park.

Oregon Ducks baseball coach Mark Wasikowski probably prefers his offense to spread the runs out a bit more, but as long as the Ducks win, it doesn’t matter all that much.

A five-run first inning gave the Ducks the upper hand and Oregon was able to cruise to a relatively easy 8-3 win over California on a blustery day at PK Park. With the win, the Ducks improved to 28-14 overall and 13-7 in conference play.

Oregon starting pitcher Isaac Ayon pitched six solid innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and striking out seven. He earned his third win of the season.

It didn’t look good for Ayon early on as he gave up a lead-off homer and a double in the first inning. But he was able to settle down and held the Bears off the scoreboard other than that home run.

That was all the Oregon offense needed to get to off the deck in the bottom of the first. The Ducks used three doubles and three singles to score five runs and that was more than enough for Ayon.

Cal scored single runs in the second and third. The Ducks scored a run in the second and at the end of three, it was 6-3 Oregon. It stayed that way until the seventh when the Ducks were able to score two insurance runs on Tanner Smith’s single to left that drove in Anthony Hall and Gavin Grant.

The Ducks will go for the sweep Sunday at noon as they will send out Jace Stoffal to the mound. The Bears haven’t announced their starter.

Kolby Somers earns his seventh save of the year with 5-4 win over Portland

Anthony Hall homers and Kolby Somers shuts the door on the Pilots for the 5-4 win at Portland.

Oregon Ducks baseball coach Mark Wasikowski probably didn’t think he would need his closer to come into the eighth inning to preserve a slim one-run lead considering the last time the Ducks played Portland, they won 18-2.

Kolby Somers was up to the task and earned his seventh save of the season as Oregon defeated the Pilots 5-4. With the win, the Ducks improved to 25-11 on the season and have won six straight.

After six innings of play, it looked like Oregon would cruise as it held a nice 5-0 lead. They scored one in the first and two more in the second. Anthony Hall extended the Ducks’ lead with a mammoth two-run home run in the sixth. It was his ninth homer of the year and the Ducks’ 56th home run as a team, equalling the number of round-trippers they hit last season. The next homer will be a program record.

Once it was 5-0, the Pilots managed to finally cross some runners home. They have threatened numerous times in the early innings, but the Ducks were able to leave runners on base. Portland was able to crack the scoreboard in the seventh with three runs off of reliever Matt Dallas, who just didn’t have it for the first time in quite a while.

Logan Mercado gave up a triple and a double and saw the lead cut to one at 5-4 and that was when Wasikowski went to his closer to shut down the Pilots and get out of Portland with a win.

Now the Ducks will come back home and host Washington State (13-21, 5-13) for a three-game weekend set beginning on Friday at 6 p.m.

Oregon uses a 10-run first inning to cruise past San Francisco

Oregon exploded for 10 runs in the first innings and went on to win 15-5 over San Francisco.

Oregon Ducks baseball coach Mark Wasikowski’s arm might have been tired of waving runners home in the first inning.

A total of 10 Ducks scored in that initial frame as Oregon went on to cruise past San Francisco 15-5 in the first game of a brief two-game midweek series with the Dons.

With the win, Oregon moves to 17-7 overall, while USF out of the West Coast Conference fell to 14-13.

In the previous series with USC, the Ducks fell victim to a lot of hard-hit outs. But in baseball, things tend to even themselves out a bit. Oregon didn’t exactly pound the ball off of USF starting pitcher Weston Lombard. The Ducks had eight hits, all singles, in the first inning.

Brennan Milone had two hits and drove in four in the first where Oregon led 10-1. But unfortunately, Duck starting pitcher Jacob Hughes couldn’t stand the prosperity as he gave up three runs in the second and was pulled from the game.

The bullpen restored some order and the combination of Stone Churby, RJ Gordon, Christian Ciuffetelli and Rio Britton allowed just one run in their 7 2/3 innings.

Meanwhile, Josh Kasevich belted his third home run of the season, a two-run shot in the third to make it 12-4. Oregon scored three more in the fourth with the big blow coming from Sam Novitske’s double into the left-center field gap.

These two teams will finish out the series Wednesday afternoon with a 1 p.m. scheduled first pitch at PK Park. Neither Oregon nor USF has announced a starting pitcher.

 

Around the horn: Oregon upsets No. 2 Stanford to open weekend series

Oregon baseball starts the Pac-12 season off with a bang with a 4-3 upset win over No. 2 Stanford.

If Oregon Ducks coach Mark Wasikowski had fingernails before the game tonight, he probably doesn’t have many left now.

Closer Kolby Somers flirted with disaster in the ninth by walking two batters, but he eventually earned his first save of the season and the Ducks upset No. 2 Stanford 4-3 in the opening game of a three-game weekend series down on The Farm.

Oregon moves to 9-5 overall and 1-0 in conference action. Stanford fell to 8-4 and 0-1.

The Cardinal jumped on the Ducks early with two runs in the first due to a couple of fielding errors. But Oregon settled down and starter Caleb Slaon, who was filling in for injured Adam Maier, pitched two innings before giving way for RJ Gordon. He pitched 4 and 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on three hits and 5 strikeouts. But more importantly, he kept Oregon in the game in order to let the offense get on track.

They got on that rack in the fifth with two runs in the fifth. It stayed 2-2 until the eighth when Colby Shade’s bases-loaded walk gave the Ducks a brief 3-2 lead. Stanford managed to tie the game in the bottom half on the inning, but Tanner Smith’s lead-off homer in the ninth gave Oregon the 4-3 lead and eventual win.