Tag: oregon ducks baseball

Super Regional Preview: Golden Eagles look to swoop in and take CWS appearance from Ducks

Oral Roberts comes into the Eugene Super Regional as an underdog even though its riding a 21-game winning streak.

Make no mistake about it. Oral Roberts comes into the Eugene Super Regional as the underdog. But as winners of 39-of-42, the Golden Eagles don’t believe that should be the case.

And they could be right.

ORU has won 21 straight games and their lost defeat came on April 22 when it lost 4-2 to North Dakota State. Overall, the Golden Eagles possess a record of 49-11 with wins over the likes of Oklahoma State, Washington and traditional college baseball power Dallas Baptist as they won the Stillwater Regional last week.

So what’s the secret to their success?

Having two All-Americans doesn’t hurt the cause. Centerfielder Jonah Cox became Oral Roberts’ first All-American since 2008 with his ungodly .424 batting average. He’s third in the country with 106 hits that included 10 home runs, 64 runs batted in, eight triples, and 16 doubles. Cox also has 27 stolen bases and was caught just three times.

The second All-American is closer Cade Denton with his 15 saves and 1.65 earned run average.

But according to Golden Eagles coach Ryan Folmer, the collective whole and not the individuals is what makes this team special.

“It’s an easy group to coach. You want to be playing this time of year and you want to keep playing,” he said. “We went on the road in what seems like forever ago and we talked about how going on the road has a chance to galvanize your team.”

Oral Roberts has been on the road for three straight weeks and it seems to suit them.

Coming to PK Park and playing in front of about 4,000 Duck fans will be the champion of the Summit League’s biggest challenge to date. Both schools will be battling for their first College World Series appearance in their programs’ history.

If Oregon wants to go to Omaha, it’ll take more than keeping Cox off base. Nearly every ORU starting position player hits over .300 and they have a team average of .324.

Neither team has announced their starting pitchers, but the Golden Eagles have a trio of pitchers that have started the majority of their weekend series.

Brooks Fowler comes in with a 9-1 record and a 3.11 ERA. The sophomore started the regional-clinching game against Dallas Baptist and he went five innings, giving up four runs and seven hits.

Harley Gollert, a redshirt senior from Canada, comes in with a 10-1 mark and a 4.00 ERA, but in his most recent appearance, Washington roughed him up a bit. He didn’t get out of the first inning as he gave up six runs and seven hits in 2/3 of an inning.

The third starter is Jakob Hall with his 8-3 record and 3.25 ERA. He started the regional-opening game against Oklahoma State, but went just 2.2 innings due to an extended weather delay.

Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski discusses upcoming super regional vs. Oral Roberts

Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski discusses upcoming super regional vs. Oral Roberts

The last time Oregon baseball was in this spot, it didn’t end well for the Ducks.

Kent State came to Eugene and hit a walk-off double that was barely fair down the left field line to upset Oregon 3-2 in Game 3 of the 2012 Super Regional.

Oregon hopes this series ends on a much better note.

The Ducks host Oral Roberts for a best-of-three beginning Friday with the winner moving on to the College World Series for the first time in either program’s history.

“It’s special. I know they have a lot of things planned,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “I think they sold this thing out in less than an hour. The fan interest and the community and what that means for us. It’s awesome.”

There is going to be a fanfest event before Games 1 and 2 for sure as well as possible bleacher seating in the outfield if it’s been approved. In other words, hosting a Super Regional is a big deal and doesn’t happen very often.

Ironically, Wasikowski has been at Oregon to experience the only two times this has happened for the Ducks. He was an assistant under George Horton back in 2012. Coach Waz has seen what it takes to build up a program to reach this point.

“It’s hard,” he said on Wednesday during a press conference. “It’s not easy to get to Omaha and it’s not easy to get to Super Regionals or even the Regionals. To be able to do that on a consistent basis here in Year 3, we’re going in the right direction.”

The ultimate direction the Ducks want to go is, according to the sign just outside PK Park, is east, or more specifically, 1,687 miles. Oregon is just two wins away from making that historic journey.

But Oral Roberts isn’t coming to Eugene just to be cannon fodder. The Golden Eagles are for real and they’ll be a tough opponent.

According to Wasikowski, the Ducks will need to go out and win this. ORU won’t hand it to them.

“Statistically on paper, they have the best defense in the country and they rolled through a really difficult regional,” he said. “We’re very familiar with that team and they’re good.”

The Eugene Super Regional will get underway Friday with first pitch scheduled for 5 pm PST. Games 1 and 2 will be televised on ESPNU.

Oregon is one of six schools to reach Super Regionals on two diamonds

Oregon is one of just six schools to advance to the Super Regional round in both baseball and softball this season.

Reaching the Sweet 16 is no easy feat. That’s why there’s such a celebration when you do make it on the basketball floor. The NCAA even trademarked the term “Sweet 16.”

In baseball and softball, those sports’ version of the Sweet 16 are the Super Regionals. It’s probably more rare to reach the Super Regional round because of how unpredictable baseball and softball can be.

Oregon baseball hasn’t made a Super Regional since 2012 until now and softball just made its first Super Regional appearance since 2017 before getting swept at Oklahoma State in two straight games.

It’s not easy.

But this season, the Ducks are fortunate enough to advance to the Super Regional in BOTH sports. They are just one of six schools to complete the feat in 2023.

Ironically, both Oregon and Stanford represented the Pac-12 in each sport. Stanford softball made it all the way to the semifinals of the Women’s College World Series before losing to Oklahoma.

Also, both Pac-12 teams are hosting their baseball Super Regionals and have a fairly decent chance of moving on to the CWS in Omaha.

Here are the six schools that advanced to the Super Regional round on both diamonds this season.

Four Ducks named to all-regional team; Nishida Most Valuable Player

Four Ducks were named to the All-Nashville Regional team with Rikuu Nishida as the Most Valuable Player.

Whether it’s a wood bat or an aluminum bat, it’s all the same to Oregon right fielder Rikuu Nishida.

The junior from Japan and three other Ducks were named to the All-Nashville Regional team after Oregon went 3-0 and advanced to the Super Regional round.

Nishida was also named Most Valuable Player of the regional after hitting .500 (6-for-12) with three runs driven in. He was joined by Sabin Ceballos, Drew Cowley and Grayson Grinsell on the all-regional squad.

Ceballos just went 2-for-13 with a homer and four RBIs, but it was his defensive prowess on the hot corner that earned him this honor. His barehanded play in the seventh inning to end a Vanderbilt rally alone probably got Ceballos on the team.

Without that play, the Commodores might have come back and beat the Ducks and Oregon might not be in the Super Regionals.

Cowley was a star at the plate as he went 6-for-13 with six RBIs, including a home run.

Grinsell appeared in two of the three games and was great. In Game 1 against Xavier, the lefty freshman threw two innings of relief where he was a bit wild with three walks, but he held the Musketeers in check.

Things went a lot better in the second and deciding game with Xavier where Grinsell started and threw four scoreless innings, giving up just three hits and striking out seven. His effort gave the Oregon offense time to get hot in the fifth with three runs in the fifth and six more in the sixth for the 11-2 win.

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Photo Gallery: Oregon comes home as Nashville Regional champs

Photo Gallery: Oregon upset No. 6 Vanderbilt and then defeated Xavier to win the Nashville Regional in the NCAA baseball tournament.

The college baseball season has been one wild ride and the Oregon Ducks made sure that ride continued by winning the Nashville Regional.

Oregon defeated Xavier, upset No. 6 Vanderbilt, and then Xavier again to move on to the Super Regional where the Ducks will host Oral Roberts this weekend at PK Park.

The Ducks put everything on display with home runs, clutch hitting, spectacular game-saving defensive play, and some gutsy pitching performances to win the regional.

There were even a couple of lightning strikes during the Vanderbilt-Xavier game Sunday afternoon. But it seems has if Oregon channeled the lightning in order to win and they hope it strikes twice at PK Park to move on to the College World Series in Omaha.

Ducks defeat Xavier and will host a Super Regional vs Oral Roberts

Oregon blows out Xavier to win the Nashville Regional and will now host Oral Roberts with a trip to Omaha on the line.

Xavier may not want to schedule Oregon in any sport ever again.

The Oregon Ducks baseball team began this season with a four-game sweep over the Musketeers and just ended the Nashville Regional with an 11-2 win over that same Xavier team.

Now the Ducks will come home and host Oral Roberts in their first Super Regional since 2012. The Golden Eagles were a 4-seed in the Stillwater Regional and upset Dallas Baptist 6-5 to advance. The weekend series will be a Best of 2-of-3 with the winner going on to Omaha for the College World Series.

Playing and defeating Xavier for the sixth time this season was probably the last thing on anyone’s mind when this weekend started. Vanderbilt, a national 6-seed, was the overwhelming favorite to win this regional, but the Ducks beat the Commodores Saturday night and Xavier ousted the host team 2-1 Sunday afternoon.

Although they upset Vandy, Xavier was still in a tough spot. The Musketeers had to beat the Ducks twice in order to advance.

The game was scoreless through three innings until Oregon finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth on Sabin Ceballos’ 442-foot solo home run to left-center field that left the entire stadium.

The Ducks added to their 1-0 lead in the fifth thanks to some old-time small ball. Rikuu Nishida stole second and the ball went into center field to score Bennett Thompson.

Nishida went to third on the play and two pitches later, he scored on a balk to make it 3-0. Drew Cowley’s double to right-center scored Bryce Boettcher to increase the lead to 4-0.

Boettcher started the game in center as he replaced Colby Shade, who was hit on the wrist by a pitch Saturday night. Thankfully for the Ducks, Boettcher is as good of an outfielder as Shade, so there wasn’t any loss of defense in such a crucial spot.

Xavier managed to score an unearned run in the sixth and then the Ducks absolutely blew the door off in the bottom half with six runs to make it 10-1.

The big blow came off the wooden bat of Nishida with a bases-clearing double to extend their lead to 7-1. Just for good measure, Drew Cowley hit a three-run homer to left-center to put double digits on the scoreboard to erase any doubt.

Perhaps lost in the offensive exploits is the effort on the mound. Oregon used Grayson Grinsell, Ian Umlandt, and Logan Mercado to hold the Musketeers to just two runs, one unearned, and nine hits.

Oregon’s late-season run has been something else. This victory was the Ducks’ ninth straight and if that streak reaches 11 next weekend, they’ll be going to Omaha for the first time in the program’s history.

Ducks hold on to defeat Vanderbilt to advance to regional final

Oregon advances to the Nashville Regional final with an 8-7 victory over 6-seed Vanderbilt.

Should Oregon advance to the Super Regional, the Ducks are going to remember this play by third baseman Sabin Ceballos.

The junior college transfer, who has led Oregon with his bat, turned in the defensive play of the year for the Ducks. Ceballos’ barehanded play to get Alan Espinal by literally a quarter of a step erased Vanderbilt’s rally in the seventh inning.

Oregon then went on to defeat the Commodores 8-7 and advance to the Nashville Regional final. Vanderbilt will now play Xavier in an elimination game at 12 pm PST and the winner of that contest will play Oregon at 6 pm and they’ll have to defeat the Ducks twice in order to win the regional.

Game 7 of the regional would be played Monday if Oregon loses Sunday night.

After two innings of play, it was 4-4 and the thought of Turner Spoljaric going six wasn’t looking good for the freshman. But once RJ Scheck hit a homer that seemingly went five miles to tie the game at 4-4, Spoljaric settled down and retired the next nine straight Commodores.

The Ducks were able to grab the lead in the fifth on Ceballos’ run-scoring single and later in the inning, Jacob Walsh lined a double to left-center that scored three runs to give Oregon an 8-4 advantage.

Vanderbilt managed to put together a small rally in the six by putting on the first two hitters and Spoljaric looked like he was at the end of his rope. But the Duck pitcher was able to retire the next three hitters.

Everything was calm in the eighth with Matt Dallas pitching a perfect inning, but the ninth created some excitement that Oregon did not need.

Closer Josh Mollerus made it interesting, to say the least as he allowed a 2-run homer off of the bat of Chris Maldonado. It was 8-7 and Oregon still needed two outs. Fortunately, Mollerus coaxed fly balls to centerfielder Colby Shade and that huge exhale came from the Oregon dugout.

Now the Ducks are 27 outs from going to a Super Regional for the first time since 2012.

Photo Gallery: Ducks avoid Xavier upset in Nashville Regional

Photo Gallery: Oregon had plenty to be happy about after it rallied to defeat Xavier 5-4 in the Nashville Regional.

Xavier’s starting pitcher Brant Alazaus was on a roll. He retired 12 straight batters, was up 4-3 in the seventh, and had one out. Then Oregon’s Rikuu Nishida hit a fly ball over the head of left fielder Andrew Walker to be in scoring position.

Alazaus had 105 pitches under his belt and Musketeer coach Billy O’Connor felt that was enough and went to his bullpen. That decision might have cost Xavier as Colby Shade and Drew Cowley also doubled to give the Ducks the 5-4 lead.

Fortunately, Oregon’s bullpen came through whereas Xavier’s didn’t. The Ducks won by that score and will now play either Vanderbilt or Eastern Illinois on Saturday at 3 pm PST.

Oregon Ducks Regional Preview: Vanderbilt Commodores

An outstanding March where they finished 18-2, Vanderbilt earned its No. 6 national seed by winning the SEC tournament.

When it comes to the NCAA baseball tournament, having a regional in Nashville is pretty much a sure thing.

Vanderbilt has hosted a regional nine times and the Commodores are making their 17th straight postseason appearance. Vandy, as the No. 6 national seed, would host a Super Regional should it advance.

The Commodores finished second in the SEC West Division with a 19-11 record, one game behind Florida. But Vandy was able to win the SEC tournament, including an 11-6 win in the semifinals before beating Texas A&M for the title.

That victory solidified Vanderbilt’s national seed and gave it an overall mark of 40-18. Nearly half of those wins came in March where Vandy got on a major roll and finished 18-2 for the month.

Surprisingly, not one Commodore player was an All-SEC First-Teamer, but three made the Second Team (outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., starting pitcher Devin Futrell and reliever Nick Maldonado) with two making the All-Defensive Team (Bradfield and third baseman Davis Diaz) and RJ Austin was on the All-Freshman squad.

Austin, a second baseman, finished the regular season with a .267 batting average with seven home runs and 42 runs batted in. Vandy is led by RJ Scheck with his .309 average, 13 homers and 57 RBIs.

Bradfield hit .286 for the season with six homers and 33 RBIs. Futrell, who is likely to start in Game 1 of the regional, was 7-3 with a 3.44 earned run average. Maldonado was the Commodores’ closer as he had eight saves and a 1.45 ERA.

Vanderbilt isn’t going to outslug anyone, but it’s not going to beat itself either in the field. The Commodores made just 38 errors all season. By comparison, Oregon, which is considered a very good defensive team, committed 50 errors.

The Nashville Regional begins for Vanderbilt at 4 pm PST as they play 4-seed Eastern Illinois on the SEC Network.

Ducks rally late to advance past Xavier in Nashville Regional

Three straight doubles in the seventh inning was just enough to propel the Ducks past Xavier 5-4 in Nashville Regional.

Using six pitchers and relying on your bullpen for seven innings isn’t the normal game plan in baseball.

But Game 1 in the Nashville Regional went exactly how Mark Wasikowski envisioned. Two runs in the bottom of the seventh also helped.

Oregon was able to win its first NCAA tournament game with a 5-4 victory over Xavier. The Ducks will now await the winner of the Vanderbilt-Eastern Illinois contest to see who they play Saturday at 3 pm PST.

Ironically, these two teams met in the first weekend series of the season with the Ducks sweeping the Musketeers. Those games went just about how this went, which was a nail-biter until the very end.

The Ducks went the “Johnny Whole Staff” method here in the opener with Logan Mercado starting and relievers Grayson Grinsell, Dylan McShane, Austin Anderson, Matt Dallas, and closer Josh Mollerus shutting down the Musketeers.

Although they walked six batters with four of them scoring, the Ducks locked it down for the last five innings with just one hit and no walks.

Xavier wasted an outstanding start from its pitcher, Brant Alazaus. The left-hander had the Duck batters off-balance all day long with his 82-mile-an-hour fastball and low-70s breaking ball.

After the Musketeers scored two in the first, the Ducks answered quickly with two of their own. Oregon took a brief 3-2 lead with Xavier taking the lead back in the next half-inning, but then it was zeros put up for four straight innings.

With nine outs left, the Ducks’ offense finally went to work in the seventh. Rikuu Nishida hit a one-out double to get the rally started. Alazaus was over the 100-pitch mark and Xavier felt that was enough. Fortunately for Oregon, it was a decision that went its way.

Jonathan Kelly came in and promptly gave up two more doubles to Colby Shade and Drew Cowley to give Oregon the 5-4 lead.

Dallas pitched a perfect eighth and Mollerus gave up a single before coaxing Matthew Deprey into a double play to end the game.