Oregon Baseball Moving Up...

[Charles Fischer]

In the D1Baseball rankings, the Ducks moved from No. 12 to No. 11, while holding steady at No. 19 with Baseball America.  Frankly, I've always followed D1Baseball, even when on the short end of things.  There are five major Baseball ranking services, which is crazy considering how few keep an eye on the sport, IMHO.

 

Unfortunately, Beavis has outscored their opponents 30-3 in their first three games, including a 6-0 victory over B1G Indiana, who has a good team. Oregon State is at No. 7, but could move higher over the season.

 

Our Beloved Ducks have a very high upside, as we had some impressive freshmen pitchers surprise me, and the development of two pitchers that I counted out was also quite impressive. (Collin Clarke and Cole Stokes) Ian Umlandt has strange stuff that still messes batters up, and creates low scoring as last year.

 

So the surprise from this last weekend is how the scoring was much lower for such an experienced team than I would have thought going in, and how the pitching was WAY better than I was hoping for.  Yes, it is early and not like playing Beavis, but there is real hope for a shot at Omaha.

 

I think the game lost was GOOD for the Ducks; going undefeated for a while gets teams full-of-themselves, and this was a great reminder of how two walks and an infield error will load the bases with no outs, and you have to mentally clamp down to prevent a bad inning. 

 

I gotta say though, that Toledo had an outfielder who caught two incredible hits that prevented three runs scoring between the two catches.  (We lost 5-3) ESPN made one of them in their top-ten. Well, and in that game--the Rocket pitchers were just studs, and handcuffed the Ducks superbly.  Good on them, and good for Oregon to be reminded of how thin the razor's edge is.

 

3rd Baseman Carter Garate Loves Baseball....Do You?

 

[spartan2785]

I'm going to be incredibly harsh on the ducks, but those losses against MAC type of opponent have to be kept at a minimum if they want a high seed or host a regional.  Reality is that we just aren't going to play many high quality opponents, our league is the weakest of the major conferences (by a lot).  So we can't afford to be letting a team like Toledo get their first win against a ranked opponent since I think they said 2017?  

 

That's incredibly harsh on a team that has a young pitching staff.  I'm not putting the team down, just stating facts that if Oregon wants to achieve incredible things they'll need to start getting sweeps against lower level opponents at home.  

 

I really want to emphasize that I don't think it really means anything that we lost a game against Toledo, just that if we want to be a top 15 team, those losses will need to be few and far  between simply because we might only play 2-3 ranked opponents this season.  Didn't cost us this week, but it might over the long haul.  Offense looks good, but it will be the pitching that decides if we will have a chance to do something cool this year.  Last few seasons we've had no depth to our pitching, need to find multiple guys who can be relied on.

[Charles Fischer]

On 2/17/2025 at 3:05 PM, spartan2785 said:

Last few seasons we've had no depth to our pitching, need to find multiple guys who can be relied on.

First of all, I agree that a loss like this cannot happen often, and I don't think it will. It was a perfect storm of that outfielder saving a HR and who knows how many runs, and some damn fine pitching by Toledo that day.  It will happen like that, because as they say, "that's Baseball!"

 

We also had a transfer pitcher in for the first time, and literally could not get an out.  Had to be pulled after the fourth batter...  A different pitcher for Oregon perhaps gives us a win, but in the early games like this--you gotta play people and see who is good.

 

Oregon also played a number of freshmen in the field, and my gosh we got two impressive freshman catchers.

 

Something I just learned from Waz in an interview was why our pitching staff collapsed against Texas A&M, as I could not understand how Brock Moore could mow down Oregon State, but just got shelled at College Station.  Apparently the majority of our pitching staff was SICK after the first game, and that is some bad luck.

 

I was not sure I believed Coach Waz when he said before the season that, "our pitching depth is better than last year."  Really? We lost most of who was good, and we have no idea what they are being replaced with...but Waz knew.

 

This is an experienced, savvy team with deep pitching, and Omaha is possible!  (Charles, put down those Pom-Poms)

 

Gabe Howard, the 6'3" freshman from

West Linn left them scoreless..

 

[sports fan]

I completely agree with you guys that Oregon can't lose to lower class teams, especially on their home field. I will use our little brother to point out what can and did happen to them.  After winning back-to-back baseball championships, their 2008 season came crashing back to Earth.  They did not make the playoffs.  They lost to Gonzaga 11-6 and 4-2 in Spokane, Utah Valley beat them 11-6 in Corvallis and a loss to Long Beach State 10-0 in Long Beach.  Fast forward to 2015 where they did make the NCAA Baseball Playoffs. 

 

Losing twice to New Mexico 7-4 and 5-2 in Surprise, Arizona and losing in Corvallis twice to Cal Poly 8-1 and 7-2.  They had a 39-18-1 record and you would think they would start the playoffs at home but they were sent packing to Dallas where they lost two of three games to be eliminated.  Looking ahead to Rhode Island, I checked to see their record.  There is no way Oregon should lose to these guys. 

 

They beat William and Mary 10-9, lost 5-4 (in 7 innings) and wait for it...won the rubber match 36-22 (in 7 innings)!!!  I thought I was looking at a football score.  In that game there were a combined 40 hits and 7 errors. Columbia doesn't start their season until Friday, February 21st.  Bottom line...the Ducks have absolutely no excuse to lose any of these games or it will come back to bite them in the butt if they do.