Since the addition of PK Park (named after legendary Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny) and the return of the Oregon baseball program in 2009, the Ducks have grown steadily into a nationally recognized baseball team. Today, the Ducks made the D1 Baseball preseason Top 25 list at No. 22, one of only three Pac-12 schools (No. 4 UCLA and No. 24 Arizona State) to make the national preseason list. Wonderful day at …
[Ed note: The first three paragraphs reference north-of-the-Columbia River stuff — this is the epitome of “friends in low places.”] I knew it was coming, it always does, my buddy Frank and his Husky purple heart calling to give me grief over the Ducks losing their PAC-12 baseball series to the Huskies. I’ve known Frank for a lifetime, and he has …
Oregon’s spring sports are moving at a tremendous pace as we head into the final month of regular season games on the diamond and a speedy stretch of 11 events for Outdoor track and field. It is still an early season for Oregon’s track and field teams, but the expectations are high after sweeping the 2013 Indoor Championships. These early …
Anytime you go on the road in the highly competitive Pac-12, it is essential to bring your A-game. Oregon’s (19-8, 6-3 Pac-12) baseball team won it’s first six non-conference road games of the season with series sweeps over Hawaii and Loyola Marymount, but they have recently dropped three of their last five games away, including two conference losses to Stanford. …
Teams that win championships have a number of seasonal components, all of which will contribute to their success. Elements such as coaching talent, player ability, facilities and the support of administration and fans frame a fifth component “Championship Luck.” One seldom reads or hears of Championship Luck contributing to a pivotal game victory. Instead, we read of a freshman having …
A week after the Oregon baseball team got eliminated from the College World Series I went on Twitter with a question in mind: Were any Ducks fans angry at coach George Horton for this disappointing end to the season? I typed his name into the search bar and scrolled through the tweets, looking at the pages like I was watching …
Salt Lake City, UT- The short-handed Ducks fell in their season finale to the Utah Utes, who posted a season-high 16 hits, resulting in a 10-3 final score. Oregon played without usual starters Ryon Healy, Brett Thomas and Scott Heineman. Senior shortstop J.J. Altobelli, playing his last regular season game in a Ducks uniform got the offense started in the …
Unfortunately, coach George Horton’s impact on the Oregon baseball team can’t be fully measured. He’s supposedly an excellent recruiter and I’m sure he motivates his players like General Patton, but there’s just no way of knowing what his effect in these areas truly is. Horton has so many tangible strengths, though, that figuring out if he’s a good coach is …
My roommate worked at the Cape Cod Baseball League last summer, and he doesn’t hesitate to brag about the dozens of college baseball players he met there. Some of those players go to other PAC-12 schools, so he got a lot of grief when he told them he goes to Oregon. One of the players didn’t make fun of him, …
Ducks’ closer Jimmie Sherfy got the nickname “Wild Thing” because of his long blond hair, his animated demeanor, his follow-throughs on pitches … heck, maybe he howls at full moons. I don’t know the guy. But I think one of the biggest reasons he shares Ricky Vaughn’s nickname from Major League is because his pitches last year were often as unpredictable as …