Looking To Finish On A High Note

To honor the seniors, to build momentum for the offseason, to fight to the last day for a chance at a winning record — the Oregon baseball team sees plenty to play for this weekend.

The Ducks host Arizona in a three-game series to close out the 2018 regular season at PK Park, beginning Thursday (7 p.m., Pac-12 Network). After being swept at UCLA last week, Oregon's postseason hopes are crippled, but Oregon's players and coaches see plenty of reason to lay it on the line against the Wildcats.

"Yes, setting a tone for next year is a big thing," sophomore pitcher Kenyon Yovan said. "But honestly, sending the seniors out in a good way — they've been here for so long, they deserve the best this weekend."

The series finale is Saturday, when a senior class headlined by second baseman Kyle Kasser will be honored in a ceremony. If the Ducks can manage to get wins Thursday and Friday, they would also have the chance to play Saturday with a winning record on the line.

Oregon enters the weekend at 25-27 overall, and 11-16 in the Pac-12. The Ducks have had only one losing season since the program was reinstated in 2009 — that first season, also the only sub-.500 record in the career of coach George Horton.

"And I'm not interested in making it No. 2," Horton said of this season. "Small consolation prize, but it is worth fighting for."

Kasser fouled a ball off his foot at UCLA but Horton said he should be good to go this weekend, which he enters with a streak of 107 straight starts. A lightly regarded utility player as a freshman, Kasser worked himself into becoming Oregon's most consistent hitter the last three years, and he would move into fifth in school history for career hits with three this weekend.

Kasser also is a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award based on athletics, academics and personal character, and on Monday he was named the UO athletic department's senior men's athlete of the year at the O Show awards banquet.

"Those are the kind of guys that you look back in your coaching career and miss the most probably," Horton said.

The next generation of leaders figures to come from Oregon's outstanding sophomore class, led by the likes of Yovan, third baseman Spencer Steer, first baseman Gabe Matthews and two-way standout Ryne Nelson. Yovan, Steer and Nelson are among the half-dozen Ducks who plan to spend the summer developing in the Cape Cod League.

"We're all going to be around each other, so we're going to be pushing each other, making sure we're getting better," said Yovan, who will start this week on normal rest Friday, after Cullen Kafka makes a spot start in the series opener Thursday against Arizona.

Yovan said he and Steer have talked with the staff about getting meal and workout plans for the offseason, to improve their bodies. Nelson said he has new perspective on the importance of those areas, too, after playing all this spring following an injury shortened freshman year.

"I've definitely learned a lot about what it takes to get through a season this year, my first real, full season," Nelson said. "I want to come back in the right shape, with the right mindset."

Ditto Yovan, who said, "I want to come back a different man. I don't like the feeling of not being able to think about postseason. I don't want to have that happen again."

When players return from playing summer ball, they'll be greeted by a new attitude from their head coach, too, Horton indicated Thursday.

"I cherish the opportunity that (UO athletic director) Rob Mullens is gonna give me, to be back next year," Horton said. "I've already expressed to (the team) we need to change some things … from the coaching staff all the way down. Our entire organization needs to get better at a lot of things.

"I don't think we've played like the toughest team in the world, and that's embarrassing to me. And my teams have always gotten better; the last couple years, we haven't gotten better as the season's gone along. We've tweaked some things, but it hasn't worked."

Changes are afoot for Oregon baseball. There's one last chance to set a new tone during the 2018 season, this weekend at home against the Wildcats.