New Baseball Coach Wasikowski Looking to Win Big, And Quickly

EUGENE, Ore. — When the Oregon baseball program was rebooted in 2009, the Ducks shot off the starting line and were in the race for a College World Series berth within the first couple seasons.

Lately, and for a variety of reasons, the Ducks have been running in the middle of the pack. New head coach Mark Wasikowski, who was introduced at a press conference Friday, made it clear he intends to hit the gas and get Oregon baseball out front.

At Friday's press conference, Wasikowski made numerous references to Omaha, Neb., site annually of the College World Series. He wasn't shying away from goals set for the program when then-athletic director Pat Kilkenny hired George Horton to restart the program in 2009. And he stated as well the desire to field an entertaining team that will draw fans out to PK Park to watch the Ducks make a run at the postseason.

"I want a program that wants to push the envelope," Wasikowski said Friday from the End Zone Terrace in Autzen Stadium, which overlooks PK Park. "I want a program where guys show up every single day looking to not only beat people, but make a statement: Oregon baseball is for real."

In taking over the head coaching job at Oregon, Wasikowski assumes one of the most unique platforms in college athletics. The strength of the UO brand is such that, on a trip to Disneyland, he said, one encounters more Ducks paraphernalia than that of any other school.

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Oregon athletics connotes tempo and innovation, and Wasikowski said he intends to operate his program in that vein. He wants to put pressure on the opposing defense with speed, and on hitters with an attacking mindset from the pitcher's mound.

Being a head coach at Oregon comes with expectations as well, Wasikowski noted.

"The standard at the University of Oregon," he said, "is summarized in one word: championships."

That's a subject with which Wasikowski is intimately familiar. He was captain of the 1992 Pepperdine team that won the NCAA title, and he helped recruit players to Arizona that won the 2012 national championship.

After working as an assistant for the Wildcats from 2002-11, Wasikowski was in his first season as a UO assistant in 2012 when Arizona won its title. He ended up spending five seasons on Horton's staff, four of which ended in the postseason – including the 2012 team that fell a game short of Omaha when an errant pop fly in the bottom of the ninth resulted in a Super Regional loss to Kent State.

"It's a totally different place than where it was when (Horton) took the first run at getting the program to Omaha," Wasikowski said. "He started from the ground and built the program to a tremendous place, for us to be able to springboard forward right now."

About a dozen current UO players attended Friday's press conference, and met with Wasikowski informally afterward. His message, in a nutshell, was to do whatever it took between now and the start of fall practices to become the strongest, fittest team possible.

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Oregon's hitters made tremendous strides offensively in 2018, moving past the team's small-ball reputation. The Ducks scored 5.7 runs per game, third-most during the modern era of the program. Wasikowski wants to continue that trend, and have a powerful presence at the plate.

"I want to win with pitching, for sure; pitching and defense is a sustainable product, and that's just something that goes along with championship programs," Wasikowski said. "But I also want to see the baseball hit through the gaps; I want to see the baseball hit over the fence. I want to have an exciting offense where people look at it and say, 'I want to show up to the baseball field because it's fun to go to the field.'

"And fun can sometimes be a 1-0 game. But it sometimes also can be a 13-1 game."

Oregon baseball under Wasikowski will look to put up runs not just by bashing the baseball, but putting pressure on the opponent. Wasikowski called himself "a person that wants to steal bases," and test the defense by being aggressive on the basepaths. And in echoes of other recent Oregon teams across various sports, he wants to utilize tempo, particularly when the Ducks are in the field.

"I like getting the pitch in before the batter's comfortable," said Wasikowski, whose Purdue teams in 2019 played 26 games in less than three hours, and six in under 2:30. "I want the guy out there pitching with conviction in everything he does. If I'm pitching, I want to get the baseball and I want to show somebody I'm better than they are."

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To that end, Wasikowski's attitude of aggression and innovation fit the profile of Oregon athletics under UO athletic director Rob Mullens. Under Wasikowski, PK Park could come to have the reputation for home-field advantage provided by the likes of Autzen Stadium, Hayward Field and Jane Sanders Stadium.

"Particularly when you're at home," Mullens said, "you want the opponent to feel like, 'This is different than how we prepare and this is different than we're used to facing.' "

One of the players who attended Friday's press conference was first baseman Gabe Matthews, who will be a senior next spring. He said listening to Wasikowski talk about speed and tempo made him think of Oregon football teams from recent years.

"It's Oregon, it's fast – that's what it should be," Matthews said. "If we get the tempo going on defense, and can get out really quick and not be out there long on defense, that puts so much pressure on their defense, because then we're always hitting and they're always out there. And I think that's a big piece of baseball now."

Wasikowski has won over fans bases before; he took over a Purdue program that had won 10 games in 2016 and improved that win total to 29 in 2017, and then 39 in 2018 – a season that ended with an NCAA Regional. He wants to follow a similar path at Oregon, and realize the goals set forth when the Ducks brought back baseball in 2009.

"This program started with a dream and a vision," Wasikowski said. "… It's time to fulfill the dream."