Home Opener On Deck Friday
02/20/20 | Baseball, @GoDucksMoseley
The Oregon baseball team hosts Nevada in a three-game series at PK Park beginning Friday at 4 p.m.
The Oregon baseball team saw progress on multiple fronts during the opening series of the year, though the Ducks return home still looking for their first victory of the year.
The Ducks were competitive in all four games they played in Arizona to open their first season under coach Mark Wasikowski. The bottom line, though, is that Oregon is 0-4 on the year entering the 2020 home opener, a late afternoon matchup with Nevada on Friday to kick off a three-game series.
Oregon opened the year by falling into a deep hole against Minnesota before nearly pulling off a stunning comeback in a 12-10 loss. A one-run loss to San Diego followed a day later, the Ducks fell to Pepperdine in their final game at the 2020 Angels Collegiate Classic, and then on Tuesday they pushed Grand Canyon to extra innings before losing in controversial fashion.
The way the games played out showed progress from the Ducks. And Wasikowski said the team's dugout demeanor was in line with that progress.
"I saw fight all weekend; what I didn't see before Tuesday was continuous fight," the new UO coach said. "I saw front-running fight. And on Tuesday I saw a continuous fight."
Wasikowski said he expected to still be instilling his desired team culture in the early going this season. In an interview Thursday, it said it might take all season to wrap up that process. But it's one to which the Ducks are committed.
Kenyon Yovan hit .563 with two homers during the opening weekend, serving as Oregon's designated hitter. That role meant he had a prime seat to watch how the Ducks in the dugout handled their opening weekend dramatics.
"Everyone performed well, even when they were off the field, not playing," Yovan said. "That was the biggest key for our team, moving forward."
Like the team around him, Yovan also had to settle for progress without tangible rewards during the opening weekend, at least when it came to his return to the mound.
After only making a brief appearance in the Ducks' 2019 opener before being sidelined by injury, Yovan finally threw another pitch in a game during Sunday's loss to Pepperdine. He allowed a run on two walks and two hits while recording one out, but in the big picture he felt the appearance was a success.
"The results obviously weren't what I wanted it to be," Yovan said. "But it was more of a mental success in my opinion to get out there and be able to compete again."
Yovan hopes to get his next shot on the mound this weekend against Nevada. Cullen Kafka will start for the Ducks on Friday at 4 p.m., Peyton Fuller will get the ball Saturday at 1 p.m. and Robert Ahlstrom will start the series finale Sunday at 1 p.m.
True to Wasikowski's word in the preseason, he didn't react to last week's four losses by making dramatic changes to his pitching rotation. But he made it clear Thursday he won't keep players in positions that they aren't earning in games.
That's all part of the culture Wasikowski continues to work to instill this spring.
"That's gonna be a season process," he said. "I don't think you're gonna kick that in the first weekend. You really are probably gonna have a tough time getting it through even by the end of the year, entirely. But that's the objective in year one."
