Ducks Return Home Friday After Road Trip That Revealed Character, And Characters
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
To an old baseball coach, the display of commitment and chemistry was enough to induce tears.
After two wins to open 2015, Oregon was in trouble right off the bat in its third game at Hawaii to open the spring. The Rainbow Warriors scored five runs in the first inning, and three more in the second. When the Ducks finally scratched out a run of their own, in the top of the sixth, Hawaii responded with two in the bottom of the inning.
In short, there were very few uplifting moments on the field that day. But there was one in the dugout that was enough to make UO coach George Horton emotional. It came during a seemingly innocuous at-bat by a Hawaii hitter late in the game, when it was well in hand for the Rainbow Warriors.
After an opposing player checks his swing, as was the case during the at-bat in question, Horton wants his Ducks – attentively watching the game from the rail in front of their dugout – to yell in unison, “Yes he did!” It keeps the players engaged, and perhaps can influence umpires as well.
On this particular Sunday, with the game out of hand, Oregon’s minds might have been elsewhere: on plays they gave away in that game, or looking ahead to the next. But out came the cry, scoreboard be damned – “Yes he did!” In his postgame debrief, Horton got a touch misty, expressing pride in the character and camaraderie the gesture illustrated, much earlier in the season than might reasonably have been expected from a roster with several new faces in key roles.
Entering Friday’s return to PK Park against St. John’s at 6 p.m., Oregon is ranked No. 19 by Baseball America, and in the top 10 by several other polls. The Ducks are 10-2, having taken two of three last week on the road from another ranked team, UC Santa Barbara. Of those 10 wins, Oregon has trailed at some point in eight.
Something has clicked for the Ducks, portending big things for a program still seeking its first College World Series berth since its reboot in 2009. GoDucks.com joined the team for its recent road trip to UC Santa Barbara, to get a sense for what makes the group tick. It seems to be the perfect mix of light-hearted goofiness off the field, and spirited determination between the lines. Come along for the ride.
THURSDAY
It’s an early morning departure, but Marie Pratt – committee chair for baseball with the “Daisy Ducks” booster group – is at PK Park with two committee members to see the team off on its bus ride to the Portland airport. She doles out sacks filled with snacks and also hugs, in equal measure.
Once on the bus, the Ducks get another treat: Catcher and relief pitcher Josh Graham hands out pieces of elk sausage he made the night before. At some point, Horton prompts a singing of “Happy Birthday To You” for assistant coach Jay Uhlman, which demonstrates how lucky the Ducks are to be such talented baseball players, since clearly none has a future as a vocalist.
As the bus pulls out of Eugene, headphones go on and eyelids shut.
Lest one think that’s a sign of the times, this turns out to be the rare bus ride that doesn’t include lively conversation and, yes, more singing.
Pitcher Trent Paddon is seated in the seventh row for Oregon’s flight from Portland directly into Santa Barbara. Most of the team is seated behind him and, almost to a man, as they pass by Paddon they muss his hair or otherwise needle him. Is he some sort of good luck charm, he’s asked, being rubbed for luck? There’s got to be some reason pretty much every single teammate is poking at him, physically or verbally. “Well,” Paddon says, “I do it, so everybody gives it back to me.”
From the airport in Santa Barbara, the Ducks drive directly to a local park where a junior college team plays. It’s a brilliant afternoon, but the Gauchos are practicing at their home park and don’t have lights to facilitate Oregon practicing there afterward.
As it turns out, Horton played at the Ducks’ practice field years earlier. He even recalls reaching base on a bunt past the pitcher. “I do remember that,” Horton tells the team, a bit wistfully. “My only push-bunt hit in my career.”
Rakes and shovels come out after practice. Horton demands that the Ducks tend the field before leaving, not unlike the way UO football coach Mark Helfrich makes his players and staff tidy up practice sites where they’ve spent a number of days prior to a bowl game.
On the bus ride to the team’s hotel for the weekend, phones come out, and the Ducks are clued in to one half of the day’s dominant topics on social media. They missed the dramatic case of two llamas on the lam in Arizona while travelling earlier in the day. But they’re right on time to weigh in on #TheDress.
“How do you not see black and blue?” one player wonders. “How do you not see white and gold?!?!?” comes the incredulous response.
It took all day, but finally signs of division on the 2015 Oregon baseball team emerge.
FRIDAY
A DVD of UCSB starter Dillon Tate plays on the small screens inside Oregon’s team bus as the Ducks board it for the ride to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. Tate is a projected first-round draft choice this summer, and one rumor has it that every team with a top-10 pick has at least two scouts on hand, including one significant decision-maker.
Tate has a nasty mix of pitches, including a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and can hit 99. “What the heck, Was?” a player spouts in the direction of UO assistant coach Mark Wasikowski, who throws batting practice in the cages. “We’ve been seeing 83 fastballs!” With mock chagrin, Wasikowski responds stiffly: “Sorry.” The staff demands respect from players, but is willing to engage in just enough badinage to keep things loose.
The vibe begins to shift during the bus ride, and in the couple of hours the Ducks are at the stadium prior to first pitch. Players work to find the right mix of focus without getting too tight. At one point, Horton chatted with UCSB coach Andrew Checketts, a former UO assistant.
A sloppy set of pregame defensive drills is alarming, and for a while it seems to creep over into the game – although Tate’s pitching has a lot to do with Oregon’s early 1-0 deficit, too.
The Ducks get their first base runner in the fifth inning, and their first hit in the sixth, leading to a 1-1 tie. The dam breaks in the eighth. Two runners reach with one out to chase Tate, a reliever walks the bases loaded against the only hitter he faces, and with two outs Brandon Cuddy drives in two runs. The Ducks go on to win 5-1, having come from behind yet again to reach 9-1 on the season.
“Haven’t we seen over the course of 10 games that, when we grind guys down, there’s a benefit to that?” Uhlman asks rhetorically in the postgame debrief with players. “When we have good patience and grind down their pitching and defense, what happens for us? That’s not by accident. That’s a characteristic trait of this 2015 Ducks club.”
It will serve them well again less than 24 hours later.
SATURDAY
Again, the Ducks find themselves in an early hole, 2-0. Again, they come from behind, winning 11-3. Again, they show the right mix of intensity and cool under pressure to stay competitive without tensing up. (For much more on the Saturday game, read this dispatch from the dugout.)
Like the loss at Hawaii, this game is out of hand by the middle innings. That might have been a time for the Ducks to step off the dugout rail and take a seat, or get lost in conversation, or start looking ahead to Sunday’s finale. None of that happens.
In the eighth inning, there’s another check swing by an opposing hitter. “Yes he did!” comes the cry from the UO dugout. In the top of the ninth, a ball gets away from the catcher with Oregon’s Mitchell Tolman on second base. As they’re coached to do when they see a runner can move up a base, the Ducks in the dugout shout in unison, “Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah!” Tolman advances, and eventually scores the final run of the day.
At this point, Horton has seen his team maintain its focus through highs and lows enough times that his eyes stay dry. But by the same token, it doesn’t go unnoticed in the postgame debrief. It’s a long season, and coaching points like that can’t be reinforced enough.
SUNDAY
Over the course of a baseball season, things tend to even out. On Friday, UO outfielder J.B. Bryant had a running catch in deep left-center to prevent a run, then reached on the Ducks’ first hit before scoring in the sixth inning. On Sunday, he comes up with a runner on third and one out, myriad ways in play to tie the game, and strikes out. Oregon suffers its second defeat of the season, 1-0.
As the team pulls out of the stadium parking lot for the long trip home – the Ducks have to fly out of Burbank, and bus home after arriving in Portland – the Ducks are singing again. A dozen or more raise their voices for each round of the chorus to Luke Bryan’s “Drink A Beer,” a forlorn ballad of loss.
A stop for dinner at In-N-Out has spirits high again – enough so that the Ducks easily endure a brief delay due to a bus breakdown.
Once en route to Burbank, textbooks come out; Horton rescheduled a study hall session so the Ducks could celebrate Saturday night’s win, with the requirement that they make up for it on the long trip home. One player who takes every chance to squeeze in study time is center fielder Nick Catalano, a junior intent on maintaining a 4.0 grade-point average throughout college.
At the gate for the flight to Portland, the Ducks have a chance to sit down and recharge their batteries — the batteries to their iPhones.
Back on the ground in Portland, the Ducks are singing yet again, this time a spirited hip-hop song. And Paddon is back in the middle of things, messing with freshman pitcher Jacob Corn. Corn can’t ignore Paddon’s needling anymore, and turns to face him with mock annoyance. “What?” Paddon says. “You didn’t think this game ever ends, did you?”
Three weeks into the season, there are many games ahead for Oregon as the Ducks strive to reach Omaha. But on the long road of a college baseball season, they’ve hit the ground running, with their play on the field and their camaraderie off of it.
