The Oregon Ducks are preparing for their final series of the season against the Washington State Cougars. However, head coach Mark Wasikowski says the team is going to be without a key pitcher.
Mark Wasikowski confirmed that Michael Freund, a right-handed pitcher for the Ducks, is going to be unavailable for the Ducks.
“No,” Mark Wasikowski said. “He’s unavailable…No, won’t be pitching this weekend. No.”
Interestingly, it’s unclear why Freund is going to be unavailable. Wasikowski declined to give a reason for his absence. Because of that, it’s not clear if he’s injured or if there’s a different issue that is going on behind the scenes.
A senior pitcher for Oregon, Michael Freund has been with the program since making the jump from the JUCO ranks. This season, he’s pitched in 11 games and earned three starts for the Ducks. In that time, he’s pitched a total of 24.1 innings and has an ERA of 5.92 for the season.
The last time Freund pitched for Oregon was against Sacramento State in a mid-week series. That was over a month ago in early April, and saw him start a game. In that start, Freund struggled, giving up seven runs in the first inning and ultimately taking a loss for the game.
The Washington State series is the last one for Oregon before the Ducks finish their regular season. After that, it’s time for the Pac-12 Tournament. This all comes as the Ducks sit in a tie for third in the Pac-12 regular season standings with a 16-11 conference record.
Mark Wasikowski credits Oregon players for resiliency despite age
This season, Oregon has shown plenty of resiliency. That’s something they’ve been able to do despite their young age as a group and head coach Mark Wasikowski praised them for it.
“They’re not quitting on themselves when they lose a game is what that tells you. They’re able to be resilient and come back and be tough enough to deal with the adversity of having a loss or taking a negative,” Wasikowski said.
“A lot of times a young group, when they have a negative show up in their world, they go the other direction and it takes you a while to get them back before you can start having success again. So, they’re able to overcome adversity pretty quickly and get onto the next day or get onto the next pitch like we like to say from a mental side of it, but those would be my takeaways with that.”
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