The end of the regular season is nearing for Oregon‘s baseball team ahead of their final series of the year, hosting Washington State in a three-game series that begins on Thursday in PK Park.
The Ducks currently sit in third place in the Pac-12 standings with the chance to climb even higher with a strong performance this weekend. And if they’d like to do so ahead of the conference tournament, they’ll likely have to rely on their strong offense that has been reliable all season long.
Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski spoke about his team’s offense ahead of their series with the Cougars, pulling back the curtain on how the long ball has been a key to their success.
“We score a lot of runs via home run, and so when we’re hitting home runs we score a lot, and when we’re not, we’re not able to sustain an offense,” Wasikowski said. “And so I guess if you’re playing against us, keep the home run off the board, or if you’re in our uniform, then the more home runs the better.”
Oregon’s formula for offense success seems simple, hit home runs in order to score runs. Which has clearly worked in their favor this season with their Pac-12 standing directly reflecting where they also stand in the conference for home runs, ranking third in the Pac-12 with 84 homers on the season.
But in their latest series on the road against Washington, that wasn’t necessarily the case.
“So first two days at Washington I think we hit a lot of home runs, but it didn’t indicate two wins. We were 1-1 when we hit a lot of home runs. And then the last day we won and we didn’t hit any I think, and so it was kind of nice to win without a home run on the board for sure,” Wasikowski admitted.
Oregon homered three times in their Game 1 loss to Washington and four times in their Game 2 win before not hitting any in their 5-3 win in Game 3 to secure the series win last weekend. Showing an ability to not be as reliant on the long ball which could be valuable in postseason play.
“Bottom line is just win, I don’t really care if we’re hitting home runs or not,” Wasikowski said. “I know it’s fun for the fans, it’s fun for us in the dugout too. But still yet the objective is to win the game regardless of how you do it.”
The Ducks will look to continue hitting the ball deep and adapting to win games if they do not, as their series with Washington State starts on Thursday at 9:05 p.m. ET in Eugene.
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