You wouldn’t know it from walking outside, but spring is almost here.
Sure, Oregon winter will roll straight on through to July like it usually does, but, technically, spring exists. The only reminder of spring in Eugene may be George Horton and the No. 14 Ducks. Oregon is off to a 7-1 start with series wins over Hawaii and Loyola Marymount and a midweek victory over Portland — and the Ducks have gotten there playing their own brand of baseball.
They play an old-school, fundamental type of small ball that just isn’t done very much anymore; they don’t hit home runs because the ball doesn’t travel well in the Pacific Northwest air.
But they find ways to get on base, and they find ways to score once they get on. With a runner on first and less than two outs, you can pretty much pencil in “sac” on your score sheet before the next pitch is even thrown.
It isn’t the most exciting style of play to watch, but to fans of fundamental baseball, it’s a joy to watch. The Ducks scored six runs on just two hits in one of their wins against Loyola Marymount and scored three runs on as many hits in their win over Portland. It’s also a style of play that has worked for Horton in the past. The Ducks have made two postseason appearances in their modern era and were an out away from going to the College World Series last season.
It was in Tuesday’s win over Portland that center fielder Scott Heineman finished with quite the unusual stat line. Officially, he didn’t have an at-bat, but he was no doubt the offensive catalyst for the Ducks, having been involved in all three runs. He was hit twice, came around to score each time and then delivered on a sacrifice fly to cash in a run on his third-plate appearance. For the stat nerds, that’s 0-0, sac, RBI, 2R.
Not a bad night.
Meanwhile, Oregon is as deep as they’ve ever been in the bullpen. Jake Reed, Tommy Thorpe and Cole Irvin have proven a consistent weekend rotation. Christian Jones, easing himself back into action after Tommy John surgery sidelined him all of last year, has looked good in a handful of relief appearances and a short start on Tuesday night.
As opportunistic as the Ducks have been, though, they realize they need to improve their team batting performance a bit. If they can, it seems like this Oregon team can make another deep postseason run once the weather actually feels a little more spring-like.