Oregon State baseball’s sweep over Oregon last week stopped all of the momentum the Ducks generated in their nine-game winning streak heading into the series. But Oregon head coach George Horton made sure that his team realized that — even though they were swept — they are still a good ball club.
“Our mission is to catch each other being good,” Horton told reporters on Wednesday. “I think that’s what you have to do — it tends to knock you on your rear end, and nothing seems to be good when you hit that rock bottom.”
To be short, the series in Corvallis was full of the Beavers doing things right and the Ducks doing things wrong. Tyler Baumgartner and the Ducks know that, with Arizona — a team that leads the Pac-12 with a .285 team average — coming to town, they need to forget Corvallis.
“We weren’t able to execute as well as we wanted to, and it wasn’t what we were expecting to do,” Baumgartner said. “We’re ready to come back and have a good week of practice and take on U of A.”
The Wildcats offense has four hitters (with at least 145 at-bats on the season) hitting above .310. Scott Kingery (.365 batting average), Zach Gibbons (.349), Trent Gilbert (.330) and Kevin Newman (.313) will all prove to be difficult outs for the Oregon pitching staff.
After Tommy Thorpe on Friday and Jeff Gold on Saturday, Oregon will give the ball to Brando Tessar on Sunday for his first Pac-12 start of the year. Tessar is replacing Trent Paddon, who, in 1.2 innings, gave up four runs (all earned) to the Beavers. However, the leash is likely short on Tessar in the Sunday spot, as Horton and the Oregon coaching staff are still trying to find a way to fill the hole left by Matt Krook, who underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery. Tessar is 3-0 with a 2.61 ERA, and hasn’t given up a run in the 1.1 innings he has pitched in conference.
Arizona will start James Farris (4-5, 4.00 ERA) on Friday, Cody Hamlin (5-3, 2.94 ERA) on Saturday and Tyger Talley (1-1, 4.15 ERA) on Sunday.
The Wildcats have struggled this year on the road, winning just three of their 11 games away from Hi Corbett Field. Oregon is 18-5 at PK Park.
The Wildcats sit near the bottom in the conference standings with Utah below them. The now unranked Ducks are in fifth place behind Arizona State, USC, Washington and Oregon State.
The series begins Friday at 7 p.m..
Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @abant3