Before Friday night’s series opener against Arizona, the Oregon baseball team hadn’t hit a home run since April 17 against Washington State. Shaun Chase hit two Friday night and Oregon hit a total of five home runs during the three game set, a sweep for the home team.
The power surge was a rarity for the Ducks, who hadn’t hit more than two homers in any other series this season.
“I think we hunted elevation and we got our swings off,” said Chase, who hit three home runs in the series. “We weren’t timid and it was just a good series for us I guess”
The Ducks went deep in each game of the weekend series, bringing their win-loss record to 16-0 when hitting a home run this season. Adversely, the team is 17-13 when failing to connect on the long ball.
“I guess (it’s a key for us),” Oregon coach George Horton said. “That’s a pretty good stat.”
The perfect record was in jeopardy until the eighth inning of Sunday’s 5-1 victory.
With a 1-0 lead in tact, the Ducks loaded the bases with one out for Chase, who crushed a ball over the left-center field fence for a grand slam. The blast was Chase’s conference-leading eighth homer of the season.
“When guys are leaving pitches up I know Shaun Chase can do a lot of damage,” said third baseman Mitchell Tolman, who hit a solo home run in the sixth inning. “He’s probably got more power than I know of anyone else.”
Quietly, the Ducks rank second in the conference in home runs (20) but don’t often hit them in bunches as they did this weekend. The last time Oregon hitters went deep in consecutive games was earlier this season, when they hit home runs in three straight games against Loyola Marymount and Portland.
For a team that’s earned a reputation of having stellar pitching and defense while executing small ball and gap-to-gap hitting, Oregon has seen most of its success this season when displaying fireworks.
Despite that, the coaching staff still stresses a “get on top” mentality at the plate.
“(Assistant) coach (Mark Wasikowski) was really disappointed in the guys for hitting too many fly balls,” Horton said. “We hit a lot of lazy fly balls and then Mitch hits one on the (Player Development Area in right field). Coach ‘Was’ asked me to talk to the hitters, I think he was at with’s end in trying to get them to do what he wanted them to do and he lit them up pretty good on Friday… sometimes coaches are too full of themselves and they think they’re too important. It always comes down to the players doing things.”
Certainly the Ducks need to combine home runs with strong pitching, defense and fundamentals, but, inherently perhaps, Oregon seems to get fired up and react well whenever a player goes deep.
“I think whenever a guy hits a home run you feel good,” Horton said.
Follow Madison Guernsey on Twitter @guernseymd