The Oregon club baseball team captured its first league championship since 2008 by beating rival Western Washington on the last weekend of April. The Northern Pacific West champions then traveled to Missoula, Montana for the NoPac Regional this weekend. If they won, it would grant the Ducks a trip to the World Series in Tampa Bay, Florida.
However, their season ended at the hands of Eastern Washington on Saturday afternoon, when Eastern Washington beat the Ducks 13-4.
Oregon had previously lost to Eastern Washington the day before, when the NoPac champion was Oregon’s first challenge on Friday afternoon. The third seeded Eagles hit .399 as a team this season and were led by senior Logan Goulet, who hit .462 and finished tied for fourth in the NCBA with six homers and tied for the lead in runs batted in with 35.
Eastern Washington was too much, beating the Ducks 19-6.
The University of Montana and top seeded Utah State were the other teams in the NoPac Regional. Oregon played both teams in non-conference play this season, beating Montana and losing to Utah State.
“They’re all going to be good competition, but by playing them earlier this season we know we can hang with them,” senior first baseman Tallack Graser said last week. “I think we are deeper than any of those other teams.”
Oregon beat Montana 7-4 on Saturday morning to keep its Tampa hopes alive.
That afternoon, Oregon’s season ended when Eastern Washington beat the Ducks for the second time in as many days.
“They were by far the best hitting team we had faced this year,” sophomore outfielder Nick Waldsmith said. “They capitalized on our mistakes and put up a lot of crooked numbers that were tough to get back.”
Despite their NoPac tournament loss, the Ducks accomplished one of their season goals — winning the league.
“(Winning the league) felt really sweet,” team coordinator Mikey Finneran said. “We lost to (Western) at PK Park last year for the conference title … so to be able to beat them at our home field, to be able to dog pile right in the middle of the field felt really awesome. It was a sense of accomplishment we haven’t had in a while.”
Oregon entered the postseason boasting an 18-2 overall record with a 14-1 record in conference games. The Ducks’ lone conference loss came at the hands of Western on the final weekend.
Though the Ducks achieved their goal of winning the league title, they feel that they left unfinished business in Missoula.
“Our goals heading into the year were to win league and head to Tampa to win it all,” Waldsmith said. “That mindset carried throughout the season. Although we won league and made regionals, I don’t think we are totally satisfied with the outcome of our season, knowing our team’s potential.”
Waldsmith and the Ducks plan to stay hungry and go in to next season with the same mindset to conquer the same goal: win Oregon’s first ever National Club Baseball Association World Series championship.
“We will definitely have the same goals (next season),” Waldsmith said. “Everyone on this team wants to win it all and nothing short of that. We will be losing a lot of talent and leadership this year that you can’t replace, but we are a very deep team with a lot of talent so we are looking to come out just as good if not better next year.”
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