Hats off to the Oregon pitching staff. 

The No. 3 Oregon State Beavers came into PK Park for a three-game series in late April and left without any wins and a grand total of five runs. Two days later, the Ducks went into Corvallis, sparked a comeback and left with another 8-4 win. 

The No. 3 ranked Beavers scored nine runs in four games against Oregon. The pitching was elite. Lefty Grayson Grinsell threw seven stellar innings in Friday’s 4-2 series-opening win. Jason Reitz threw six dominant innings on Sunday in a narrow 3-2 victory. One of the best offenses in baseball had nothing to show for a four-game set. 

The offense was just as good, especially on Saturday and Tuesday. 

Oregon clobbered 10 homers in four games against OSU, four from Jacob Walsh, two from Mason Neville, one from Dominic Hellman, two from Maddox Molony and one from Ryan Cooney.

“We hit the long ball today,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said after Saturday’s 13-1 win. “We got guys on and were able to capitalize on some mistakes that were up in the zone, which was good.”

“It puts pressure on the other team and puts pressure on the pitcher,” Neville said. “They don’t want to pitch to us, it seems like.”

After some ugly losses earlier in the month, Wasikowski said his team is frustrated, knowing it’s better than its record would indicate. He told the media he had a lot of “unhappy guys in the clubhouse.”

“We’ve got a good record,” Wasikowski said on Friday. “We’ve got a really good record and all that kind of stuff, but (we) still feel that we’re way better than what we’ve shown on a consistent basis.”

After Sunday’s victory in Corvallis, Wasikowski gave an update.:

“That’s a good team we played,” Wasikowski said. “We were able to win today and get a couple more on the weekend. I think that was probably good for our guys to see that we can win in a lot of different ways.”

The Ducks have nine more conference games to be played, crucial ones that will decide their standing and seeing for the Big Ten Tournament in Omaha, Nebraska in late May. 

If Oregon can be a top-four seed in the tournament, they’ll have a major advantage: the ability to lose a game and still stay alive in the tournament. 

The Ducks face Michigan State on the road, Washington at home and Iowa on the road to end their conference season. They need to be on top of their game, just as they were when they dealt the Beavers an embarrassing four-game sweep.

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