Oregon is coming off a stretch of four games where they were lucky to go 2-2. The first win avoided a sweep at the hands of UCLA while the second came against a Portland team that should have been easy competition. Oregon committed 11 errors in the games, including five against Portland, roughing up their .988 fielding percentage that led the nation.
“Obviously Tolman had a bit of a rough go in the UCLA series,” said coach George Horton of Mitchell Tolman, who accounted for four errors against UCLA. “Yesterday was very, very uncharacteristic of us. I guess it explains to me how special the .988 was all along and the consistency because every once in a while I think that devil pops up in every college team.”
Horton continued to say he hopes that the team has gotten the defensive jitters out of its system because against Stanford and Mark Appel, the Ducks can ill-afford to make a mistake.
Appel was slated as a top five draft pick last year but elected to come back to school for another year. Currently, by most projections, Appel is slated to go number one over all.
Although, the Ducks don’t seem too afraid of Appel. They had success against him last year by having stubborn at-bats and taking him deep in pitch counts to try to tire him out. J.J. Altobelli said that they have also placed emphasis on putting the ball in play rather than taking strike outs to force the Cardinal to work harder.
“Obviously he’s a really good pitcher and is supposed to be a top draft pick,” said Altobelli. “Last year he pitched really good against us and we just kind of hung in there and battled. That’s what we have to do this year; just battle pitches off and have a tough mentality at the plate. Put the ball in play with two strikes and just do what we do, we can’t think about it too much.”
Appel will be a tough test for Tommy Thorpe and the Ducks on Friday. It will be a rare game when the “friendly confines” of PK Park might not be so friendly. With a deep outfield, PK is made for pitchers. It is the ideal park for a guy like Appel to give hitters fits.
Brett Thomas, as well as the rest of the team, is fully aware of the arsenal Appel holds.
“He’s firm,” said Thomas. “He can throw the ball. He can reach three digits. He’s got a power slider and a pretty good change, so we got some work to do. We did fairly well against him last year. Hopefully we can use the same formula and have success this year as well.”
A win would be a big statement for the No. 13 Ducks who have struggled lately and have failed to win a series against a ranked team.
“Why would we be complacent when we really haven’t been able to tackle the giants of this industry,” said Horton. “We have a ways to go as far as calling ourselves national contenders, or even league contenders. Until we can prove that we can get a series against the likes of Stanford or Oregon State, why would we suspect we could be successful in regional play or super-regional play?”
Horton has made it clear that he wants his team to content against the top teams and top prospects. For Oregon to be competitive against Appel and other top guys, they need to tighten up their defense and find ways to take advantage of mistakes by the opposition; something they have done all season.