Oregon baseball was unable to seek revenge on Oregon State Tuesday as their final match up of the season was rained out and the teams decided that it would not be rescheduled.
Oregon coach George Horton said Oregon State head coach Pat Casey deferred to him on whether the game would be called. Oregon had just lost two of three to the Beavers and trail them in the Pac-12 standings. Casey wanted to make sure Oregon would have an opportunity to play his team if Horton indeed wanted to.
“(Coach Casey) kind of left the decision up to us,” said Horton. “(I) commend him for that. From his perspective, we might have wanted to play for our resume. I just thought common sense was better that we canceled the game.”
Horton might as well be right. Oregon, because of their opportunity to play in Hawaii to start the season, has played more games than the coach would like. He said the team isn’t feeling 100-percent right now and that this as a chance to rest up after playing five games in six days last week and get healthy for their final series, a road trip to Utah.
Aside from their extensive schedule, Oregon State is a tough team that had their way with the Ducks in the final two games of their series last weekend. Horton said it might have been a “blessing in disguise” and that the risk of playing again and trying to win the season series might not be worth the reward.
“For our resume, we had more to gain by playing them only if we were successful,” said Horton. “That’s a big ‘only if.’”
Looking forward, the Ducks see their up coming series against Utah to be a crucial one. Currently sitting at 8 in RPI (rating percentage index), the Ducks feel that they are still worthy of a national seed. A rough weekend on the road would certainly change that.
“I think at this point, we can’t lose again,” said pitcher Jake Reed of getting a national seed. “We definitely would have had to win that game yesterday.”
With Oregon two games behind Oregon State in the pennant race for the Pac-12, their shot at the title isn’t gone, but it is unlikely. In the final weekend for the teams, both are playing against sub-par opponents in Utah and Washington State. The Beavers have the luxury of getting Washington State in Corvallis. A sweep for the Cougars isn’t impossible, but it’s a tough task.
“Hopefully we’ll get some luck, I think luck will have to be involved,” said Reed. “We’ll just see what happens.”
Oregon doesn’t can’t control the outcome of the Oregon State series, but they can control how they fare against the Utes. With their hitting, defense and relief pitching looking uncharacteristically poor against Oregon State, the Ducks can use this series as an opportunity to build momentum.
With the post-season looming, Oregon needs to be conscious about what version of their team is currently playing. Are they the team that swept Stanford or the one that got shelled by Oregon State?