Oregon Baseball Comes Up Short vs Cal Poly, Season Ends

Via Oregon Communications:

EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon homered five times against Cal Poly on Saturday but the Mustangs countered with three long balls of their own while putting an end to the Ducks’ season with a 10-8 come-from-behind win at PK Park.

Oregon took a three-run lead after scoring seven runs between the fifth and seventh innings, but Cal Poly countered scoring the final five runs of the game to advance to Sunday’s action in the Eugene Regional Tournament.

How It Happened: Cal Poly struck first with a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the second before Oregon answered in its half of the third.

Ryan Cooney doubled with one out before moving to third on a Mason Neville fly out to center and then scored on a Dominic Hellman base hit to left field.

The Mustangs pushed the lead to 3-1 with a run in the bottom of the third inning, but Oregon tied it with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth. Carter Garate sparked the rally legging out an infield hit with one out before moving to second on a wild pitch and third on a balk. Hellman then lined a two-run home run off the scoreboard in left field.

Cal Poly came right back to take the lead in its half of the fifth, but it did not phase Oregon’s big bats. Jeffery Heard, making his first start since April 14, homered to center field to tie the game. After Burke-Lee Mabeus reached with a two-out base hit, Cooney launched a two-run homer over the center-field wall for a 6-5 Oregon lead.

Oregon added to the lead with two more runs in the top of the seventh on back-to-back home runs by Drew Smith and Heard to build a three-run lead but the Mustangs regained the lead with four runs in the bottom of the seventh before tacking on an insurance run in the eighth.

Box Score Notes: Anson Aroz, who did not play because of an NCAA suspension following a controversial play on Friday, had his consecutive games started streak snapped at 62 … Heard started in place of Aroz, playing left field for the first time at Oregon … The Ducks’ five home runs tied for the fourth most in program history, while tying for the second most this season … Grayson Grinsell fanned a pair of Mustangs to finish the season with 267 career Ks, which ranks third all-time at UO.

Quotes:

HEAD COACH MARK WASIKOWSKI
Opening Statement …

“First off, I want to compliment Coach Lee’s club, very solid team, errorless game. And for them to get to five two-out RBIs really shows the grit and resilience that they had. They executed very well today, pitched very well today, and it was a well-coached team like I knew that we would expect with Larry Lee. He’s one of the most underrated coaches in the entire country and he’s awesome. He’s a good coach, and his team was well prepared. When it comes to our team, I’m thrilled to have the chance to be able to be around Jeffrey Heard, Jacob Walsh and the other seniors that we had that are out of eligibility, Seth Mattox, among others. There’s some guys that have some eligibility left, and time will tell, with all that kind of stuff. But from our locker room standpoint, I love these kids. They’re fantastic young men and we just came up short today.” 

On his decision to leave pitcher Ian Umlandt in the game… 

“Some of the assumptions may or may not be accurate. Why leave him in there? Because he’s probably, on a piece of paper and over the course of the long haul, he’s been statistically, our best pitcher. He and Grayson (Grinsell) have been two guys that we’ve leaned on heavily and have been the two best pitchers that we’ve had, more or less than some of the other guys have had good years. Those guys have had great years, and we predetermined going into the game, if they were going to beat us, they were going to beat us with the guys that have had the best years for us.” 

On what the turning point was at the end of the season… 

“We got beat in three games in a row. I don’t think it was a catastrophic collapse or something like that. We ended up losing three games in a row after we won a conference championship, earned a one-seed and played very well, had a very good year, and we came up short at the end is what happened. Why did we lose? Because the teams that played against us in the last three games played better in those last three games than we did.” 

On what testament the team wants to give the fans after this season… 

“Earning the respect of the fans like when we first got here, but it just wasn’t, it wasn’t what we’ve witnessed. You know, last night’s crowd that, you know today’s crowd, the interest in our program four weeks in a row at the end of the season, with sellouts for all of those four weekends. You know, when we when we first got here, at the very beginning of this thing, we couldn’t even get somebody to give us bats. Couldn’t get a bat contract at the University of Oregon, and there just wasn’t any interest in it. And now what these guys have done, you know, that’s when we first got here, they were, they were begging us to get to a regional, basically. And now we’re sitting here going, ‘man, not enough, right?’ And so humbly being around these guys. What they’ve built and continue to build is, is what we wanted to show fans, you know. And I think they’re seeing a taste of it. I know there’s no fans going home happy today that are Oregon fans, and there’s no Oregon people going home happy, whether it’s a coach or a player or anything like that, you know. And in time, we’ll look at the grand scheme of things and the big picture, but I think we’re clearly building a program that we can be really proud of. I think the fans are able to see that now pretty clearly, and their support is tremendous and, you know, fans we really want to continue to earn your respect and your support out there. And this isn’t the way we wanted to end for Mr. Kilkenny or anybody else this year, this season. And sometimes that’s, you know, that happens right? Sometimes that happens to good teams, and that happened to us. We ran into a couple of teams that outplayed us the last couple of days and now we go home. Now we go home from a season, and we have to regroup.” 

On next steps and continuing to build a culture … 

“To continue to build a culture. Continue to build a program. It’s a program that we’re trying to build, not just a player. We pride ourselves on not being a transactional group. We invest in these young guys with all of our hearts. To see Jeffery Heard today, when he gets an opportunity to play for Anson Aroz, who doesn’t get a chance to finish possibly his last season of college baseball by being somebody that the NCAA would be extremely proud of. A young man who has a college degree, was a near 4.0 student. He was our SAAC – Student Athlete Advisory Committee – representative, to the president and athletic director. He served on multiple boards at the University of Oregon and was a spokesman for the program and truly a tremendous young man. For him to not get the opportunity to be able to be on the field today is probably the thing that hurts me most at the moment, personally. Without getting into the grand scheme of things, I just hurt for that young man because of his investment in college sports, in the University of Oregon and the people. For us not to be able to have him on that baseball field today, maybe it’s the reason why he chooses to come back next year. If he doesn’t choose to come back, I hope it’s not for the heartburn of the experience that he just had.” 

On his message to the team after a heartbreaking end to the season … 

“To have perspective. I mean, we’re playing baseball and were blessed to play baseball. Right now, Cole Fisher isn’t blessed to play baseball. When you’re walking away from a season that you wanted more out of, you can still look at it and say to yourself that there are a lot harder things going on in life that are harder than losing a regional and going 0-2. What I would try to encourage the young people and what I will try and encourage the young people I’ve had the chance to be around all season with is keeping it in perspective. Usually, good things come to the people that work the hardest and to continue to teach and preach core values that are going to make these young people very successful. That’s all we’re trying to do on a daily basis and we believe that that’s going to lead to the best person they can be on the field as well as a player. We’re just trying to teach young men how to be excellent young people in our community and represent this awesome university that President Karl Schultz and everybody who’s in charge of. I mean, this place is awesome and we’re very humbled to be here and fortunate to have jobs here.” 

On Jacob Walsh and what this year’s seniors have meant to the program … 

“He’s a special young guy and everyone who talks about the home runs he hits or how good of a baseball player he is, and I think he’s a better person than anything. We’re just really lucky that he came to Oregon. Whether it’s Jacob (Walsh) or Grayson (Grinsell) or any of these guys. We love them and they’re special human beings. You see them in the uniform, they look big and strong, but they’re all teddy bears inside. They’re just awesome young people.” 

#2 LHP GRAYSON GRINSELL
On how he believes he performed today… 

“Obviously, it wasn’t one of my best and obviously don’t want to go out on that note but still felt like I went out there and gave it everything I had, and that’s all you can do.” 

#25 1B JACOB WALSH
On what this season means to him as a senior and reflecting on his time at Oregon… 

“It’s been pretty awesome. This staff and school have given me an unbelievable opportunity, and I’ll forever be grateful for everything they’ve done. And I’m just blessed to be able to be an Oregon Duck.” 

On the absence of Anson Aroz in today’s game… 

“Yeah, he’s one of the best dudes I know, and that play last night kind of showed who he was. He gives everything on the field. And, yeah, it was unfortunate what they did to him, but he’s one of the best dudes I’ve ever met. It was pretty brutal for him not to be able to be there with us today.” 

#35 OF JEFFERY HEARD
On how it feels to end the season after his personal performance in today’s game… 

“Personally, I felt good, and those two at-bats, obviously, in those homers, kind of been an up and down year for me, but I felt God telling me to just stay patient and trust him. And it came through today. But obviously I’m disappointed with the outcome. But looking back on it, we had a great year, great group of guys and I found my best friends for life on this team.” 

On his decision to transfer to Oregon … 

“It’s the best decision I have ever made. Like I said, all of the guys on this team are now family for life, but outside of that just the school itself. I wanted to give myself a real college experience. Some of the football games I’ve gone to here have been some of the coolest experiences of my life. Just being on campus and having three teammates for roommates. These last two years have been the two best years of my life, I wouldn’t change a thing.”