Season of Adversity for Oregon Ducks Baseball Ends at Vanderbilt

Oregon takes on the Cal Bears in the season ending series at PK Park. KPNWSports

Now that the book is closed on the 2014 season for the Oregon Ducks Baseball team that will be remembered as a season where the team overcame quite a bit of adversity at key parts of their season. I, for one, think they should hold their heads high. The season came down to a regional final against Vanderbilt in their home stadium, where the Oregon Ducks needed to win two games back to back. The Oregon Starter Stephen Nogosek was put in a tough position in winning just his second career game at Starter. It was not to be.

Oregon could have used some of the runs scored from their opener against Clemson which they won 18-1, but George Horton’s team gave it a valiant effort in a 3-2 loss. One bright spot is four Oregon Ducks players were honored to the All Nashville Regional Team including A.J. Balta, Tyler Baumgartner, Mitchell Tolman and Shaun Chase. During the 2014 season the Oregon Ducks delt with a ton of adversity.

The difficulty began before the season started with the loss of Starter Cole Irvin to Tommy John Surgery. Mid season Oregon would lose another Starter in Freshman Matt Krook, also to Tommy John Surgery. During the year Oregon had some solid winning streaks. One was nine games, another toward the end of the year, five games. To get as far as they did is also in part due to the Starting Pitchers who where healthy including Tommy Thorpe. Jeff Gold(who started the year 9-0), and a mix of Sunday Starters that included Brando Tessar and Stephen Nogosek.

Oregon’s Offense was paced all year with the bats of Mitchell Tolman, Shaun Chase, and Mark Karviotis, who are all eligble to return for next season. It has been a solid year for the Oregon Ducks, but one can just imagine how much further they would have gone had their not been pitching injuries throughout the season. Next year key players will return and it will be another year to play ball. As far as this seasons adversity, it was a lesson for the team they can take forward and can only improve on from here.

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