When Oregon joined the Big Ten in August 4, 2023, the talk on message boards and sports talk shows was how they would adjust to the long road trips, time zone shifts and extended travel.
The baseball team got a crash course in the vagaries and subtleties of that challenge this weekend at the Big Ten Tournament in Omaha, Nebraska.
Friday night they wait three hours for a rain delay of their game against Nebraska, then had to rouse themselves for a rescheduled start Saturday morning at 7 a.m. Pacific Time. Unsurprisingly, they looked out of phase in a nine-inning serving of grits and gruel, losing 7-3.
Eighth-place Nebraska battered them with 11 hits, while the Ducks hit into three double plays and stranded nine on the bases.
Nebraska jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Gabe Swansen crushed a two-run homer off Grayson Grinsell. Oregon went down 1-2-3.
Another of the dreaded Big Ten challenges went against the Ducks when a young fan intercepted a foul ball along the right field line, Dominic Hellman called out for fan interference. Oddly, the boy's father was wearing Nebraska gear.
The boy brought his glove and he was prepared to use it.
Oregon appeared a little sleepy. Maddox Molony kicked a ground ball in the first. Jacob Walsh had one skip off the heel of his glove in the second.
The second miscue proved costly. Robby Bolin raced around to score when Hogan Helligoso, a .200 hitter during the season, tagged a ball into the right field corner beyond the reach of a diving Drew Smith for a double.
Oregon trailed 3-0, in need of a venti hot coffee and a grand slam.
But fly balls in the damp Nebraska air weren't carrying. Walsh flied to deep right to end the first, Drew Smith to the edge of the warning track to lead off the Webfoot second.
A bullet by Aroz into the same right field corner broke the string, good for a double. Molony took inside and low, then snuck one up the middle for a hit, Aroz scoring easily, 3-1.
Mabeus came up with one out.
He struck out. Technicalities continued. Mabeus stepped across the plate after missing a pitch. Molony stole second easily but had to go back to first because his catcher had interfered with the throw to second.
Cooney struck out looking. It felt like a breakfast bracket game in a two-stoplight town, stray weeds around second base. Somehow the Ducks had to take hold of it.
An 11-pitch, 1-2-3 3rd helped. Ryan Cooney charged a slow roller for the first out, then Grimsley, worked fast, changed speeds and threw strikes, setting down Swansen and Case Sanderson, swinging and looking.
No. 9 hitter Carter Garate took four high, wide and low for a leadoff walk, bringing up the slumping (2-20) Mason Neville. Curve, fastball, 0-2. Neville made a savvy take down low. He swung through a high fast ball, out again.
A great hitter has to deal with failure and regroup. He will.
Hellman picked him up by scalding a single up the middle, but Walsh hit a comebacker, gloved for the 1-6-3 double play, 110 mph but the inning over at the same speed.
Outs mounted. Top of the 4th and this page of the Oregon story looked as desolate as the weeds.
Neville stayed focused on his defense, drifting back to the track to put away a fly ball. Devin Nunez rapped a line drive over Drew Smith, who misread it a bit, first step in on a ball over his head.
A double for Nunez, who took third on a sharp grounder to Cooney. Two out and a runner at third. Mabeus deftly blocked a ball in the dirt, then another, a changeup.
Grinsell fell behind Helligoso 3-0, poured in a strike, then lost him to put runners on the corners. Leadoff hitter Silva due up, swinging over top of a changeup, fouling off another change. Silva stayed alive with a foul tip.
High and wide, then the Husker centerfielder sent a basehit up the middle, just laying his bat on it for a 4-1 lead.
It was a day the Ducks were a step off their best game. Walsh chased a foul ball into the ample foul ground, tried a difficult basket catch like he'd made before at PK, but this one went off the heel of his glove. Grinsell had the runner picked off first, but Walsh had to hold the ball, not wanting to risk having the runner scoring from third.
The Ducks' ace ended it with his sixth K, his team looking like blues musicians who can't quite find the rhythm on their 19th night on the road.
With one out Aroz drilled a bean to left, his fifth hit in six at bats in the tournament. Molony got ahead 3-1, took a ball at the armpits but the umpire sent him back to the batter's box. He sent the next pitch straight to the bag at second, Big Red shortstop Dylan Carey spilled but completing the double play.
Two straight innings ended by an at 'em ball. The outs mounted.
At 78 pitches Grinsell continued to battle but began to tire. Three straight singles by the Huskers, the last on a hanging breaking ball, 6-1. They chased the best pitcher in the Big Ten, unable to get out of the 5th after baffling the conference all season, 9-2 with a 2.33 ERA before this rain-delayed fiasco.
The Ducks had made three errors behind him.
Featherston came out of the pen and set down two, the second with a heater on the black. He hit Bolin on the inner thigh, two on and two out. Garate stepped on third with a bouncer, Ducks finally out of the inning.
A scoreless inning in relief was a good sign for the Regionals, so there's that. A five-run deficit in a near-empty ballpark is about as lifeless as baseball gets. Mabeus drilled a one-hopper to second.
Routine fly to right reduced the Ducks to 13 outs. Garate cruised into second with a two-out double, mashed into the gap in right center, Silva slipping on the muddy track. Neville hit a ball well to left center but the Husker senior ran it down in the spacious Schwab outfield, another 0 on the board.
Silva becoming a pest now, serving a base hit into center field, his third of the game. Burke-Lee Mabeus pounced on a bunt in front of the plate threw him out at second. Neville called off Smith for flyout, Smith going to his knees to get out of the way at the last second.
Featherston worked cleanup hitter Swansen carefully, too carefully, nibbling outside the strike zone on three pitches. On the 3-1 he sent a shot up the middle but Cooney had him shaded perfectly, a lineout to end the inning.
Two scoreless for Featherston but the Ducks needed runs, and energy. Hellman got impatient, taking a big cut at a ball outside, then laying off two to go ahead 3-1, walking on a ball inside. The tying run was somewhere in the back of the dugout.
Walsh flied out to left. Smith mashed a ball foul, fouled another off the handle, took low, took inside at the knees, swung overtop a changeup. Aroz showed bunt but the ball fouled off the knob of his bat. Just a quarter turn out of synch.
A jam shot fly to right used up the 6th.
Featherston pitched a seven-pitch 7th, his third scoreless inning in the Omaha damp.
Molony showed the Ducks were still fighting, smashing one off the glove of the diving third baseman and never slowing as he stretched it into a double, sliding hands-first into second.
Starter Jackson Brockett gave way to lefty Will Walsh to face pinch hitter Coen Niclai. Walsh got Niclai but Cooney walked. Like clockwork, Garate smoked a ball to third, caught by Joshua Overbeek on his knees, over to first for Nebraska's third inning-ending double play.
Balls hit on the screws, all right into a Cornhusker glove. The Big Ten Champions were six outs away from elimination and a plane ride home. Selection Monday comes at 9 a.m. PT on ESPN or ESPNU.
Earl Weaver used to say the best place for a young pitcher was long relief. Featherston continued into the 8th. A swinging bunt got two aboard with two out, then Cayden Brumbaugh singled up the middle to bring in a run, the first in four innings for the sophomore from Bakersfield, California.
The showed life in the 9th. Meggars led off with a double. Cooney laid down a perfect surprise bunt to get a runner on. Garate doubled to score Meggars. Neville lofted a fly to left for a sacrifice RBI.
Walsh drilled a bullet to right, caught in right field for the third out. The Husker won 7-3 to advance to the semifinal this evening against Penn State.