Everything Oregon Duck fans need to know about Oral Roberts and the College World Series
The Oregon Ducks are staying alive and getting set to host the biggest baseball series that Eugene has seen in over a decade.
After sweeping the Nashville Regional as the No. 2 seed over the weekend, Mark Wasikowski and the Ducks come home to Eugene where they will play host to Oral Roberts in the Eugene Super Regional.
After winning the Pac-12 tournament a couple of weekends ago and making their way past Xavier and Vanderbilt over the weekend, the Ducks are currently on a nine-game winning streak. With two more wins, they will secure their spot in the College World Series for the first time in over 70 years.
While the Ducks have been a fascinating watch for the past several months, a lot of fans are likely tuning in for the first time all year. There’s no shame in that, so we wanted to help get you caught up to speed on what’s taken place, give this Oregon run some historical context, and paint a picture of how things might look going forward.
Here is our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) guide to Oregon’s stay in the Super Regionals this weekend:
What is the historical context?
Simply put, the Ducks are advancing to a stage of the baseball postseason that they haven’t reached since 2012. They are now two wins away from making their first College World Series appearance since 1954.
The Ducks have a complicated baseball history. The program was shut down following the 1981 season, and the university was without a baseball team until 2009. Since then, the Ducks have made it to the NCAA Tournament a total of eight times, advancing out of the regional stage just once in 2012, where they ultimately lost to Kent State.
Under head coach Mark Wasikowski, the Ducks have made it to the regionals in the past three seasons.
Was Oregon expected to be this good?
The simple answer is “not quite.”
The Ducks were projected to finish fifth in the Pac-12 before the season started. Ironically, that prediction was pretty accurate, with Oregon finishing the regular season ranked No. 6 in the Pac-12. However, a run through the Pac-12 tournament and an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament gave the Ducks a chance to keep this thing rolling.
They are one of two Pac-12 teams still alive, with Stanford being the other.
What are the Super Regional Matchups?
No. 1 Wake Forest vs. No. 16 Alabama
No. 8 Stanford vs. Texas
Tennessee vs. Southern Mississippi
No. 2 Florida vs. No. 15 South Carolina
No. 7 Virginia vs. Duke
Oregon vs. Oral Roberts
TCU vs. No. 14 Indiana State
Which notable teams lost in the regionals?
No. 3 Arkansas
No. 4 Clemson
No. 6 Vanderbilt
No. 9 Miami
No. 10 Coastal Carolina
No. 11 Oklahoma State
No. 13 Auburn
No. 14 Indiana State
No. 15 South Carolina
Washington
Arizona
Who is leading the way for the Ducks?
The story of Oregon baseball all year has been an elite and powerful offense paired with a really solid group of pitching. While a pair of the best pitchers on the team are currently injured, the Ducks’ bullpen has really stepped up over the past few weeks and kept the momentum rolling forward. On top of that, the offense has remained impressive.
A total of four Ducks were named to the Nashville Regional team — RF Rikuu Nishida, 3B Sabin Ceballos, SS Drew Cowley and P Grayson Grinsell — while Nishida was named the regional MVP after hitting .500 (6-for-12) with three runs driven in.
Those four players aren’t responsible for all of Oregon’s success, though. The Ducks have also seen some stellar play from C Bennett Thompson, 1B Jacob Walsh, CF Colby Shade, and LF Tanner Smith, among others.
What's next for the Ducks?
Starting this weekend, the Ducks will be the host of a Super Regional series against Oral Roberts. It will be a three-game series where the winner advances to the College World Series in Omaha.
The first two games of the series will be held on a Friday and a Saturday night at 5 p.m. PT, with an additional game on Sunday if needed. The time of that potential Sunday game is TBD.
How does the College World Series work?
The NCAA tournament is different from the College World Series in the sense that 64 teams get into the tournament with a double-elimination style bracket. From there, the remaining 16 teams break off into super regionals, where the higher-seeded team hosts a three-game series. The eight winning teams advance to Omaha, Nebraska, where they play in the College World Series.
From there, the teams compete in two double elimination brackets based on seeding, with the winners of each meeting in the CWS finals, a best-of-three series to decide the NCAA champion.
How good is Oral Roberts?
They’re good. Full stop.
While we made note of Oregon’s impressive 9-game winning streak they are currently enjoying, Oral Roberts comes into the Super Regional boasting a 21-game winning streak, having not lost since April 22.
While they do play in the Summit League, which features far lesser competition than the Pac-12 or another Power 5 conference, the Golden Eagles played — and beat — schools like Memphis, Oklahoma State, and Washington this year. Like Oregon, they also went 3-0 in their regional this past weekend.
While a casual fan may look at the name Oral Roberts and think that the Ducks are smooth sailing into the College World Series, think again. This is going to be a very competitive series.
