Takeaways and observations from Oregon baseball's home opening series

It was all Oregon in the baseball squad’s home opening series as they picked up four straight wins, with three of them being by 10 or more runs.

The flat out dominance allowed the team and fans alike to get even more of a taste for what the 2024 team is going to look like on a weekend-to-weekend basis. Both personnel adjustments and larger sample sizes provided from four more games gives a lot more insight into the team head coach Mark Wasikowski has assembled.

{p class=”tncms-inline-link”} All Ducks in Oregon Baseball’s home opener over Lafayette

After fielding a starting rotation of RJ Gordon, Kevin Seitter and Turner Spoljaric in the previous weekend’s three game series in Arlington, Wasikowski made some tweaks for the Lafayette series. Gordon stayed in the Friday slot, Seitter threw the Sunday outing as the fourth starter, with Grayson Grinsell getting the first game Saturday and freshman Toby Twist on the bump for the second game of the double header.

{p class=”tncms-inline-link”} Oregon’s double-header produces two vastly different results

Grinsell was far and away the best pitcher on the bump — starter or bullpen. His four inning outing ended with 10 strikeouts and a single hit surrendered. Grinsell, a preseason Pac-12 all-conference selection, has wipeout stuff. The performance earned Wasikowski’s praise, who said he looked like a “Friday guy.” He could toe the rubber in the spot for the upcoming series with UC Santa Barbara.

RJ Gordon was fine. He was fine last week as well, but didn’t look like the dominant force Grinsell did. His final line over six innings saw him strike out four, walk three and surrender three hits. He certainly was effective, allowing only one run. However, to no fault of his own, he may slide back in the rotation to the Sunday spot. Grinsell and Seitter simply may have been too good to not be the first one to throw a weekend series.

{p class=”tncms-inline-link”} Oregon baseball completes sweep of Lafayette with 12-2 win Sunday

Twist is definitely a freshman. It’s no knock on him, the ceiling on him is going to be huge, but he struggled to find the zone early in his outing. Twist walked three and gave up a pair of hits with earned runs to match, but the strikeout stuff was there. He may end up the flexible bullpen or starter based on the number of matchups on the weekend.

Seitter was arguably more impressive than Grinsell. The Quinnipiac transfer fanned 11 over his six innings of work while letting up a pair of earned runs. No one threw more pitches over the weekend than Seitter did, going 92 deep — 62 of which were for strikes. He’s a candidate to move up a slot in the rotation, but it also wouldn’t be surprising if he stays put to give the Ducks a knockout pitcher on the final game of a weekend series.

On the offensive side, every day’s lineup came with a new tweak. The DH spot was a semi-revolving door and it looks like Wasikowski is still trying to sort out his second base spot.

The Chase Meggers experiment is one that Wasikowski seems very committed to thus far. Meggers — who, per Wasikowski, was one of the best hitters in fall and spring scrimmages — was in the lineup for three out of the four games, with two at the DH and one behind the dish. Wasikowski said one of his biggest regrets during the Arlington series was not finding a place for Meggers.

The results from his playing time were a mixed bag, taking all of his reps in the two hole. He got a hit, three RBIs and walked three times Friday before going 0-4 at the plate in Saturday’s first game. Meggers picked up another hit with an RBI and was hit by a pitch Sunday, exiting the weekend with a .182 batting average but got on base more than half the time. He’ll probably continue to stick in the lineup.

Jeffery Heard has continued to rake and has magically left every game with his batting average still sitting at .500. It nearly exceeded that, as it looked like his final at-bat of the weekend was going to result in a home run before it found the glove of Lafayette’s center fielder. He’s hitting comfortably in the cleanup spot and oozes confidence every time he’s stepped in the box, whether he’s swinging for the fences or laying down a perfectly executed bunt.

Ryan Cooney really found his stride in the fourth game of the weekend, lifting a home run as well as a triple for his two hits of the day. The freshman also made appearances at short, third and second defensively. He looked comfortable at all three spots, but did commit an error at second base in the first game of the weekend.

With Pac-12 weekend series coming in stretches of three games over three days, Oregon’s upcoming bout with No. 22 UC Santa Barbara will give an even clearer picture into how they’ll operate in conference play and against ranked opponents. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. on Friday, March 1 at PK Park.