Oregon baseball eager to renew rivalry at Oregon State

“I haven’t played Oregon State since my sophomore year personally,” Ducks designated hitter Kenyon Yovan said. “So I’ve had it marked on my calendar for a while, especially going to Goss, going to Corvallis. It’s something that I’ve been fired up to play a series against them. We get them six times this year so that’s six times I get to prove a point and have two years of passion behind it.

“We’re going to be coming out with a lot of fire, especially not being able to play them this last year. Everyone wants to be able to go out there and beat their rival. Everyone on our team takes it a little bit more personal when it comes to Oregon State. Everyone’s ready.”

Yovan, the Pac-12 and national player of the week, opened his season with a mammoth weekend and led the Ducks to a four-game sweep of UC Santa Barbara.

Oregon’s hitters did well in the series and most of the pitching staff did as well, including Robert Ahlstrom, who also made his season debut last weekend. The left-hander, who was UO’s ace in 2019, is back to the top of the rotation this weekend and started the series opener.

“There’s a little added incentive I guess you could say,” said Ahlstrom, a Eugene native. “I think it’s going to be an awesome series; both teams I feel are trending in the right direction. We’re coming off a really good series and Oregon State’s playing really good baseball.”

Oregon also respects that Oregon State’s lineup and rotation are going to be the best it has seen to date. Six OSU starters are hitting over .300 and Kevin Abel (1-1, 0.57 ERA) already has 26 strikeouts in 15.2 innings.

“They’ve got a good combination of power and speed,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “They play good team defense, there’s not a whole lot of holes. Abel’s very competitive; he’s a very good competitor. He can throw several of his pitches in any count for strikes. He’s got a plus changeup, his breaking ball is very good and he’s up to 92-93 again, his arm’s back to being healthy.

“It’s more than just him too, they’ve got very good starting pitching, their bullpen’s got some power arms and some good ones back there in that bullpen as well. This is a very good baseball team. It’s a complete baseball team. Coaching staff’s prepared them well and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to match up with them.”

The first three of six meetings between the rivals also serves as the first under Wasikowski. As he continues to build a culture and raise UO’s profile, the outcomes of these series and approach to the games in general are big factors.

“It’s only a rivalry if both teams are good,” Wasikowski said. “If it’s a lopsided deal, one side is winning a bunch over the other, that’s not a rivalry, that’s a butt-kicking. For me it’s real simple, it’s our job to make this thing a rivalry and the way you do that is you do it year by year. If it’s extremely competitive, then great, it’ll be a rivalry. If it’s not, then it’s not a rivalry. …

“It is a little bit of a another game, but the rivalry for the fans in the state of Oregon, that’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for me to be able to put a baseball team on the field to where we can have a rivalry and it’s a big deal for me to be able to answer to coaches in our state, in our footprint and say, yeah we’re for real. That’s not just something you can say pick up a phone and say, ‘Hey coach by the way we’re for real and send your players to us.’ You got show it on the field. You got to show those people out there, the fans, the community, the coaches, the recruits, all that kind of stuff, you got to show that stuff through your play and your competitiveness. That’s what we are attempting to do.”