Everything Mark Wasikowski Said Following Oregon's NCAA Tournament Selection

For the second consecutive season, the Oregon Ducks baseball team is set to host an NCAA Tournament Regional at PK Park in Eugene as they aim to reach the College World Series for the first time since 1954.

The Ducks are the No. 11 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and host a regional that features two former Pac-12 rivals, the Washington State Cougars and Oregon State Beavers. While Oregon is set to open the tournament on Friday against the Yale Bulldogs, many Oregon fans are excited about a potential tournament matchup against their arch-rival, Oregon State.

Before that potentially happens, coach Mark Waskikowski addressed focusing on the Yale game before worrying about the Beavers, while also discussing what will go into success in the tournament. Here’s everything that Wasikowski had to say about Oregon’s selection in the tournament.

Oregon Ducks College Baseball Big Ten Mark Wasikowski NCAA Tournament Washington State Cougars Oregon State Beavers Pac-12 — Oregon baseball coach Mark Wasikowski before the game against Cal Poly at PK Park. | Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Everything Mark Wasikowski Said

Oregon Ducks College Baseball Big Ten Mark Wasikowski NCAA Tournament Eugene Regional Washington State Cougars Yale Bulldogs — Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski comes out from the dugout to dispute a call as the Oregon Ducks host the Washington Huskies on May 10, 2025, at PK Park in Eugene. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On Hosting Oregon State In Regional:

“You knew that was a possibility when we went into the Big Ten, and they spread conferences. You’ve got us in the Big Ten, and you’ve got the old Pac-12 spread out now, and with Stanford and Cal being possibilities and all the other leagues now, you can really stack West Coast regionals with West Coast teams, where you couldn’t do that before because we’re all in the same league."

"Now that we’re not in the same league, we get a chance to do this, and I think it's great. I think it's great for the fans. It’s two good baseball teams that are in a regional where there are four teams, and let’s not be shortsighted. The other two teams that are in our regional are really good as well.”

What Stands Out About Oregon State:

Oregon Ducks Oregon State Beavers College Baseball NCAA Tournament Big Ten Pac-12 rivals College World Series regional games — Oregon State celebrates a home run by infielder Paul Vazquez as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers on March 3, 2026, at PK Park in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“My brain’s not on Oregon State, we might not play them. My brain is on Yale, that’s our first opponent, and we’re looking forward to getting prepared to match up against those guys and do everything we can to beat those guys on Game 1.”

How Past Three Weeks Have Prepared Them For Postseason Play:

Oregon Ducks College Baseball Big Ten NCAA Tournament College World Series Eugene Regional postseason play Cal Scolari — Oregon pitcher Cal Scolari throws a pitch as the Oregon Ducks host the USC Trojans on May 14, 2026, in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“With what the team has had in front of them for the last several weeks, it’s been the best preparation you can possibly have. You’ve had heated games left and right. Going up against the best teams in college baseball in the last several weeks, and we're going toe-to-toe with them. I mean it's the best way to prepare, and we’ve been able to do that now, and we’re looking forward to this next stretch.”

West Coast Baseball:

“Well, I think the country, especially the baseball people, they know about West Coast baseball. I don’t think the people in Austin, Texas, are super excited to have Santa Barbara rolling into their house."

"I don’t think that when you see USC rolling into your house, I don’t think you’re really excited about that, and the reason why is because those schools are really good and they’ve got really deep teams, really deep pitching staffs specifically and West Coast baseball is known for that and I think that’s what you’ll see in these regionals is really stout pitching staffs matching up from the west coast against whoever they’re playing.”

On Only One West Coast Team Getting Out Of Regionals:

Oregon Ducks Oregon State Beavers Yale Bulldogs Washington State Cougars College Baseball College World Series tournament — Oregon pitcher Josh Hollis pitches as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers on March 3, 2026, at PK Park in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“When you’re a West Coast guy, you want to see West Coast teams have the best chance to be able to all meet up in Omaha and have as many West Coast teams as an opportunity to be able to meet up in a College World Series. I don’t know how much the committee looks at stuff like that. I think the answer to that is when you seed them one to 64, and then you slot people that way, and you don’t care about travel costs. I don’t think that’s where we are in the college landscape.”

How Team Grew During Big Ten Tournament:

“Clearly, we’re playing really good baseball right now, and the guys know it and just watching the games last week, and anybody who was watching those games knows how competitive our team is and how good our team really is.”

How Pitching Staff Has Grown:

Oregon Ducks College Baseball pitchers Miles Gosztola Cal Scolari Will Sanford Oregon State Beavers Mark Wasikowski — Oregon pitcher Miles Gosztola throws a pitch as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers on March 3, 2026, at PK Park in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“Development of those arms. You had a lot of questions going into the season when you lost guys like Grayson Grenell and Jason Wrights and the people like that and then for the development of these young guys to be where it is, I think is remarkable, with Coach Flo, Dan Staley, Daryl Hunter behind the scenes, those kinds of guys working with these guys its obvious those guys have really developed their maturity levels and they’ve pitched our way into this point. Hopefully, they pitch us a lot further."

Success In NCAA Tournament:

“We have a thing out there in the outfield where it lists the regionals that we’ve played in the postseason, and the one thing that we start every single year with is you know it’s going to be up there, so when you come back, and you’re a player here, you’re a coach here, it’s going to be reflected on whether you’ve made it to postseason or not and its going to be visible for everybody to see."

"That’s something we hold in front of our players, and we have to keep them accountable where they know it’s going to be visible whether you have success or you don’t. In a place like this at the University of Oregon, fans expect it, and they should expect it. I’m glad to be a small piece of this, and hopefully we get our guys rallied up good enough to where we can get to the College World Series for the first time since 1954.”

On Young Stars Getting Postseason Experience:

Oregon Ducks College Baseball Big Ten NCAA Tournament College World Series Angel Laya Naulivou Lauaki Jr. regional matchups — Oregon outfielder Angel Laya, center, and Oregon infielder Naulivou Lauaki Jr., left, celebrate a home run by Laya as the Oregon Ducks host the Oregon State Beavers on March 3, 2026, at PK Park in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“Those three freshmen are pretty remarkable, and they’re getting a lot of accolades nationally, and they should. Those three guys are really special talents, and they play very well. Two of those four are hitting top four in the order, and I think junior’s hitting like fifth or sixth, and so you’re talking about huge pieces in what we’re doing, and so the future’s obviously bright for our program with those guys being only freshmen.”

On RPI System:

“I think the committee probably did right, and they realized that the system has some weaknesses in it when it comes to RPI, and so instead of penalizing people for the current structure, they’re looking at and saying okay we’re going to do our best with the current structure they didn’t penalize teams and they’re probably going to look at it in the offseason and say how can we fix this?"

"Which is the adult thing to do, so I credit the committee for taking the adult stance and probably realizing there’s some weakness in the RPI system and saying, okay, what do we have to do to where games aren’t cancelled, and players are losing out on opportunities to play in games.

“Because ultimately I want every coach out there that wants their players to play in every single game possible and a system’s broken when you’re playing games and winning games and your RPI is going down and when the committe looked at that I’m sure they probably said the same thing and that’s why they probably chose not to penalize people that are working within the current rules to the best of their ability to position their teams the right way.”

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