Oregon Baseball Opens NCAA Tournament Play Against Central Connecticut State

The Ducks host their first regional in eight years and sit in a bracket with Gonzaga, LSU, and Central Connecticut. Can they win the regional?

Author:
Dylan Reubenking
Updated:
Jun 4, 2021 5:47 PM EDT
Original:
Jun 4, 2021

It has been six long and chaotic years, but the Oregon baseball team is back in the NCAA Tournament. Not only did the Ducks clinch their first postseason berth in six years, but they also earned the No. 14 overall seed in the tournament, good enough to host a regional at PK Park for the first time since 2013.

The Ducks will welcome three other teams to Eugene for the regional: No. 2 seed Gonzaga, No. 3 seed LSU, and No. 4 seed Central Connecticut, whom Oregon will go head-to-head with to open regional play on Friday.

Oregon finished the regular season 37-14 and 20-10 in Pac-12 play, the most wins it has had in the conference since 2013. The Ducks won 16 games against ranked opponents and were ranked for most of the season.

They will take on the Central Connecticut Blue Devils, the tournament champions of the Northeast Conference. They went 28-13 and 21-9 in conference play. The Ducks and Blue Devils will face each other for the first time.

Both squads have a solid pitching staff — each ranked in the top 20 in the country in earned run average. The Blue Devils are led by a fantastic trio in Brandon Fox, Andrew Braun and Anthony Mozzicato, who have combined to start 39 of 41 games this season and pitched almost 60% of the team’s innings.

Braun was named to the All-NEC First Team and has a good chance to start Friday against Oregon. The southpaw posted a 9-1 record with a 3.26 ERA in 13 starts, striking out 71 batters and walking just 12.

The Ducks also have three excellent starting pitchers of their own right in Robert Ahlstrom, Brett Walker, and Cullen Kafka, who have combined to pitch more than half of the Ducks’ innings this season. Ahlstrom has been the ace this year, leading the Pac-12 in ERA and the Ducks in innings pitched.

Expect the Ducks to start Kafka or Walker to save Ahlstrom for a later game in the regional.

Oregon’s offense has been one of the best in the country this season. Led by All-Pac-12 selections Aaron Zavala, Kenyon Yovan, Gabe Matthews, Tanner Smith, and Josh Kasevich, the Ducks can spray the ball all over the field and out of the park.

Zavala, the Pac-12 Player of the Year, is the anchor of the Oregon offense, leading the Ducks in practically every major offensive category. His batting average hasn’t been lower than .316 all season.

The Central Connecticut offense is not the strength of the team, but it has some players who can rake. Buddy Dewaine lit it up at the plate in the NEC Tournament, going 9-19 with two home runs and eight RBIs in five games en route to being named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

Gonzaga is the only team in the regional that has faced Oregon before, losing 10-3 to the Ducks on May 18 at PK Park. The Bulldogs won the West Coast Conference and finished 33-17 overall on the season.

LSU endured one of the most grueling seasons of anyone in the country, finishing with 34 wins and 22 losses — the fewest wins the Tigers have had since head coach Paul Mainieri’s first season in 2007 (29). They did earn a couple of resumé-building wins, including against No. 1 overall seed Arkansas, No. 7 overall seed Mississippi State, South Carolina (ranked No. 10 in the nation at the time), and two wins against No. 12 overall seed Ole Miss.

Oregon will face Central Connecticut at 2 p.m., and Gonzaga will go toe-to-toe with LSU at 7 p.m. The winner of each game will play Saturday at 7 p.m., and the losing teams will play Saturday at 3 p.m.

In order for the Ducks to advance to the Super Regional, they will likely have to defeat three experienced head coaches and programs. Even though Oregon is the regional host and the No. 14 overall seed, it is the least experienced team in terms of the NCAA Tournament.

LSU has won six national championships in the last 30 years — including most recently in 2009 under Head Coach Paul Mainieri, who is retiring after this season, his 15th.

Gonzaga, led by 18th-year head coach Mark Machtolf, is in its fourth tournament since 2009. Central Connecticut, led by 22nd-year head coach Charlie Hickey, earned a bid to its third tournament in four years.

The Ducks enjoyed their best season in years under second-year head coach Mark Wasikowski, and they are primed to make an exciting run in the NCAA Tournament.

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