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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 23, 1973)
Ducks looking ahead after disappointing 1972 By EDHERMAN Of the Emerald Mel Krause’s baseball Ducks could throw a punch this spring, but they couldn’t take one. The Ducks battered their opponents, but still fell victim to the KO. It’s better to give than to receive. The Ducks had no problem “giving” this season; their quota of “receiving,” however, was a bit overdone. Don Reynolds summarized the season, “It was a disappointment because we had about everybody back from last year and things looked good. I thought it would be a great disappointment if we didn’t win the Northern Division. And then the way we were losing games, I just couldn’t understand it.” Oregon wasted no time this spring characterizing itself. In the opening league game of the year with Washington State the Ducks scored nine runs, but still lost. A week later against Oregon State the Ducks repeated their act, producing eight runs in a losing effort. Worse, however, was the fact that Oregon lost both games by blowing sizeable leads in the late in nings. That type of baseball haunted the Ducks for the remainder of the year. Krause’s comments about his ballclub (9-9 in Northern Division play and 23-13 overall) came then as no surprise. “If I had to put my finger on any one thing that hurt us this season, it was the lack of depth in the pitching staff. We lost five or six ballgames in the last innings because we didn’t have a reliever who could come in and shut the door. “Conversely, they came in, walked more ballplayers, gave up a homerun or a couple of basehits and we got beat.” If the Duck pitchers had one nagging problem this spring it was throwing strikes. Duck hurlers issued 202 free trips to first base. That’s six walks every nine innings. Sophomore thrower Greg Richards said, “five or six games were lost entirely on wildness. I think the pitchers have learned a valuable lesson this year — throw strikes.” A two-week layoff before the first WSU series played an important role in Oregon’s mound problems. Another sophomore pitcher, Randy Lanning, explained the effects of the layoff. “You go out there and you’re not physically in shape because you haven’t had the work. Mentally you’re not ready for league competition.” It’s like sending a green soldier into battle. Coupled with the layoff, Oregon’s inexperienced staff added to the woes. Five of Oregon’s pitchers were sophomores and three were juniors. The other two were senior Steve Townsend and freshman Brian Shandera. Lanning, Townsend and All-Northern Division junior Mike Shoup were the only hurlers with varsity experience under their belts. In Shoup’s case, his two years of previous varsity duty showed. The former North Eugene High star posted a 5-1 mark and sported a nifty 1.95 ERA. “He has good control,” says Dean Roberts. “He can throw all of his pitches where he wants to, and he Mel Krause doesn’t walk many guys (less than two batters every nine innings).” Also having respectable seasons on the mound were Richards (3-1) and Shandera (4-2). Krause feels, “Richards developed very rapidly and he’s a very good college varsity pitcher.” Shandera’s case was a bit ironic. The precocious youngster saw his first action of the season in a JV uniform. When he did come up however, he made six starts and whiffed 39 batters — both ac complishments second only to Shoup. It’s only natural then that Shandera felt the pitching was only one area that hurt the Ducks this year. He also made mention to the defense. Krause did too. “We had two spots that were glaring. If you look at the statistics, Rich Chase made more errors (22) than he should’ve. He’s a better shortstop than that. “And Jim Willis had 17 errors for the year. Ninety percent of them were at third base where I’m trying to make a third baseman out of him. I’m not sure at this point whether he should be a third baseman.” Despite the weak glovework of Willis and Chase, the two infielders nailed down All-Northern Division spots. What they didn’t do in field they made up for at the plate. Willis terrorized opposing pitchers with a .405 batting average (sixth best ever in the Oregon record book), collecting 49 hits (fifth best) and 30 RBI (seventh best). The big freshman had a 15-game hitting streak going until the next-to-last game of the season. He hit safely in 29 of 32 games in which he had an official at bat. Chase, who was second to Willis in hits (47) and second to Reynolds in homeruns (7) doles praise to | the freshman. “He worked real hard. At the begin ning of the year he couldn’t hit a curve well, but he was determined to be able to hit one. He can hit it now since he worked on it.” The Ducks however, weren’t satisfied with just a couple of guys who could punch. They blasted teams with an array of punchers. They jabbed with a Bob Anderson (.309, 5 HR), slugged with a Pat McNally (.297, 6 HR) and coun tered with a Steve Wolf (.297). But with Don Reynolds they knocked people groggy- Maybe that’s why he was also an All Northern Division selection too. The Corvallis star hit a team-leading eight home runs while collecting 30 RBI. Nevertheless, Reynolds was not happy with his season. “I hit well overall, but I don’t think I faced that much better pitching in the Pac-8 than I did outside. I would’ve liked to have been more consistent as far as my Pac-8 year.” I The rest of the outfield stung opposing pitchers too. How many teams might like to have Roberts (.318), Fred Kay (.377) and Guy Krause (.286 and three HR in only 17 games due to injuries) returning next spring. Quite a few. And how many opposing pitchers were glad to see Krause in only 17 games. Same answer. Krause’s three four-baggers ran his career total to 17, tying him for runnerup on the all-time list. “As many runs as we scored this year we missed the bat of Guy just because of his experience in hit ting in the four or five spot,” emphasized his dad. The Ducks did score runs this spring. Banging out an average of ten hits a game (a phenomenal .295 batting mark), they scored seven runs a contest. They did it the “easy” way too. Forty-six times Duck hitters scored themselves with one stroke of the bat. It now stands as a new club record. When a club produces runs, but still doesn’t win, it has to have an idea of where its priorities stand for next year. For next season Krause wants to develop a little more depth on the pitching staff. He wants pitchers who can, “win on the varsity level, not just compete on the varsity level.” Krause plans to dig into the junior college ranks to satisfy the need. He also intends to recruit an experienced junior college catcher who “can come in and compete with Arte Salveson for the first string job.” If Krause s recruiting endeavors are successful, next spring could be very bright. Only two players that saw much playing time leave the club — Wolf and catcher Bob Neal. “It’s difficult to predict we’ll win the Northern Division next year, because too many things can happen,” said Krause. “WSU has a very fine ballclub every year, but I don’t see why we can’t be right in the thick of it. ” Hopefully, the Ducks will throw as many punches next spring as they did this spring. But maybe next spring they’ll remember to keep their guard up. Sucess at Karate tournament When Lane Community College hosted a major Karate tour nament a week ago more than 350 competitors showed up from the Coast states. About ten clubs wer^ represented in the Kata, or individual technique competition, and sparring or combat com petitions. Coach Bob Ellis, a black belt grad student who teaches in Eugene, had his students bring home five trophies including three of the first place variety, all in white belt areas. David Yuan won the Kata cup and finished second ift the lightweight sparring, while his teammate David Wolf bested him for the top spot. In the hoavy weight division Ron Hodges also won the honors. Rounding out the medals for Ellis’ group was Napolean Polk who finished third in the light weight sparring. Derek Burt entered the trophy club for the first time with a second in the heavyweight colored belt and Tom Whitaker made his debut by carrying the runner-up spot in white belt Kata. Barbara Bones had a broken nose and could not spar so she entered the women’s colored belt Kata and outperformed everyone in the field. Perhaps the biggest win of all, though not a great surprise was the coaches winning of both the black belt heavyweight title and the grand championship. Rich Mainenti, the Oregon black belt coach, won a 5-4 decision over Bob Borrow who had earlier knocked Dan An derson out of the tournament. Anderson is currently ranked tenth in the nation. Although neither Mainenti or Borrow are ranked nationally because they do not travel out of the region to the national competitions they do join Dan to form the top three competitors in the northwest. Rich won the match with a dripping side kick as Bob was attempting a lightening like spinning jumping back kick. Rounding out the first place winners was David Smith who took the colored lightweight division. Even without the usual stars Netters take expected 7th in Pac-8 Playing in the Pacific-8 championships without three of the starting six players during the regular season, Oregon’s tennis team still finished in seventh place, in the three-day tourney at USC last week. Although the perennial seventh slot was expected of the Ducks, Oregon’s slim hopes of a higher finish were severly diminished by the loss of Jumbo Fernando and Brad Look, two seniors left home from the trip, and the subsequent refusal to play of John Williams, in protest to the decision by head coach Buzz Summers. The Webfoot team was in volved in three matches, and on paper, the result was the just about the same as if Fernando, Look, and Williams had made the trip. After drawing second-seed Stanford in the first round, the Ducks were trounced 9-0 by the Cardinals, and the closest any Duck player could come to winning a set was Mark Weir’s 6 2, 6-3 loss to Sandy Mayer of Stanford. Weir, who was propelled to the number one slot by Fernando’s dismissal, played excellent tennis against Mayer, who is the number one ranked amateur in the United States. The next day in the consolation round, the Ducks lost to Washington, 8-1. In two previous encounters with the Huskies, Oregon had lost 7-2 and 8-1. It was scappy effort on the part of the under-manned Ducks. Oregon’s only point was provided by a pair of fresh men, Mike Yorkey and Fred LaMothe. The duo won the third doubles in straight sets, defeating Ken Beer and Dan Carlyon of Washington, 7-6, 7-6. They won ihe two sudden-death tiebreakers iecisive 5-1 and 5-2. Going into the last day of the ournament last Saturday, Dregon was pitted against vinless Washington State, a team he Ducks had beat with relative ease in previous meetings this season. Playing good, solid tennis, Oregon went on to register a convincing 8-1 victory in the battle over last place. The win nestled Oregon into its seventh place finish, just as expected. Oregon finished the season at 14-12, with Mark Weir the Most Valuable Player, winning 14 singles matches, more than anyone on the team. Weir upped his career record to 37 wins—a tie for the Oregon record set by Larry Brooks set 1961-3. The Ducks also finished with six shut-outs for on the season, a new Oregon record. Rob Bradshaw and John Williams was the best doubles team for Oregon this season, finishing at 12-3. The pair have won 18 career matches together, an Oregon record. Coach Buzz Summers now takes on the task of improving the campus outdoor tennis courts in preparation of the 1974 Pac-8 championships at Oregon.
