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.