Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
— Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
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Tuesday, February 25,2003
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Brad Ficek and the Oregon Club Baseball Team play on after the sport was cut from the varsity ranks in 1981.
Swingin' in the rain
With no field at the University,
the Oregon Club Baseball Team
only has the desire of its
players and fans to keep it alive
Jon Roetman
Sports Freelancer
The smell of the grass.
The sizzling sound of a ball hurled 90
miles-per-hour from a dirt hill located
60-feet-6-inches from home plate.
The unmistakable sound of a ball be
ing launched toward a fence from an
aluminum bat.
Each of these elements make base
ball enjoyable for fans throughout the
Pacific-10 Conference.
Except Oregon fans.
While baseball fans around the Pac
10 prepare to cheer their teams to vic
tory this spring, Duck fans will need to
get their fix from a different source.
Duck fans have the option of focusing
their attention on the club baseball team,
because Oregon is the only Pac-10 school
without a varsity baseball program.
The Ducks start their season Saturday
in Vancouver, B.C., and junior starting
pitcher Jordan Shaw said the team is
looking to show people that baseball
should be a big part of Oregon athletics.
“It’s on our shoulders to represent
Oregon with pride and to show them
they made a mistake dropping the
(baseball) program,” Shaw said.
The school dropped baseball, along
with men’s and women’s gymnastics, in
1981 because of budget problems. After
dropping gymnastics, Title IX forced
Oregon to drop either wrestling or base
ball. It chose the latter.
This leaves the club team to represent
the school in baseball. If that doesn’t
sound imposing enough, they have other
obstacles as well, the most daunting be
Club Sports
Tuesday
ing they have no field to practice on.
The Ducks practice twice a week on
the turf field by the Student Recreation
Center and spend two days a week tak
ing batting practice in cages. This
means they will not see a grounder with
any “true” hops, or face any “live”
pitching before their season-opening
series with Douglas College. Anyone
who has ever played baseball knows
how hard it is to hit live pitching when
you have not practiced against it.
“I haven’t seen a live pitch since
Willamette,” said junior shortstop
Aaron House, who transferred to Ore
gon after two years with the Willamette
varsity program.
Despite the obstacles, the Ducks feel
positive about their upcoming season,
as their 27-man roster is deep with
pitching. The Ducks are coming off a
season in which you could count their
victories on one hand. At one point, the
team had only nine players available.
“We had guys pitching who weren’t
pitchers,” senior student coordinator
Kalin Boodman said of the Ducks’ ros
ter problems last season. “We want to
keep things a little more professional.”
Three front-runners for the starting
rotation are right-handed junior Matt
Mensik, left-handed junior Patrick Orr
and Shaw. Shaw said this is one of the
best pitching staffs he has been associ
ated with, top to bottom.
“We have a really deep staff coming
Turn to Baseball, page 10
Conference seniors leave their mark on Pac-10
The Pac-10 seniors are getting ready
to play in their final conference games
Women’s Pac-10 notes
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
It is time to bid adieu to the Pacific-10
Conference season and the conference’s sen
ior athletes.
With nine games left on the Pac-10 slate —
four on Thursday and five Saturday — the con
ference’s seniors are about to play their last
games in their respective uniforms.
Sure, players at Washington, Arizona and
UCLA may get definite chances in the NCAA
Tournament, but for the rest of the conference,
these chances are dwindling fast.
“It’s kind of becoming a reality that it’s slim
ming down, you know, with our games,” Wash
ington’s Loree Payne said after the Huskies beat
Oregon on Saturday. “We have only three games
left (including the tournament) in the regular
season, and there’s not many guarantees after
that. This could be an awesome season for us.”
Payne is one of five seniors on the Washing
ton roster, a team that is loaded with experi
ence. Surprisingly, two teams, Arizona State
and Stanford, have played the entire season
without a player set to leave the program at the
end of the year.
That’s an accomplishment, considering the
Cardinal stand in first place in the Pac-10.
Meanwhile, California, stuck in ninth place
in the Pac-10, sent its seniors out in style Sat
urday against USC. The Golden Bear seniors
— Audrey Watler, Michelle Wald and Amber
White — pitched in with just five points but
were leaders in the win, according to Cal head
coach Caren Horstmeyer.
‘Tve gotten on Amber about being a senior
recently, and she responded,” Horstmeyer told
the Daily Californian. “It's always nice to see
your seniors do well on a day like today.”
For the record, a Pac-10 senior leads the
conference in scoring (UCLA’s Michelle Greco,
19.4 ppg), is fifth in rebounding (Arizona’s
Krista Warren, 7.2 rpg), third in assists (Ari
zona’s Julie Brase, 4.28 apg), and second in
three-pointers made (Payne, 62).
McArthur Court loses its title
For the past four seasons, Oregon fans have
averaged the highest attendance per game in
Turn to Women's, page 10
No joke: Cougars end skid
Washington State snaps a 21 -
game Pac-10 losing streak
with a win over Oregon State
Men’s Pac-10 notes
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
The Washington State men’s
basketball team won a game.
That’s not a misprint. The
Cougars won. Really. Don’t laugh.
This is not April Fool’s Day.
Washington State (6-18 overall,
1-14 Pacific-10 Conference) won
its first conference game since
Jan. 31,2002 with a 75-71 victory
oyer Oregon State in Pullman on
Saturday. The Cougs had lost a
school record of 21-straight Pac
10 games.
“I’m really happy for our
team,” WSU head coach Paul
Graham said after the game. “It
was great for our kids to finally
come up the tunnel with smiles
on their faces.”
Washington State, which fin
ished 1-17 in the conference last
season, has been mired in tur
moil this season, including a
season-ending injury to junior
guard Marcus Moore, one of the
Pac-lO’s top scorers (19.3 points
per game). Graham’s future at
Washington State has also been
questioned around the Palouse
this season.
But, at least for one night, the
Cougars were saved — by a fresh
man walk-on. Randy Green, who
scored a career-high 18 points
against Oregon on Thursday, one
upped himself Saturday with 22
points, the only Cougar to score
in double figures.
“For us, he is a godsend, an an
gel, whatever,” WSU senior Milton
Riley told The Spokesman-Re
view. “This is my guy.”
After the Beavers defeated
WSU in Corvallis last month,
Oregon State guard Jimme Hay
wood said that the Cougars
would be a bad team even with
Moore. The Cougars used that as
motivation Saturday.
Turn to Men's, page 10
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Chris Schlatter and theCougars won their first Pac-10 game Saturday over Oregon State.