Mark Wasikowski reaffirms that he and his staff will lead Oregon to Omaha

Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski brought the Ducks program as close to Omaha and the Men’s College World Series as it has gotten in at least a decade and arguably since the 1950s.

After winning the Nashville Regional, Oregon hosted a Super Regional against Oral Roberts. The Ducks won the first game of the Super Regional on a walk-off hit. But the Golden Eagles won the next two games to eliminate Oregon from the NCAA Tournament.

“It just tell us there’s more work to be done,” Wasikowski said after the Game 3 loss. “We’ve made tremendous progress. Very proud of the coaches that I get a chance to be with every day. Those guys were amazing, the coaching staff…To keep the coaching staff together is really one of my goals. That’s how you grow a program and develop a program.”

The Oregon program has made only Men’s College World Series in program history in 1954. But after the 1981 season, the Ducks dropped the program. It didn’t return as a varsity sport until the 2009 season.

Since then, Oregon has been searching for a way back to Omaha for a return trip to the Men’s College World Series.

George Horton ran the program for 11 years following its revival, building the program up from scratch. He also came close to bringing the Ducks to Omaha in 2012 when Oregon was the No. 5 national seed. But they also lost in the third game of a Eugene Super Regional.

Wasikowski took over the program after the 2019 season. He has taken the Ducks to the NCAA Tournament all three years the tournament has been held but his ultimate goal still hasn’t been achieved.

“No, we didn’t get to Omaha this year,” Wasikowski said. “Wasn’t in the cards. It wasn’t what, I guess, was supposed to happen with this group. I did tell Pat Kilkenny, I think in this room, that if I get the chance to be the head coach at this great institution, we’ll get to Omaha or I’ll die trying. I stand behind those words. We will get there. We were close this year and we couldn’t pull it off. But the efforts of the guys that I got a chance to coach and the coaches that I got to be with every day could not be faulted. It was extreme what they were able to put out there. The product they were able to put out there every single day was really humbling and I’m just blessed to be around all those people.