Mark Wasikowski says pitching staff flipped game for Oregon

Oregon is headed to its first Super Regional in more than a decade, having most recently gone this far during the 2012 season. As head coach Mark Wasikowski pointed out, pitching has been a huge piece of the puzzle for the Ducks.

In particular, Wasikowski says that the pitching staff flipped the game against Xavier, who has since eliminated Vanderbilt.

“Well, I thought that the pitching flipped the script,” Mark Wasikowski said after the first game of the NCAA Tournament. “You know, I mean as soon as Dylan [McShane] came in and passed it to Austin [Anderson] and [Matt] Dallas and [Josh] Mollerus, those guys did a fantastic job.”

Oregon won the game 5-4 in a tight contest. The pitching staff did have to fight to keep things locked down through most of the game and establish the advantage.

“So, I thought that was the first thing, and the second thing was the hit by Rikuu [Nishida]. They were playing him in little league depth and Rikuu finally went up there with a wood bat instead of the aluminum and that’s when he shows his best power. So, for him to get that swing, I thought that was big and then for us to be able to get their starter out of the game.”

Mark Wasikowski then went on to praise Xavier’s starter, Nick Boyle, who has been dominant this season.

“He’s been really effective in their league — probably would have won Pitcher of the Year if it wasn’t for the kid from Georgetown, I believe, the power arm from Georgetown that transferred in there from Lafayette who’s just a stud. This kid probably would have won the Pitcher of the Year. I think he walked one kid in league last year, the entire conference time, and so he didn’t walk any today. I thought he had a very good feel of the strike zone. You know, he changed tempos with his delivery, had a short leg, a high leg, changed speeds with his fastball quite a bit, and he’s just a savvy old guy that kind of knew how to pitch and knew who he was,” Wasikowski said.

“I thought he did a fantastic job and the other kid I thought a great job from Xavier was the [Garrett] Schultz kid who ended up, I think he got three RBIs on the day and he was tough, he was competitive, and all the way down to the end I thought they played us tough and we were fortunate to come out with a win.”