Oregon Coach Mark Wasikowski What College World Series Would Mean

Oregon Ducks On SI

Transcript

00:00You've won the College World Series as a player at Pepperdine.

00:04How much would it mean to you to get back to Omaha this season?

00:08A ton.

00:09You know, and it's a different venue.

00:10When I played, it was at Rosenblatt Stadium,

00:12and it was kind of like the historic stadium there in Omaha.

00:16And then, of course, they've changed that now to the new Charles Schwab Field,

00:20and it's gorgeous.

00:21We were just there for the Big Ten Tournament.

00:23But it's sure a lot different, the Big Ten Tournament versus College World Series.

00:26And the energy in the city is the first thing you point to.

00:30You know, even though we were playing against Nebraska,

00:31which is kind of the home team of the Big Ten Tournament,

00:34and they had 10,000, 20,000 people, they're rooting for them,

00:37supposedly on a neutral site, which is not exactly a neutral game.

00:40But still, yeah, the energy in the College World Series is awesome.

00:44And, you know, the University of Oregon has not been to the College World Series

00:48of baseball program since 1954.

00:50So it's a big deal.

00:52And, yeah, there was a lot of time in there where they didn't even have the

00:55opportunity to go back because the program didn't exist.

00:57The program got dropped, and then it got brought back, obviously,

01:01for that first season in 2009.

01:03So for us in 2025, after the season had – or the season, the program had only

01:09gotten back since 2009.

01:10It's a really big deal.

01:12And it hasn't been around for that long.

01:14And so the success that we're having, there's been a lot of people that are

01:17starting to see, like, wow, these guys are really doing good up there in that

01:20kind of stormy northwest.

01:22And, no, it's not really just about Oregon State.

01:25And, as a matter of fact, these guys at Oregon are starting to make a claim that

01:28not only are they as good as those guys, but in this specific year we showed we

01:33were better on the field than those guys.

01:35And people are starting to really take notice of that.

01:37It's a fickle thing.

01:38It's a year-by-year thing.

01:39There's two great programs right now in the northwest, which is awesome.

01:43The two best programs in the entire western side of the United States are up here.

01:47And fans should appreciate that, right?

01:49They should really embrace the fact that those two programs that are up here in

01:53the northwest, I don't think that should happen.

01:55I think that should be more like Southern California warm weather, traditional

01:59stuff, and yet it's not that way right now.

02:01And so that's fun.

Category

Transcript

Recommended