Callow Ducks catch a backstop.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - Oregon's baseball practice hadn't even begun Friday morning at Thurston High School, and Duck coach George Horton already had reason to smile about the day's progress for his team.

The reason Junior college transfer Eddy Rodriguez arrived, in uniform, for his first workout with the Ducks.

"Just seeing him walk through that gate makes me smile," Horton said.

Rodriguez had been finishing up academic work at Wenatchee Valley Community College, so for the past two weeks of day-long workouts, the Ducks had only freshman catchers in full-go status while Mitch Karraker, another junior college transfer at the position, watched or participated in a limited role as he recovers from elbow surgery.

That's not a position Horton wanted to be going with freshmen, so there was some angst about Rodriguez completing 21 academic hours this summer in order to make himself eligible to enroll for fall term classes at Oregon, which begin Monday. Check off one worry with his arrival.

"We know what Eddy can do," Horton said. "We know he's a good player."

Elsewhere, Horton is still learning about his first Oregon baseball team, though names, numbers and faces are now familiar. Horton likes the competition at third base between a pair of freshmen, Dylan Gavin and Thurston High graduate Darrell Hunter. The early reviews are that the middle of the infield should be solid defensively with freshmen Casey Serna and Danny Pulfer.

"I'm excited about certain individuals, and I feel good about certain positions," Horton said. "I think our infield will be fine, and I think we'll have three quality outfielders.

"I'm concerned about our depth, but I knew that would be an issue."

In total hours on the field, the Ducks are about at the midpoint of fall practices. They've been going six or seven hours daily, from late morning until early evening, for the past two weeks, but with the start of classes on Monday, the NCAA limits on time spent practicing come into effect, and it will be more like three hours daily. Those practices will continue through Oct. 30, with a break in organized workouts after that until they can resume Feb. 1, again by NCAA rules, in final preparation for the opening game Feb. 20 at Saint Mary's.

After these two weeks of lengthy sessions to introduce his system to the 44-player roster, and do a thorough analysis of the talent on hand, Horton said, "I'm pretty happy with the immediate returns a and we've still got plenty of hours" to continue the process.

It's been 27 years since Oregon had a baseball team. With a brand-new roster, there's a lot of fundamentals to work on, and Horton is a stickler for doing things his way, which was certainly successful in his previous tenure at Cal State-Fullerton.

"They've been like a sponge taking in what we've shown them so far, but there's a lot more teaching to do," Horton said. "I would like to think of myself as an educator in this, and if you said this was a class of four units, I'd say we've got about a half-unit completed."

With the pitchers still building up their arm strength, most of the scrimmages have been with a coach throwing in the manner of batting practice. The Ducks have shown some power, though Horton attributes that to the relatively short high school fences, and the pitching not being as challenging as it will be in the future.

As an example, he cited a student manager with some professional pitching experience going to the mound in a recent intrasquad game and striking out seven hitters in three innings of work.

"He threw a slider," Horton said. "We're not quite ready for that."

The Ducks plan another scrimmage today, and there's more of that along with an alumni game in the future. While the coach said the extended workouts were beneficial, he also said going to a more normal practice length on Monday will probably be welcomed.

"The good news is our bodies should be livelier and our minds should be livelier," Horton said. "The scary part is we've still got so many things to introduce.

"The bottom line is we're about where I thought we'd be, and it doesn't surprise me we've had to go slow."