The Lineup

The First Home Win

Baseball begins

Oregon baseball took to the practice field for the first of 15 workouts between before its Feb. 20 season opener at St. Mary's.

"It's just amazing being out here. Finally, it's all coming together," said junior left-handed pitcher Bennett Whitmore, a transfer to Oregon from Fresno City College who is slated to be one of the team's top three starters. "We've been bouncing around other places and there's nothing like being on our field for the first time."

The home of the Ducks, PK Park, wasn't even confirmed to be ready for the first day of practice until late last week. Construction equipment clanked and hummed loudly yesterday around the chatter of players and coaches and the pinging of aluminum bats. For freshman outfielder Colby Sokol from Puyallup, Wash., the sound of construction was sweet in his ears.

"I like it. My dad's a construction worker so I'm right at home," Sokol said. "I know they're working hard. I think we're going to try and get them some donuts and talk to them a little bit just to get to know them and thank them."

Freshman Danny Pulfer, projected opening-day starter at second base, said head coach George Horton's message to the players amid the distractions of the construction zone around practice was "compensate and adapt."

"We've kind of got a feel for the crowd noise that's going to be out here. The construction was our crowd noise today," he said, adding that the construction noise actually caused some confusion during pop-up drills when players couldn't hear each other.

"We just have to tell ourselves that this is what it's going to be like in front of 20,000 fans when we play Oregon State," Pulfer said. "We're going to have to just get a little louder and be a little more competitive, and that's what we did."

Despite the noisy construction, no one was complaining, as PK Park received rave reviews from coaches and players on as warm and clear a February day as could be hoped for in the Willamette Valley.

"As we all walked out here we all kind of looked in amazement, like, this is our cathedral," Pulfer said. "It's beautiful out here. We had a great day for baseball and a wonderful field to play on."

"It felt good and energized," Horton said of the first day's work. "Who knows what the end of the trail will be for this but it was certainly great being out here today."