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QuickTake:
After a major surgery delayed his college debut, the Ducks' righthander is finding rhythm and command and is the team’s ace so far.
Cal Scolari was fast.
But Oregon’s right-handed starting pitcher wasn’t throwing quite as hard as the scoreboard at Las Vegas Ballpark on Sunday would have fans believe.
No, Scolari didn’t touch 106 mph in his third start of the season. What he did do, though, was baffle Vanderbilt batters for six innings of shutout ball in leading the Oregon Ducks to their 10th win in 11 games.
Scolari, who came to Oregon from San Diego in the offseason, struck out eight, walked two and allowed just a pair of hits to improve to 2-0 on the season.
“He was dominant,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski told reporters. “He had four pitches for strikes today. His velocity was really good, basically sat in the mid-90s — touched a little bit higher and a little bit lower from time to time — with command of the ball. I thought he was a real competitor today.”
Of course, Wasikowski knew that about Scolari coming in. The Ducks had to do a lot of research on a player with Scolari’s injury history.
See, Scolari is one of the growing number of college pitchers who have returned to the mound after Tommy John surgery. Scolari tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow during his senior year of high school and had to redshirt his first year at San Diego as he recovered from surgery.
Scolari isn’t as unique as he once would have been — more than 1,000 professional pitchers have had the surgery since 1973. In 2023, 35.3% of all active pitchers in MLB had undergone the surgery at one point or another.
It’s not the career death knell that it once was. These days, it’s barely even a red flag — as long as a coaching staff is familiar with what it’s working with, according to Wasikowski.
With Scolari, the Ducks didn’t just see that he returned from injury to become San Diego’s opening night starter in 2025 and win West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year honors. They also had a coach who knew Scolari’s arm better than anyone after Wasikowski hired San Diego pitching coach Matt Florer to the same role with Oregon back in July.
“You get a really good idea about where he’s at, where he’s at with his recovery and how confident he is with stretching it out,” Wasikowski said. “It’s commonplace now. Kids are going to get injured. For whatever reasons those are, it’s happening. We can debate all day, but the facts are that injuries are up. So you better have a really good medical staff and a really good feel for where those kids are at.”
Where Scolari’s at is a really good place. His stuff has been electric. He’s struck out 20 batters in 14 innings across three starts. And Sunday saw him hone in — after walking seven batters in his first two starts, Scolari had just two in his longest outing of the year.
He’s still growing as a pitcher, Scolari said, and going through the lessons he should have experienced during those two years on the mend.
“Coach Flo was there during that whole time,” Scolari said. “A lot of development happened last year in-season, too. Went through some bumps and obstacles. But it was great to pitch and compete for a team for the first time in college baseball.”
In his second season of college baseball, Scolari and the Ducks are in a position to more than just compete. The Ducks are 10-1 and coming off a three-game trip to Las Vegas that saw Oregon also win 7-2 over Arizona before UC Irvine gave them their first loss of the season, 8-6.
And while the Ducks are not in the latest D1Baseball.com top-25 poll, they’ll get the opportunity to state their case on Tuesday against No. 18 Oregon State.
The Beavers are just 6-4 and have yet to play in their home state. They have a lot of new. Oregon has a lot of new.
The key, Wasikowski said, is adapting quickly.
“I think there’s just great lessons to be learned about our team,” Wasikowski said. “In these days of the transfer portal and draft and all that stuff, you’re rolling about 50 percent of your team being new guys. And it doesn’t matter how many scrimmages you play, you’re not going to see and feel the energy and whether they can do it or not in big times or big situations.”
