Tanner Smith, Oregon baseball on hot streak entering Pac-12 tournament

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Oregon enters the inaugural Pac-12 baseball tournament in as advantageous a position as possible for the No. 4 seed.

The Ducks (35-21, 18-12 Pac-12) are coming off sweeping No. 5 seed Arizona (35-21, 16-14) and will face the Wildcats again in the opening game of the conference tournament at Scottsdale Stadium on Wednesday (9 a.m., Pac-12 Network). UO will also play either top-seeded Stanford or No. 8 seed Arizona State, both of which it beat during regular season road series.

“Obviously we’ve been on the other end of that equation this season, of playing a team a consecutive amount of times,” outfielder Tanner Smith said, referring to UO’s 0-4 week of games against Oregon State earlier this month. “We do know it’s tough, but we are looking forward to it.”

Oregon hit .306 in Pac-12 play, including .314 in last weekend’s series against Arizona, and enter the conference tournament ranked eighth nationally in hits (606), 18th in batting average (.307) and 21st in fielding percentage (.978).

Arizona is a free-swinging team, with the most strikeouts in the Pac-12, and has a team ERA of 5.28 in league play. Oregon struck out 29 UA hitters last weekend and will attempt to replicate those results on Wednesday.

“Arizona is always a good program,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “I got a chance to coach there for 10 years; I know the program very, very well. I know (Arizona coach) Chip Hale very well. He’s a legend in that community and they’re a good program and we’re looking forward to playing them again.”

While winning seven of its last eight games, Oregon has gotten even bigger contributions from Smith, who is hitting .351 in that span with eight runs scored, nine RBIs and two home runs.

“I think it’s the mentality of finishing strong,” he said. “That’s been implemented to us since the fall. I think as the season progresses the games become a little bit more important maybe and you start to realize stuff and that’s when I try to play my best.”

In the double-elimination tournament, Oregon will either play the loser of Stanford and Arizona State at 9 a.m. Thursday or the winner at 4:45 p.m. that afternoon.

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