On Friday night at San Diego, Oregon baseball will officially take the field for the first time without Robert Ahlstrom and the rest of the 2021 starting rotation, and without Aaron Zavala, Kenyon Yovan and Gabe Matthews in the middle of the lineup.
While it will be the first game the Ducks play without those program luminaries, it will be far from the first time their absence has been felt.
"In the fall it was something you realized – you miss the presence of six big names like that in the locker room," outfielder Tanner Smith said.