Tag: oregon ducks baseball

PK Park gets a facelift with new FieldTurf and shorter fences

The Oregon Ducks baseball team will get to test drive PK Park 2.0 on Friday with new turf, shorter fences and new graphics around the 13-year old stadium.

PK Park 2.0 is set to debut on Friday with new turf, shorter fences, and a soon-to-be new video board.

This is the first major renovation of the stadium since the Oregon Ducks brought the baseball program back in 2009.

“Through the tremendous commitment of athletic director Rob Mullens and associate athletic director Eric Roedl, and the incredible donations by Pat Kilkenny and numerous other huge supporters of our program, PK Park has never been a more ‘state of the art’ facility,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said.

The first noticeable difference will be the new turf that has a new PK Park logo behind home plate, the Oregon O in centerfield and outlines of flying ducks in left and right fields.

The center-field fence and the power alleys in left-center field and right-center field have been moved in 10 feet from the original design and lowered in height from eight feet to six-and-a-half feet from the left-field line to the right-center field gap. The fence in front of the Ducks’ bullpen in right field has been raised from four feet to six-and-a-half feet to match the rest of the outfield wall.

Moving the fences in should help Oregon’s offense and recruit more power hitters. Before, with the wind patterns, it took Herculean strength to hit a home run. It was more of a pitcher’s park, but now Oregon hopes it’s more of a fair park that’s equal for the pitchers and hitters.

Fans will get to enjoy a state-of-the-art 60-feet by 26.4-feet video board featuring the latest video technology from Daktronics, which is in the process of being installed behind the left-center field wall and will be finished and operational in late March.

The Ducks will get to officially test everything out Friday in the home opener against St. John’s in Game 1 of a four-game set. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.

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Around the horn: Cromwick’s grand slam lifts Oregon past San Diego 21-11

Josiah Cromwick’s grand slam sparked a 12-run eighth inning to help Oregon capture its first win of the year 21-11.

Josiah Cromwick must be a fan of his grandma’s salami sandwiches on rye bread with mustard.

The Oregon Ducks catcher belted a grand slam in the eighth inning to give the Ducks a 14-10 lead and eventually Oregon went on to win 21-11 over San Diego to salvage one win in the four-game wraparound series.

Oregon had been struggling to score this entire weekend against Toreros pitching, but the offense broke out in a big way with 20 hits.

Jacob Walsh also added a two-run homer in the 12-run eighth inning. It was the first of what could be many round-trippers in the careers of both Cromwick and Walsh.

Getting this win in the series finale was very important as the Ducks didn’t want to come home 0-4 to start out the season. While the offense finally broke out, Oregon has to be concerned about the pitching and defense. San Diego scored in double figures in three of the four games and they committed eight errors.

The Ducks will try to figure a few things out before St. John’s comes all the way from New York to Eugene to begin another four-game series that runs from Friday to Monday (Feb. 25-28).

Around the horn: Ducks drop third straight in San Diego

Oregon baseball battled right up until the end, but an eighth-inning run gave San Diego a 5-4 win.

This wasn’t how Mark Wasikowski envisioned his baseball team starting the season. Oregon is on the verge of being swept out of San Diego as the Toreros took Game 3 by the score of 5-4.

It’s the Ducks’ third straight loss to open the season and if they want to come back home with one win in their pocket, they’ll have to rely on freshman Tommy Brandenberg to get the job done on the hill.

Unlike in the first two games, Oregon managed to score first in the initial inning, but San Diego answered with two in the third and two in the fourth to take a 4-1 lead.

But to the Ducks’ credit, the visitors scratched out runs in the fifth, sixth and eighth to knot the game at 4-4. The Toreros took the lead for good in the bottom half of the eighth on a Kolby Somers bases-loaded walk. The Ducks got a runner on in the ninth but couldn’t score.

Around the horn: Oregon is its own worst enemy in 10-4 loss to USD

Oregon dug itself a huge hole in the early innings and couldn’t rally late as San Diego took Game 2 of the series.

Before the game, Oregon knew runs would be at a premium as the Ducks were going to face one of the best left-handed pitchers in the country.

Over 20 scouts were in the stands to watch San Diego starter Brycen Mautz work and he didn’t disappoint. The southpaw went

But the Ducks really didn’t give themselves much of a chance as they were their own worst enemy a lot of the time with walks, errors and wild pitches. At one point, the Toreros had nine runs on just three hits.

Oregon starting pitcher Andrew Mosiello had a rough time finding his control as he lasted just 2.2 innings, allowing eight runs, six earned, four walks, and two hit batsmen.

One bright spot is that the Oregon offense found some rhythm and scored a few runs. The Ducks scored two in the fifth and two in the sixth. But it was too little, too late. They will need to use that offensive momentum for Game 3 of the series Sunday afternoon.

Around the Horn: Opening night jitters doom Ducks in 11-1 loss to San Diego

The 2022 Oregon Ducks baseball season opener didn’t go as planned with San Diego coming out on top 11-1.

The college baseball season isn’t a marathon, but it’s not a sprint either. So losing on opening night isn’t the worst thing that will happen to the Oregon baseball team this season.

But lose they did as Friday night starter Adam Maier showed some butterflies on the mound, allowing a two-run homer to the second hitter of the game and San Diego cruised from there to win 11-1.

Maier settled down to get through the fifth inning, but the Toreros blew the game wide open with seven insurance runs in the seventh.

Thankfully for Oregon, it’s just one game, and the Ducks can come right back tomorrow and try for their first victory of the season.

Coaches say Duck baseball is slated for a fifth place finish

The Pac-12 baseball coaches picked Oregon to finish fifth in the conference for the 2022 season.

Year 3 of the Mark Wasikowski Era of Oregon Ducks baseball is just about here and the Pac-12 coaches say Oregon should be around the middle of the Pac.

In the pre-season poll, Wasikowski’s fellow conference coaches picked the Ducks to finish 5th in one of the best baseball leagues in the country. Oregon was 39-16 last season and was one win away from its first-ever College World Series appearance.

Stanford was picked to win the conference with 98 total votes and eight first-place votes. Oregon State is expected to continue with its winning ways with a second-place finish. Arizona and UCLA were selected to finish third and fourth, respectively, with the Bruins receiving two first-place votes.

In the first USA TODAY Sports coaches poll, Stanford is the highest-ranked conference team at No. 5. Arizona at No. 15, Oregon State at No. 20 and UCLA at No. 22 were also in the poll.

Oregon just missed the first Top 25 as the Ducks received 31 votes. They open up the season Feb. 18 with a four-game series at San Diego.

Oregon Ducks baseball earns pre-season Top 20 ranking

Oregon baseball is set to open the 2022 season with a Top 20 ranking as Perfect Game USA ranks the Ducks 19th in the nation.

 

It’s hard to believe that baseball season is right around the corner. But here we are.

Basketball is had trouble finding their footing this year with the cancellations, but hopefully with baseball being an outdoor sport, they won’t have as much trouble.

That answer will be found out in a little over a month.

Mark Wasikowski’s Oregon Ducks baseball team will see the diamond in 41 days when they open the 2022 season Feb. 18 with a four-game series at San Diego.

The Ducks will be a Top 20 team when the season begins as Perfect Game USA ranked Oregon No. 19 in their pre-season ratings.

Oregon’s ranking is deserving as the Ducks were just one game away from advancing to the program’s first College World Series last year before LSU eliminated the Ducks in the Super Regionals.

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