Tag: oregon ducks baseball

Ducks home season schedule ends in disastrous fashion

The final home season series with Washington turned into a complete nightmare as the Huskies outscored Oregon 43-18 in the sweep.

This was the absolute last way the Oregon Ducks baseball team wanted to end its home schedule.

Any hopes of hosting an NCAA regional were erased this weekend as the Washington Huskies came into PK Park and swept the Ducks in the weekend series.

Washington outscored Oregon 43-18 in the three-game set, which dropped the Ducks to 31-18 overall and just 14-12 in conference action. The setback also put Oregon into a tie for fifth with Arizona State with one more series to go before the Pac-12 tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Ever since ace pitcher Jace Stoffal has gone down to injury, the Ducks haven’t been the same. They lost two-of-three to USC last weekend and now the sweep to the Huskies, the first time Washington has swept the Ducks since the program was revived back in 2009.

Logan Mercado has taken over the Friday night pitching duties and the Huskies were able to get to him in the fourth inning with five runs. The bullpen wasn’t any better as Washington took the opener 14-5.

It was much worse the next day with the Huskies crossing the plate nine times before the Ducks came up to bat. That 9-0 lead was more than enough for the 18-8 win on Saturday.

In the series finale, the Ducks had a 4-2 lead going into the sixth inning, but the Huskies’ bats came alive with six runs and Washington left Eugene with the 11-5 win and the sweep.

Oregon needs to figure out the pitching problems quickly as the Ducks go to Utah to end the regular season. The series begins on Thursday with a 5:30 pm start and then two day games with Friday and Saturday games beginning at 10 am PST.

Oregon baseball to participate in 2024 tournament at Globe Life Field

The Oregon baseball program will open the 2024 season in style as it will play in the College Showdown at Globe Life Field Feb. 16-18, 2024.

The Texas Rangers have made good use of their relatively new stadium of Globe Life Field since it opened in 2020.

Major League Baseball held both league championships there and the World Series due to the pandemic. The facility has also been host to “The College Baseball Showdown,” a tournament with the top baseball programs in the country. In 2024, the Oregon Ducks will be a participant in the tourney that will be held Feb. 16-18, 2024.

Sponsored by Shriners Children, the tournament will also have Baylor, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas Tech.

“The Oregon Ducks can’t wait to open up the 2024 college baseball season at Globe Life Field for the Shriners Children’s College Baseball Showdown,” Ducks head coach Mark Wasikowski said in a press release. “It’s going to be an awesome experience with the people out there in Texas. We can’t wait to see our fans come pack the house and root the Ducks on. We can’t wait to get down there.”

This year’s Ducks are fighting for a possible NCAA Regional as they are currently 31-16 overall and 14-10 in Pac-12 play. They have one more regular season series at home against Washington this weekend before closing it out at Utah next week.

Two losses at USC might have cost Oregon more than its ranking

Oregon’s two losses in Los Angeles hurt the Ducks in many more ways than just their Top 25 ranking.

Losing three of four games last week dropped the Oregon Ducks baseball team out of the USA TODAY Coaches poll.

The Ducks were ranked 19th in the country, but a loss at Oregon State and two defeats at USC were enough to cost Oregon their top-25 ranking.

Coach Mark Wasikowski’s team still holds fourth place in the Pac-12 with a 14-10 conference mark and 31-16 overall. But the two losses to the Trojans might have severely hurt the Ducks’ chances at possibly hosting an NCAA regional. They have an RPI of 26, which fell four spots from No. 22.

The top 16 teams host regionals.

Oregon plays its final home series this weekend before ending the regular season at Utah and then the conference tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Rank Team Record Points Change
1 Wake Forest 39-7 771 (27) +1
2 LSU 37-10 738 (4) -1
3 Arkansas 36-12 683 +3
4 Vanderbilt 34-13 645 +1
5 Florida 37-12 635 -2
6 Stanford 31-13 612 +1
7 South Carolina 36-11 590 -3
8 Duke 32-13 496 +2
9 Coastal Carolina 30-16 470 -1
10 Connecticut 35-11 453 -1
11 West Virginia 36-12 391 +3
11 Campbell 36-10 391 +2
13 Miami 31-16 371 -2
14 Virginia 37-11 354 -2
15 East Carolina 34-14 323 –
16 Kentucky 33-13 322 +5
17 Boston College 30-16 236 –
18 Oregon State 33-14 229 +2
18 Dallas Baptist 36-12 229 –
20 Tennessee 32-16 193 -4
21 Clemson 31-17 187 +11
22 Oklahoma State 33-14 140 +1
23 Maryland 33-16 125 +4
24 Texas San Antonio 36-12 82 +2
25 Texas Tech 32-16 64 -1
25 Indiana State 32-13 64 +6

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Baseball recap: Ducks drop crucial road series to Trojans

Oregon’s hopes of hosting an NCAA regional took a hit this weekend with a series loss at USC.

The Oregon Ducks baseball team knew they would have a tough road ahead with the absence of ace pitcher Jace Stoffal. USC took advantage and defeated Oregon two games to one down in Los Angeles.

Minus Stoffal, the Ducks’ pitching staff took a beating, giving up a total of 23 runs in the three games. In the one game Oregon was able to win, it had to rally late Saturday night to avoid a possible sweep.

Oregon is now 31-16 overall and 14-10 in conference play, while USC improved to 27-20-1 overall and 13-11 in Pac-12 action.

With just two series remaining in the regular season and the conference tournament around the corner, the Ducks still have hope of hosting an NCAA regional, but they’ll have to play a lot better than they did in LA.

The Ducks welcome in Washington next weekend before closing out the regular season at Utah.

Oregon’s series success at USC might boil down to a battle of the bullpens

With a big Pac-12 series looming in Los Angeles for Oregon and USC, success could be determined by which bullpen comes to play.

The Oregon Ducks baseball team is in contention for a Pac-12 regular season title as they sit in third place and just two games back of Stanford.

Offensively, this team has what it takes to go all the way to Omaha. It’ll come down to a struggling pitching staff that currently has an earned run average of 4.47.

USC is in the same boat. According to Trojans Wire editor Matt Zemek, the Trojans bullpen has let them down so far this season.

That bullpen crushed them in the Washington series and also hurt the Trojans against Oregon State. This has become a very shaky last-three-innings team. Guys need to relish late-game moments and trust their talent.

Garrett Clarke leads USC with six saves and a 1.98 ERA, while Kyle Wisch has four saves with a 2.48 ERA. But over than those late-inning relievers, Oregon’s offense could have a field day.

Neither team has announced the starting pitching matchups for the series, but Oregon will most likely go with the same trio as last week with Jace Stoffal, Logan Mercado and Matthew Grabmann. They’ll be facing a Trojan team that is on the NCAA bubble, a place according to Zemek that is almost miraculous considering where they have been in the recent past.

“This is a natural evolutionary process for a team and a program that have not been accustomed to playing for NCAA Tournament berths and enjoying top-tier success,” Zemek said. “It’s impressive that USC is merely in the NCAA tourney conversation. The program is being built back. It is widely agreed upon in Los Angeles that head coach Andy Stankiewicz was a great hire by AD Mike Bohn and will build the Trojans back to a place of prominence. That has been missing over the past 15 years.”

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Oregon baseball hopes to continue USC’s struggles with Northwest teams

Oregon baseball goes down to Los Angeles to take on USC, so we asked Trojans Wire’s @MattZemek for a scouting report.

The Pac-12 season is heading down the homestretch with just three weekend series remaining. Oregon is battling to host a regional in the NCAA tournament and the Ducks’ upcoming opponent, USC, is squarely on that bubble.

This weekend’s matchup in Los Angeles is important for different reasons for both teams. The Trojans seem to be two teams, a good one at home (20-5) and a bad one on the road (4-13-1). With the Ducks going to Dedeaux Field to play the good USC team, we just had to go to TrojansWire’s Matt Zemek to see what’s the deal with this Trojan team with that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde mentality. Here is his brief scouting report.

It’s an unproven team under a first-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz. USC has not tasted success in baseball for a long time. The glory days are part of the distant past. Stankiewicz has done a great job with this team, but growing pains were always going to be part of the equation in Year 1 of his tenure. It’s a lot like basketball role players and reserves playing well at home and not on the road. This team feeds off confidence from the enthusiastic crowds it has seen (and heard) at Dedeaux Field. Going on the road is a different beast. It’s a lot like football: The Pacific Northwest is often this team’s graveyard, and we’ve seen it in the recent series against Oregon State and Washington.

Both the Huskies and Beavers swept the Trojans on their home fields, a luxury the Ducks don’t have here. Oregon is coming off a two-game losing streak, but a Pac-12 regular season title is still in the cards.

The Ducks (30-14, 13-8) are in third place, but just two games back of first-place Stanford.

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Beavers take the season series with a slugfest in Corvallis

Oregon got off to a good start in Corvallis, but the offense couldn’t sustain its success in an 11-6 loss to the Beavers.

The Oregon Ducks baseball team can’t say it didn’t have its chances.

Oregon State was able to wiggle out of some situations and ultimately took the season series from the Ducks three games to one with an 11-6 win in Corvallis. With the non-conference loss, Oregon fell to 30-14 overall, while the Beavers improved to 31-13.

When the Ducks look back on this game, they’ll kick themselves as they left seven on base, including the bases loaded in one inning and runners on second and third in the next. Against a team like Oregon State, the Ducks can’t leave runners stranded on the pond.

It went back and forth through the first two innings, but down 5-4, the Beavers exploded for five runs to make in 9-4 and the Ducks couldn’t recover.

Drew Cowley hit a two-run homer to start the scoring off in the first and Colby Shade hit two doubles to lead the Ducks’ offensive attack.

Bryce Boettcher’s two-run single in the third gave Oregon a brief 5-4 lead, but the Duck starting pitcher, Jackson Pace, just couldn’t hold OSU down on the mound. He was charged with nine runs, six earned, and eight hits in just 2.2 innings.

Things started to settle down once the bullpen came in, but by the time they took over, the game was already out of hand. Oregon’s bullpen went 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on four hits.

Unfortunately, the Beaver bullpen was just a little better. The trio of Tyler Mejia, Aiden Jimenez and Ben Ferrer threw six shutout innings against the Pac-12’s best offense.

Now Oregon will try to get back on the winning track Friday when the Ducks go down to Los Angeles and battle USC for a three-game weekend set. The Trojans are 25-17-1 overall and 11-10 in conference action.

Ducks slam Devils to pull within just 1.5 games out of first place

In a huge Pac-12 game, Oregon baseball defeats No. 12 Arizona State 11-5 to pull to within to 1.5 games from first place.

As the kids would say, things just got real.

The Oregon Ducks crushed four home runs, including a Drew Cowley grand slam, in an 11-5 over No. 12-ranked Arizona State inside a packed PK Park.

With the victory, Oregon pulled itself to within 1.5 games out of first place. The Ducks are now 29-12 overall and 12-7 in conference play. The Sun Devils dropped to 28-14 overall and 13-5 in Pac-12 action.

Cowley opened the scoring off in the first inning with a solo shot to give Oregon a 1-0 lead. ASU tied it up in the third, but the Ducks quickly gained the advantage in the bottom half of the frame with Colby Shade’s solo homer to left-center.

Those two home runs were just the appetizer of what was to come in the fourth inning.

Oregon blew its lead wide open in that fourth with seven runs which was capped off with Cowley’s grand salami to make it 9-1 Ducks. Rikuu Nishida just missed a grand slam two batters before Cowley, but he had to settle for a ground-rule double to center that made it 5-1.

Shade walked to load the bases back up and set the stage for Cowley. He jumped all over an 0-1 fastball and deposited it over the left-center field wall.

ASU scored a run in the sixth, two more in the eighth, and one in the ninth, but the Sun Devils couldn’t sustain a meaningful rally to threaten the Ducks. Shade’s RBI double in the sixth and Jacob Walsh’s bomb in the seventh rounded out the scoring for the home team.

Perhaps lost in the offensive explosion was another great outing on the mound for Jace Stoffal. The Friday night ace went 6.2 innings, allowing just two runs, one earned, on four hits and he struck out seven. He is now 6-2 for the year.

The two teams will get together once again Saturday afternoon at 3 pm after the Oregon football Spring Game at Autzen Stadium. The Ducks are scheduled to send Logan Mercado (3-0, 6.15 ERA) and Arizona State will counter with Khristian Curtis (4-2, 5.59 ERA).

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Baseball recap: Ducks sweep Gonzaga ahead of Pac-12 series against ASU

Oregon baseball took care of business against Gonzaga ahead of a huge conference series with ASU and first place on the line.

At this time of the season, non-conference games are almost just as important as conference games. You don’t want to lose games you’re supposed to win, especially with a huge Pac-12 series coming up at PK Park.

The Oregon baseball team started the week off right with a brief two-game series sweep over Gonzaga. The Ducks scored seven runs in the seventh inning to take Game 1 by the score of 11-4.

Offense was the order of the day once again on Wednesday after the Ducks hit a couple of homers and stole seven bases on their way to a 10-5 win over the Bulldogs.

Drew Smith hit his first collegiate home run in the seventh inning and Josiah Cromwick followed with a solo homer of his own in the very next inning.

Gonzaga drew first blood in the opening frame with a three-run home run from Sam Stem. Although going down 3-0 before you even come to bat isn’t usually a recipe for success, the Ducks were able to get off the deck and score 10 unanswered runs.

Oregon scored two in the third and then took the lead for good in the fifth on a single from Smith to make it 4-3. With single runs in the sixth and seventh, Oregon blew the game wide open in the eighth with four more runs.

Gonzaga made it interesting in the ninth as they scored two and had the bases loaded, but Austin Anderson coaxed Stem to fly out to center to end the game.

After a much-needed day off, the Ducks will now prepare for the first-place Sun Devils to make their way to PK Park for a big weekend series. Arizona State is ranked 12th in the nation with a 28-13 overall record and 13-4 in conference action.

Meanwhile, Oregon will come into the series with a 28-12 record and 11-7 in Pac-12 play, 2.5 games out of first. A sweep would be huge for the Ducks’ chances to host a regional, but even winning the series would go a long way toward that goal for postseason play.

Game 1 with the Sun Devils is set for Friday at 5:05 pm.

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Baseball recap: Ducks take 2 of 3 from Cal in the Bay Area

Oregon went down to the Bay Area and took two of three from California, including a 9-3 rout in the rubber game Sunday.

Although a sweep would have been nice, the Oregon Ducks baseball team has to be satisfied with its trip down to the Bay Area.

The Ducks were able to take two of three games from California, including a 9-3 rout in the rubber game of the series Sunday afternoon. With the win, Oregon improves to 26-11 overall and 11-6 in Pac-12 play.

Game 3 was tied 1-1 in the fourth inning, but the Ducks were able to grab the lead with a 2-run double from Bennett Thompson and then a fielding error later in the frame that scored the Oregon catcher for the 4-1 advantage.

Oregon blew the game wide open in the ninth with four runs on five hits, including a home run from Rikuu Nishida.

Matthew Grabmann was assigned his first Sunday start of the season and he came through nicely with four innings pitched, allowing just one run on four hits. Turner Spoljarik was credited with the win in relief.

The series opener was quite an exciting game that saw the Ducks take a 4-1 lead, only to watch the Bears tie it up late with three runs in the seventh. Fortunately for Oregon, the offense was able to muster up one run in the eighth and closer Josh Mollerus shut the door for the five-out save and the Ducks won 5-4. It was the seventh save for Mollerus.

Oregon had to rally itself in Game 2 to erase a 6-2 deficit. But the Bears responded late and took their only win of the series 8-6 on Saturday. Starter Logan Mercado, who shut down Stanford the week before, had a hard time of it against the Bears, going 3.1 innings and giving up six runs and walking five.

The series win also washed a bad taste in the team’s mouth from a disappointing 10-9 loss earlier in the week at Portland.

Oregon now returns home for a busy week that features five games in six days. The Ducks host Gonzaga for a quick two-game series beginning Tuesday before Arizona State comes to town for a weekend set.

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