Charles Fischer

OREGON ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2026 BASEBALL | @OregonBaseball Ducks Break Out the Bats in Run-Rule Win Champaign, Ill. — No. 19 Oregon belted four home runs while piling up 19 hits in a 16-6 (7 inning) win over Illinois in Big Ten Conference action on Friday at Illinois Field. Freshman Naulivou Lauaki Jr. hit a pair of tape-measure home runs and drove in a career-best five runs, while Ryan Cooney went 5-for-5 with three runs scored and Maddox Moloney added four RBI and a home run while going 2-for-5 at the plate. Drew Smith slugged Oregon’s first home run, a two-run shot in the first inning, while going 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI and two runs scored. Lauaki’s blasts both traveled more than 470 feet and had exit velocities in excess of 110 miles per hour. His first, a three-run shot, was measured at 496 feet and came off the bat at 114 miles per hour. The second went over the batter’s eye in center field, going 471 feet with an exit velocity of 112 miles per hour. Both Smith’s and Molony’s homer were no-doubters as well, with Smith’s traveling 441 feet and Molony’s covering 407 feet. Will Sanford (6-1) and Tanner Bradley combined to hold Illinois (19-17, 7-9 Big Ten) to six runs on a day where the wind was blowing straight out to left field in excess of 25 miles per hour. The Illini hit five home runs, but Sanford and Bradley were able to limit them to four solo home runs and one two-run shot. How It Happened: The teams traded runs over the first two innings. Smith belted a two-out, two-run home run after Cooney delivered his first base hit, to give Oregon (27-10, 11-5 Big Ten) the lead in the top of the first. The Illini matched Oregon with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to tie the game. Moloney crushed a line-drive over the wall in left-center field in the second inning, but once again Illinois countered with a solo shot of its own in the second to tie the game heading into the third. The Ducks broke it open with five runs in the top of the third while hitting for the cycle as a team in the inning. Brayden Jaksa led off the frame with a triple into the right field corner before scoring on a Cooney double into the right-center field gap. Smith singled to move Cooney to third, before the Ducks’ second baseman was retired after getting caught in a rundown on an Angel Lay ground ball. After a strikeout, Burke-Lee Mabeus plated Smith with a base hit to center for a 5-3 lead, bringing Lauaki to the plate with two on. The Ducks’ designated hitter made it 8-3 with a laser over the left-center field wall. RS Freshman Naulivou Lauaki Jr. Oregon tacked on three more runs in the fourth inning to push the lead to 11-3. Molony picked all three RBI with a bases loaded double to left field that bounced over the left-fielder’s head allowing Laya to come all the way around from first. Illinois climbed back too with five runs with solo home runs in the bottom of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings but Oregon put the game away with five runs in the seventh to secure a run-rule victory. Mabeus led off the seventh and scored on Lauaki’s second home run of the day. Jax Gimenez reached on a one-out triple, before scoring on a wild pitch. Jaksa and Cooney put together back-to-back singles before coming around to score on a Laya two-bagger that landed inside the left-field line. Box Score Notes: Molony’s home run was his 31st career long ball, tying Tanner Smith (2019-23) for third all-time in program history ... Smith’s was his 24th, tying him for ninth all-time in program history with Anson Aroz (2022-25) and Kenyon Yovan (2017-21) … Gimenez extended his reached base streak to 27 games with his seventh-inning triple … Oregon’s 19 hits tied for the second most this season, behind only the Ducks’ 20 hits at Purdue on March 8 … Oregon scored in double digits for the 11th time this season, with the 16 runs ranking as the third most this season … Oregon’s four home runs tied for the eighth most in a single game in program history … It was the sixth time this season that Oregon hit four homers in a game … Eight of Oregon’s nine starters had at lead one hit, with six having multiple hits … Six of Oregon’s starters drove in at least one run with four players having multiple RBI. On Deck: Game two of the series is on Saturday with a 1:02 p.m. (PT) first pitch.

Ducks Run-Rule Illinois 16-6 after seven innings. Tanner Bradley finished things off, and I hope he still has innings in him left this weekend! A get-right game we needed.... Official Game Recap will come in 2-3 hours on this thread.

16-6 Ducks after seven innings. Man...just a sliced mis-hit that normally would be caught mid-LF gets blown over the wall today. No lead is safe! Burke-Lee Mabeus gets a lead-off single in shallow RF, and then Oregon's RS Freshman Naulivou Lauaki hits his second HR of the day, a two-run blast that cleared the massive wind-screen that had to be 20-25 feet high. Regardless of the wind...this 6'5" 258 pound freshman can HIT. Jax Gimenez gets a triple by zinging a pitch to the RF corner--his speed got an extra base. Then a wild pitch scores him! Brayden Jaksa hit a missile to shallow LF, and Ryan Cooney got his first FIVE-HIT game with a liner to CF. Then Angel Laya sliced a pitch down the 3rd baseline to score Jaksa and Cooney!

11-6 Ducks after six innings. Nothing on offense as Oregon strands two on-base this inning. Tanner Bradley in for relief....and we cross our fingers that he is on today. He just gave up a solo HR, but so did Sanford a few times...no lead is safe today!

11-5 Ducks after five innings. Nothing on offense this inning... Will Sanford gave up a solo homer, and I think his day is done at 96 pitches.

11-4 Ducks after four innings. Again...no lead is safe in this ball park today with that wind... Brayden Jaksa got a grounder hit through the left infield, and Ryan Cooney nailed a liner to RF. Angel Laya then got plinked to load the bases for Maddox Molony who hit deep to LF, but the bounce went over the fielder's mitt to score three runs! Oregon chased out the Illinois starting pitcher! Will Sanford gave up a solo HR, but limited the damage to that.

8-3 Ducks after three innings. That wind is blowing everything out of the park, and no lead will be safe. Brayden Jaksa hit opposite to RF, and the ball hopped weird past the fielder to give him a triple. Ryan Cooney nailed a pitch on a line to deep CF/RF gap to score Jaksa, and put Cooney on second. Drew Smith drives a liner to RF to give him a hit and put Cooney on 3rd. A ground-out traps Cooney going to home for an out, but it puts the batter, Angel Laya on first and Smith on second. Then the RS Freshman in for the injured Dominic Hellman at DH, the big-guy from Utah....Naulivou Lauaki, blasted a 3-run homer that was no doubt over the LF wall. Whew! We got a new hitting stud! Will Sanford gave up a double, but got his first scoreless inning. He and the pitching staff are adjusting, as you cannot throw fastballs and look for them to miss. Because when they connect--it is not just a hit--it is out of the park today with that vicious wind. So he is pitching a ton of curve-drop balls that are sweet to see, and then mixes up fastballs on the outside corners. So far--so good!

3-3 after two innings. Maddox Molony blasted the first pitch for a solo homer. Illinois did the same thing to Will Sanford. The Illini stranded two on base from a hit and a walk.

2-2 after one inning. It is 80 degrees and has wind gusts up to 30 mph which could blow homers out of the park easier--and we already see that. There is a big storm coming in later today, and thus why the game being moved up. Portland's Ryan Cooney got a hit up the middle, and then Drew Smith launched a massive swing low-to-high to blast the ball over the LF wall for a 2-run homer! Great start on offense! Will Sanford gave up a double, and then a 2-run homer that I think was wind-aided...but that is the way the park plays today. In for a dilly!

Jon...great article, and as always--great research. A B1G Draft indeed!

Moved from 4;00 PM to 1:30 PM...Damn. That shoots my day... Will Sanford will be on the hill with a 2.60 ERA, and we don't know who he faces, and the choices are: --Hall at 3.83 ERA (Probable) Regan Hall is the starter today... --Gannon at 2.08 ERA --Flinn at 3.33 ERA --Remington at 3.67 ERA The difference in the teams appears to be hitting, as Illinois at 19-16 has only three batters over .300 and Oregon has five, with a bunch knocking on the door... As a side note, Oregon is averaging 7.41 runs per game which is more than enough to win them. It illustrates our problems with pitching, primarily from relievers. We need more Home-Run Huddles...and Pitching

How Close? "What these numbers do not necessarily account for is the quality of the coaching in the two conferences." GREAT point Jon, as the coaching in this conference is now unbelievable, and it will be brutally tough to win games. By all measures, we have closed the gap on many metrics to the SEC, and exceeded in others. We have only just begun!

Creating a schedule five years out with all the changes that occur within the conference between NIL, coaching changes, etc.? It is nuts, and thus why I like this format suggested. As he noted--gaining two more teams to the conference for a clean 9-game conference schedule would be an upgrade to this convoluted way of deciding schedules, IMHO.

I look for Illinois to be a candidate to crack that....

MEDIA ADVISORY | Oregon vs. Oregon State Game Postponed Tonight’s Oregon game vs. Oregon State at Hops Ballpark in Hillsboro, Ore., has been postponed. Tickets for the game will be valid on the date the game is rescheduled.