Charles Fischer

Ducks win 11-5, as Tanner Bradley came in got two strikeouts, and then a walk. The next batter hit the pitch deep, and Jack Brooks caught it, but when he hit the wall--the ball came out to score an Illini run. Oh well... Official game recap will be on this thread much later...

11-4 Ducks after eight innings. Drew Smith beat out the throw from 3rd for an infield single, and Naulivou Lauaki nails a grounder to CF as Smith races to third. Maddox Molony grounds out, but scores Smith to add a run this inning. Cooper Markham gave up a walk, but finished off the rest of the batters. If Illinois was going to make a comeback--the eight inning was crucial in scoring a few runs...but didn't. It increase our odds much better with three outs left.

10-4 Ducks after seven innings. Burke-Lee Mabeus starts it out with a walk, followed up by a Dominic Hellman line-drive hit to CF that moves Mabeus to third base. Jack Brooks walked, so now we have bases loaded with one out. A new Illini pitcher comes in with an impressive 2.16 ERA, and he's pitched a ton at 25 innings this season thus far. Jax Gimenez shows no respect, as he gets under a curve/drop-ball pitch and nails it to center field, where it is bobbled. The speedy Gimenez makes it to third and scores three runs! Finally...an important timely hit with the Ducks-on-a-Pond! A wild pitch scores Gimenez, but remember---with this wind and relief pitching--no lead is safe! Holy Crap! Waz put in true freshman Cooper Markham to pitch? He is a highly heralded recruit from Washington, but he has seen little action this year. To put him in during such a crucial time...in this ball-park? Then he goes out to create the only 1-2-3 inning of either team today!

6-4 Ducks after six innings. Things are getting lively with relief pitchers in as Brayden Jaksa walks to start, and then the Pride of Portland, Ryan Cooney blasts a 2-run dinger over the corner LF wall to put Our Beloved Ducks up three. Leo Uelmen gave up a solo homer, and that was it for the inning.

4-3 Ducks after five innings. Ryan Cooney blasted a solo home run, and not much later--Naulivou Lauaki just tore into the pitch and sent it hitting the camera deck past the CF wall. This RS freshman has quite a swing to back up his 6'5" 265 pound frame that just shouts power. Then, the Pride of Springfield, Maddox Molony made it back-to-back homers that his the camera deck as well! Oregon was facing a relief pitcher who had an ERA below 3.00 but today was not his day. Now a new Illini pitcher is in with an ERA below 3.00 as well. Miles Gosztola gave up a solo dinger, and a walk to yield the hill to Leo Uelmen, who redshirted last year due to injury, but was an important part of the staff as a freshman in 2024. He is rounding into form, and got the last two outs of the inning.

2-1 Illinois after four innings. The Ducks strand one, and Miles Gosztola gave us another scoreless inning.

2-1 Illinois after three innings. Oregon strands another base runner, but Miles Gosztola kept the Illini scoreless this inning.

2-1 Illinois after two innings. Oregon stranded two on base this inning for a total of five in just two innings. In Friday's win, we stranded five the entire game, and in yesterday's loss we stranded a ridiculous 15. Miles Gosztola gave up hits and two runs...

1-0 Ducks after one inning. Oregon is taking on a freshman pitcher, Aidan Flinn, who has an ERA of 3.37 and both sides will deal with a stiff wind blowing out over CF. The sleeves of players were whipping at times from the wind already... Jax Gimenez nails a pitch down the 3rd baseline for an opening double, and then Brayden Jaksa follows that up with a line-drive to CF that scores Gimenez. Then the disturbing trend of the weekend continues as Oregon strands bases-loaded...again. It would appear that Cal Scolari is either injured or lost his starting spot, as Miles Gosztola (4.62 ERA) is the Sunday starter. He gave up two hits, but retired the rest for no-score by the Illini in this inning. We have a change in the outfield as Brayden Jaksa has switched with Jax Gimenez in moving from RF to LF, as they switch. Perhaps moving the speedy Gimenez due to the wind? Dominic Hellman is at first base with Burke-Lee Mabeus catching today.

Illinois wins 16-13 as Devin Bell gives up a three-run homer with two outs and full count. Very, very frustrating.

13-13 after eight innings. I was premature in my assessment as it is not over--until it is over. And never underestimate your opponent's ability to give you the same bad pitching that you offered them. Maddox Molony walks, and Dominic Hellman got plinked. Naulivou Lauaki got a hit through the left IF to load the bases again with NO OUTS. Jack Brooks was plinked to score Molony, and then Brayden Jaksa crushed a pitch and sent it over the LF wall for a GRAND SLAM! Ryan Cooney was plinked, and the Drew Smith blasted a pitch over the RF wall to give Oregon the lead with a two-run dinger! Gabe Howard returns to give up a hit, and then is replaced by closer Devin Bell. A throwing error to first base scores a run to tie it up, and as if the issues were not enough....Oregon has made THREE errors today. So many ways we have tried to lose, and yet we could still win. Hard to watch...

12-6 Illinois after seven innings. Burke-Lee Mabeus gets a grounder through the left IF for a leadoff hit. Naulivou Lauaki gets a hit in shallow LF, and Jack Brooks lines up to bunt a bunch of times, but gets walked. So we have bases loaded with no outs, when Brayden Jaksa gets a high-bouncing grounder to penetrate the left infield to score Mabeus and Lauaki! Unfortunately, we left bases-loaded stranded after that. A real chance to put this game out of reach was lost... And then one of the worst nightmare half-innings ever for Oregon... Bottom line is that our relief pitching was awful; walks, hits, errors by the pitcher as we saw Luke Morgan get shelled, Michael Meckna give up runs on back-to-back wild pitches, hits given up by Toby Twist, and then I think Waz is waving the white flag with Gabe Howard coming in. This game was lost by an absence of timely hitting, (Last I saw there was 14 runners left on base) and terrible relief pitching.

4-4 after six innings. Nothing on offense... Big 6'3" 230 pound pitcher from Grants Pass, Oregon's Luke Morgan comes out in relief, and got two strikeouts and a flyout.

4-4 after five innings. Angel Laya walks, and then Maddox Molony absolutely blasted a hanging breaking ball over the LF wall to score two and tie it up! Collin Clarke had 97 pitches, but came back out to quickly end the inning with a flyout and a sweet double-play by Drew Smith at 3rd, and Ryan Cooney at second--who zipped it to first.

4-2 Illinois after four innings. The ton of stranded base runners comes back to haunt the Ducks. We had nothing on offense this inning, but Collin Clarke gave up hits and walks, but the primary problem was routine short fly-balls that got blown by the wind at the last moment to make our fielders miss it. The wind was responsible for three of the four runs by the Illini this inning. Back to work!