Charles Fischer

In the D1Baseball rankings, the Ducks moved from No. 12 to No. 11, while holding steady at No. 19 with Baseball America. Frankly, I've always followed D1Baseball, even when on the short end of things. There are five major Baseball ranking services, which is crazy considering how few keep an eye on the sport, IMHO. Unfortunately, Beavis has outscored their opponents 30-3 in their first three games, including a 6-0 victory over B1G Indiana, who has a good team. Oregon State is at No. 7, but could move higher over the season. Our Beloved Ducks have a very high upside, as we had some impressive freshmen pitchers surprise me, and the development of two pitchers that I counted out was also quite impressive. (Collin Clarke and Cole Stokes) Ian Umlandt has strange stuff that still messes batters up, and creates low scoring as last year. So the surprise from this last weekend is how the scoring was much lower for such an experienced team than I would have thought going in, and how the pitching was WAY better than I was hoping for. Yes, it is early and not like playing Beavis, but there is real hope for a shot at Omaha. I think the game lost was GOOD for the Ducks; going undefeated for a while gets teams full-of-themselves, and this was a great reminder of how two walks and an infield error will load the bases with no outs, and you have to mentally clamp down to prevent a bad inning. I gotta say though, that Toledo had an outfielder who caught two incredible hits that prevented three runs scoring between the two catches. (We lost 5-3) ESPN made one of them in their top-ten. Well, and in that game--the Rocket pitchers were just studs, and handcuffed the Ducks superbly. Good on them, and good for Oregon to be reminded of how thin the razor's edge is. 3rd Baseman Carter Garate Loves Baseball....Do You?

Wow. I had no idea it was that bad....thanks so much for the research, and damn...that is tough on the players!

“Live by the three…”

I've changed my mind on this topic, as I am not in favor of getting automatic bids for B1G and SEC after all. We need that push to earn it...and remove the conference championships and make that weekend the first round of a 16 team playoff with no byes for anyone. With 16 teams...anybody that has a real chance of winning a 'Natty will not get left out. And let's seed, and reseed the damn thing.

Ducks up by 14 with nine minutes left...maybe this means I can watch the replay without covering my eyes!

The women are 9-1 already, with the only loss in extra innings (4-3) to Arizona State. Great start!

I am not the least bit worried with Dan Lanning running things, as the upside has only begun. I disagree with his last statement in the article, his conclusion. I am not so sure about USC, in fact I have more confidence in Washington over the next four years--by a mile. That bastard Fisch is a damn good coach, and he is ahead of where I thought he'd be in the rebuilding and a long ways ahead of Jonathon Smith at Michigan State. What he did at Arizona still ranks as one of the most impressive coaching miracles I've seen, as the Wildcats had been the tire-fire for a long time. How you recruit to that is very hard...and he did. He also found gems that turned into great players, and he will do that at Washington, I believe. My Ernest Wish for Washington...

Young Arms Propel Ducks to Series Win EUGENE, Ore. — Four Oregon pitchers combined to toss a four-hitter in a 6-1 series-clinching win over Toledo on Sunday at PK Park. Two true freshman, Will Sanford and Kellan Knox, and a pair of sophomores, Santiago Garcia and Cole Stokes, held the Rockets to just four singles during the game with only two moving into scoring position. Sanford made the start for the Ducks and gave them four quality innings. He fanned the first batter he faced and the struck out two more in the third before striking out the side in the fourth to end his day. Knox came out of the pen in the fifth and picked up his first career win tossing two scoreless innings. He retired all six batters he faced before giving way to Garcia, a junior college transfer from Arizona Community College. The lefty held the Rockets (1-3) scoreless during his two innings finishing with three punch-outs. Stokes, the only returner among the four hurlers, entered in the ninth to get the last three outs. After hitting the first batter he faced, the Ducks’ right-hander retired the next three with the final two coming on strikeouts. How It Happened: The Ducks jumped on top early manufacturing a run in the bottom of the first inning. Mason Neville drew a lead-off walk, stole second and moved to third on an Anson Aroz groundout before scoring on a Jacob Walsh groundout to second. Oregon tacked on three more in the bottom of the second inning to make it a four-run game. Maddox Molony led off the frame with a double to left field and came around to score after a Jack Brooks walk on a Ryan Cooney groundout. Carter Garate drove in Brooks with an RBI single before coming around to score on a Neville double that went off the top of the right-center field wall. Carter Garate and Will Sanford celebrate in Oregon's very cool throw-back 1954 uniforms... The teams exchanged runs in the third inning. Walsh led off Oregon’s half of the inning with a single and moved to third on a one-out Molony double. After a Brooks walk loaded the bases, Cooney picked up his second RBI of the day when he was hit by a pitch. Neither team managed much offense over the next four innings until Molony came to the plate to lead off the eighth inning and launched his third home run of the series over the left field wall for a 6-1 lead. Box Score Notes: Sanford fanned the leadoff hitter in his first career outing … He finished with six Ks in four innings or work … Molony’s home run tied him for the team lead with Walsh … Moloney finished 3-for-4 with a home run, two doubles and a run scored … Oregon’s four-man rotation allowed just two runs in eight hits in 17.0 innings of work in the series … Oregon finished with 16 extra-base hits in the series, 10 home runs and six doubles. On Deck: Oregon returns to action on Friday when the Ducks open a four-game series against Rhode Island with a 3:05 p.m. first pitch. Quotes: Head Coach Mark Wasikowski Thoughts on the game overall… “It seemed like a complete game to me. The guys played really well, they played good defense, and the pitching was solid from start to finish. I thought there were timely hits. It was nice to extend the lead with that home run by Molony late in the game.” On six of eight lead-off hitters reaching today and four of them coming around to score… “I like breaking home run records where we hit seven homers, but I think six of them were solo shots. That’s not really an offense. Having an offense is what we did at the beginning of the game where the guy gets on via walk, you steal second, he gets advanced to third by a ground ball, and then he scores on a ground ball. That’s having an offense where you score despite not even getting a hit. We want to play good defense, pitch well, and have a balance offensively. There were some weaknesses that were clear that we need to tighten up this week in practice, and we’ll do that.” On Will Sanford’s first performance… “He was okay to be honest. It was his first outing as a freshman, and I’ll be critical and say he was just okay. He’ll probably be put up for conference freshman pitcher of the week, but I don’t know if he’ll win. I like his competitiveness. He finished the last inning with three strikeouts. He wasn’t as good as we’ve seen him quite candidly, but obviously he’s a special talent. When you go out there and give up one run on a wild pitch, I think that's what he gave up all day. It’s hard to be too critical of what he did, but I thought he pitched well.” Maddox Molony from Springfield had an incredible weekend... Will Sanford On what he did well today… “I felt that most of the time my fastball played well, and the cutter was a great pitch today. I could have done better on my secondary stuff and keeping that mindset of attacking with every pitch, but I felt good. It feels good to get the first one out of the way and keep building on it.” On if he was nervous today… “I feel like there’s always some jitters on the start. Once you walk up to the mound and see all the fans, you get a little nervous. Then, once you throw that first pitch and get it out of the way, you feel good.” On having Anson Arroz behind the dish… “I love Anson. We’ve worked with a couple catchers over the fall and winter. He’s caught me a good amount and I probably feel the most comfortable with him. He’s always working. If the ball is in the dirt, he’ll get it, and he’s always moving. Anson does his best trying to control the game and talking to me, and he’s a great catcher.” Carter Garate On takeaways from series win... “There is good and there are things to improve upon from the weekend. Obviously, going 3-1 and expecting to go undefeated, but we’re going to take this weekend to learn. I think that’s the biggest thing we can do this weekend is learn from what we can improve on, and we’re going to do that throughout the week.” On infield leadership... “That is something that I have taken as my responsibility as a guy in the infield. It’s not just me, but the infield as a group. It’s the job that I feel like we should all be able to do, just encouraging our guys, we need to be up there with the pitcher. He’s on a mound up there by himself, but we want him to feel like we’re right behind him.” On depth of infield players... “We have a good group of guys. We have a lot of guys that work hard and push each other. This group has unlimited ability. I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do with it.” Carter Garate got-him! Ryan Cooney On takeaways from series... “I thought we hit the ball pretty well. I think that we have a lot to improve on. I like the pitching staff a lot. I was really impressed by Ian Umlandt and the guys who threw today were really impressive. I’m glad they came out and worked their stuff. As an infielder, it’s nice to see when those guys are out there with good intent.” On Will Sanford’s pitching debut... “He’s got special stuff. As a young kid, it’s really nice to see him with that intent that I speak of. I think he is really strong with his ability but also understands when to control himself. I think you saw that today. I know he had a couple walks or hits, and then he was just working through them. I think that’s what really sets him apart from other guys, along with that great stuff he has.” On dynamic amongst returning players... “I think the great experience helps dudes settle down. For example, with pitching staff having a young guy out there, having older guys around him is really important. Lineup wise, I think it allows us to be even stronger than we already were. I think we’re going to continue building off what we have and those older guys in the lineup.”

Oregon wins 6-1!

Still 5-1 after six innings, Ducks. Freshman relief pitcher Kelian Knox from Washington has pitched two innings of scoreless ball…super!

Still 5-1 after five innings!

5-1 Oregon after three innings!

You are new to the forum, and that is a fantastic first post. THANKS for your research, and DO give us your thoughts often!

A good wake-up call for this team…

Holy Crap! When Waz said he felt he had pitching depth this year....I sure had my doubts. But we had more great pitching from newbies, and from a veteran who has progressed. I will have a summary when the press release comes out later at the bottom of the thread. Really nice surprises... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now overall, I have been pleasantly surprised at Oregon's pitching this weekend. We did have two unpleasant surprises in the second game yesterday, but this is how you figure things out and even then...our offense should have been able to outscore the five runs by the Rockets. Thus far we have Grayson Grinsell with a 1.80 ERA after the first weekend, and three other pitchers at 0.00! Today we see a very highly heralded freshman, Will Sanford on the hill, who Coach Waz says has four pitches mastered already. Fun to watch for! Noon on the B1G+ Streaming, and it is a better value than I realized; I'll go into that later this next week. Sign up right here and see over 50 Oregon Baseball games on it!

Ducks set Home Run Record, Split Doubleheader EUGENE, Ore. — No. 19 Oregon belted eight home runs in a doubleheader split, including a school-record seven in game two, against Toledo on Saturday with UO winning game two 9-0 after dropping game one of the twin bill 5-3 at PK Park. Jacob Walsh and Maddox Molony homered twice in the nightcap while Mason Neville went deep in both games of the doubleheader. Anson Aroz and Jeffery Heard each added a home run in the doubleheader finale to help break the Ducks’ school record of six, set in 2023 against Northwestern State and matched last season in a win over Gonzaga. While the Ducks (2-1) got most of their offense from the long ball, Oregon’s pitching staff was dominant for most of the day against Toledo (1-2), with the exception of one inning in the game-one loss. UO held the Rockets to just one run in 17 of the 18 innings played during the day, but a four-run sixth inning in the opener spelled doom for the Ducks. Oregon’s starters, Collin Clarke and Jason Reitz, combined to toss eight scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts and just three walks. Add in an exceptional relief appearance from Ian Umlandt (6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K) and the Ducks’ pitching staff combined to finish the day with 20 strikeouts. Game 1: Toledo 5, Oregon 3 The Ducks were not able to take advantage of Clarke’s dominant start after the sophomore allowed no runs on just three hits with a career-best seven strikeouts. Toledo held the Ducks scoreless until the eighth inning, thanks to some strong pitching from starter RJ Shunck and reliever Logan Danzeisen and some great defense by left fielder Luke Walton that robbed the Ducks of some early runs. How It Happened: Clarke and Shunck battled for five innings each holding the opposing offenses scoreless for five inning before giving way to the bullpen. Collin Clarke Clarke stranded a pair in both the second and third innings before retiring the last nine batters he faced, including four punchouts. Shunk countered by not allowing a base runner in the first three innings, before getting some help from Walton in the fourth. With two runners on, Walton robbed Heard of at least a double that would have plated a pair of Ducks. After removing Clarke after five innings, the Ducks ran into some trouble. Julien Hernandez walked the first two batters he faced before Walsh committed a fielding error on a Toledo sacrifice bunt attempt to load the bases. The Rockets took advantage with a pair of two-RBI singles to build a four-run lead. The Ducks rallied with three runs in the eighth before stranding the tying run on third after putting the runner on third with just one out. Neville led off the inning with his first home run of the day before three straight walks loaded the bases with no outs. Back-to-back wild pitches cut the lead in have and then Heard grounded out to first scoring Walsh to cut the lead to 4-3. A strikeout and a ground out left Aroz, the potential tying run, at third. The Ducks’ went down in order in the ninth allowing Toledo to even the series at 1-1 heading into game two. Game 2: Oregon 9, Toledo 0: The Ducks hit seven solo home runs while scoring in six consecutive innings and Reitz and Umlandt combined on a four-hit shutout to help Oregon split the two games. Reitz made his first start as a Duck, after transferring from Saint Mary’s, and he showed why he is regarded as a potential high MLB Draft pick. The 6-foot-9 righty fanned five over the first two innings before getting out of a third-inning jam. Umlandt (1-0) took over in the fourth and proceeded to retire the first eight batters he faced, as well as 10 of the first 11, 14 of the first 16 and 18 of 21 overall. He fanned eight in the process, one shy of matching his career high. Oregon got the offense going early scoring a run in both the second and third innings, two runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings before adding one in the sixth and two more in the seventh. Molony hit his first homer of the day to get the Ducks on the board in the second, a two-out shot over the left-field wall. Drew Smith made it a two-run game with a sacrifice fly to the left-field wall that scored Ryan Cooney. UO made it 4-0 in the fourth inning on a Heard homer and a Burke-Lee Mabeus sacrifice fly, the first ribbie in the freshman catcher’s career. A pair of homers from Neville and Walsh in the fifth made it a six-run game, before Molony’s second home run of the game in the sixth gave UO a 7-0 lead. Jacob Walsh Walsh and Aroz hit back-to-back bombs in the seventh, with Walsh’s giving him home runs in consecutive at-bats, to make it 9-0. Doubleheader Notes: Oregon has hit four-of-more home runs 15 times in the Mark Wasikowski era, including five-or-more four times and six-or-more three times … Walsh, who has three home runs in the series, ran his career school record to 43 HRs … Walsh has six two-homer games during his career … Molony hit two home runs in a game for the second time in his career … Both of Oregon’s true freshman catchers made their career debuts in the doubleheader with Coen Niclai getting the start in game one behind the dish and Mabeus making the start in game two … Niclai got his first career hit in his second career AB in the fifth inning of game one … Mabeus drove in his first career run in the fourth with a sacrifice fly and then added his first career hit, a bunt single in the sixth before adding his second hit in the eighth … Freshman Gabe Howard (3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K) made his collegiate career debut out of the pen in the first game … On Deck: The two teams wrap up their four-game series with a 12:05 p.m. first pitch on Sunday. Quotes: Head Coach Mark Wasikowski Thoughts on splitting the doubleheader… “I thought we finished strong. We got some good starting pitching out of both starters that threw today. I thought Collin [Clarke] in the first game was really good, and I thought Jason [Reitz] was really good as well. Our relief pitching in the second game was really good. We swung the bats a lot better in the second game. The first game, I think, was the coaching staff’s fault. We obviously didn’t look like we were very well prepared in about the sixth inning of that game, when we could have probably flipped that inning pretty easily after it started poorly with a couple of walks. We didn’t execute some of the things that are probably our responsibility as coaches. We didn’t teach it well enough to where we could execute. It was simple bunt situations, bunt defense situations where we should be able to do some things right there and minimize innings, and we didn’t.” On Collin Clarke’s performance in game one… “I thought Clarke pitched really well. I thought he had a couple of jams that he pitched out of and very effectively. I thought he pitched very well down to the strike zone. I liked what I saw.” On Ian Umlandt’s relief pitching in game two… “He’s got a lot of different speeds of pitches and a lot of things cutting and running. He threw six innings and 67 pitches, and he was effective. He got ahead of hitters and then made them swing at the pitches that he wanted them to swing at, and contact was weak. He really gave us everything we could have asked of him and more.” Ian Umlandt On six scoreless and eight strikeouts… One pitch at a time, it’s kind of a motto we’ve embodied. It’s continuing to just stay on the attack, not falling behind on counts, and no walks. That was a big thing for me and my mindset. On working with Burke-Lee Mabeus as a catcher… “He killed it. I don’t think there’s an unfamiliarity of the relationship we have, but I thought he killed it. He brings an incredible amount of energy, and that’s something for him that’s extremely authentic. It’s a blast to throw too him because it’s just energy and true joy when he’s out there. It’s a blast for him, which makes my job so much more enjoyable and easier.” Mason Neville Mason Neville On two home run day... “The swing is coming along. The team really caught fire during that second game, that happened a lot during the winter and fall, so it was good to see that.” On hitting lead-off... “I like the position. I have the confidence to go out there and try to give a good at bat that first at bat of the game and set the tone. That’s the role they like me in as of right now and throughout the fall. I like to embrace it and move forward hopefully batting leadoff in the future.” On message to hitters between games... “It was just to get back on our approach. Losing two-strike counts, a lot of strikeouts, or just kind of uncompetitive at bats during that first game. We just kind of flushed it and moved on and got back to what we do best. I think that showed the second game.” Maddox Molony On infield performance... “We’re all very athletic people, and we’re versatile, we train that way. It’s cool seeing the guys that I work with every day have success.” On hitting approach... “It just kind of came to me. I have an approach when I’m going to be on time for a fastball. I was, and I saw spin and I just hit it.” On pitching performances... “I think they filled up the zone and they executed their pitches. It was impressive to watch, and it makes it a lot easier at shortstop.”

I completely agree, but I am grateful that in his years here--he elevated Coach Terry a ton I'm sure.

Ian Umlandt held Toledo scoreless for six innings, and was so efficient! 9-0 was the fina!

9-0 Oregon after seven innings! In the seventh inning we see Ian Umlandt have SUCH control as he erases three batters in only eight pitches. Whew! Twelve batters gone with 40 pitches…I like this Oregonian! Good gosh, Jacob Walsh hit maybe the longest home run ever at PK Park, as it cleared PAST and over the training facility. Then Anson Aroz sets the Duck record of seven home runs in a game, as he puts over the center field fence! Remember, this is on a cold day!

After six innings Oregon leads 7-0! In the sixth, Ian Umlandt keeps the Rockets scoreless again, as he has destroyed nine batters in only 32 pitches! Then Maddox Molony sends a bomb to the left corner to make it 7-0.

6-0 Ducks after five innings! Ian Umlandt has zapped six batters now in only 14 pitches! Good gosh, Mason Neville blasted another homer with a beautiful swing. Then Jacob Walsh shows bunt twice, then hits a dinger to the opposite field!

4-0 Ducks after four innings! For the fourth inning we have the pride of Sherwood Oregon, in Ian Umlandt pitching. He dispatched the three hitters in just six pitches! Jeffrey Heard had been robbed a couple of times over the weekend, but he got a homer to extend Oregon’s lead. Maddox Molony gets a hit, then steals second and takes third on a wild pitch. Burke-Lee Mabeus blasts a sacrifice fly to score Molony and the Ducks are going again!

2-0! Ducks after three innings.