Charles Fischer

The Bruins needed to do something to attract attention...

Gotta dodge the bad ones... At Oregon...we learn to DUCK

When you have defensive backs as talented and deep as Oregon has...the question is not "if," but "who?" While I am disappointed at Pleasant leaving....it means he was passed up on the depth chart by someone even better, which is cool for the team. Someone like Rivals 5-Star Na'eem Offord?

We also have some superb batting averages, as for the projected starters... Maddox Molony .352 Jacob Walsh .331 Mason Neville .328 Ryan Cooney .324 Dominic Hellman .318 Carter Garate .306 Jeffrey Heard .286 Anson Aroz .268 Chase Meggers .222 Meggers was one of our best hitters last year, and is coming back from injury--and he'll be back over .300 eventually. Ditto for Heard, and Anson Aroz has an incredible OPS of 995, which combines hitting percentage, slugging percentage, and getting on base percentage from walks and hit-by-pitches. Burke-Lee Mabeus is another catcher who fills in for Meggers, and is hitting .308. And the heck of it is...this team has a ton of upside left! The Pride of Springfield, Maddox Molony!

Good stuff, and you beat me to it, as I was going to review this tomorrow. The good news is that the two major leaders above us in the standings, (UCLA and Iowa) are on Oregon's schedule, thus we have the chance to catch them. Playing Beavis helps both our RPI, and theirs, and both teams need it. I think a major element contributing to the team's frustrations are how the Ducks' team mental attitude has been, "we are the hunted." In every telecast you hear how the other team would "have our greatest ranked win in years by beating Oregon," thus we got everyone's best shot. Ohio State pitchers were bad before they played us, and have been bad since...but when they played us--they threw out of their mind to beat us. It reminds me of a few years ago when we had a good pitcher, but not great. Against a highly ranked Stanford team...he pitched the game-of-his-life and went nine innings to shut them down. He never did that before, and never did it again, but going up against the best brought out his best. I now believe that is now going to happen for Oregon, as we are No. 16 in the nation with D1Baseball, while UCLA is No. 10 and Oregon State is No. 6. Now, "we are the hunter," for once this season, and thus I think we will see our best baseball emerge from Our Beloved Ducks. These next two weeks will decide a ton for the entire season.... Grayson Grinsell has his ERA down to 3.37!

...but you are. I am going to choose to celebrate tremendous accomplishments by all Oregon Sports, without looking hard for something negative to tarnish the successes.

I was surprised to see these polls, where Our Beloved Ducks went from No. 4 in the nation, to No. 5 in the NFCA poll, while UCLA was No. 6. In the ESPN/USA poll, Oregon was No. 6, while UCLA was No. 5. The good news is that the Ducks and Bruins will settle it in a three-game series this weekend at the Jane!

Thank you Alex!

Look guys...I don't read a lot of coaches interviews, because usually it is a ton of "blah-blah," but we have had some good interviews by 247 Sports that have provided new information for us. For example, from Defensive Line Coach Tuioti.... "We really didn't have reps for guys like Tionne Gray or Terrance Green. (Last year) The trio of Gray, Green and Jericho Johnson, a redshirt frosh like Gray, form what is quite possibly the largest trio of defensive players in school history. Gray is the biggest of the bunch, listed a 6-foot-6 and 330 pounds a year ago, while Green, 6-foot-5 and 330 pounds, and Johnson, 6-foot-4 and 340 pounds, are close to his equal in size. And according to Tuioti, each of those players are even bigger now." "They're all about 345 pounds. We go back and look at how much weight they can lose, but they're just big humans. They can carry that weight," Tuioti said. "It's hard to find those kinds of men who are able to play that position. We're fortunate enough to have them." Holy Crap! Are you kidding me? A perfect Nose Tackle that demands a double-team each time and frees up the linebackers that is THAT big is rare...but to have THREE of them? The article is right here, and I am astonished at my good fortune as a fan to witness these young-guns coming up the ranks. Whew! And it is true that Matthew Bedford is back, healthy, and experienced with over 30 B1G starts on the offensive line. Fantastic! Terrence Green celebrating a Beavis sack...

If football did not begin to build resentment from the Old Guard in the B1G toward Oregon....the spring sports will most certainly generate some gnashing of Midwest teeth.

12-1 Ducks is the final, as Oregon run-rules Georgetown in the seventh inning. Umlandt went the entire way, and finished with 99 pitches and the sole run given up, while Carter Garate got his first home run of the year...a biggie!

7-1 Ducks after six innings. Umlandt is at 80 pitches after six innings, so maybe two more innings? He has given up only two hits against Georgetown, while the Oregon offense continues to roll.

6-1 Ducks after five innings. I am hoping that Oregon's Ian Umlandt can go deep into the game, as he is dealing pretty sweet pitches. Georgetown has an exceptional hitter who caught a pitch and produced a homer off it, but one run at this point for a team that likes to play small-ball is not a good scenario for them. (Provided Umlandt can keep it up!) The Pride of Sherwood sure knows how to create Double-Plays!

6-1 Ducks after four innings! Nothing happened in the third, as the Georgetown pitcher was great through three innings. But great plate discipline in the fourth by Oregon got two walks and a hit-by-pitch off the Hoya hurler, which loaded the bases for Mason Neville to tie the national home run leader with his 17th dinger of the year. Oh yeah...it was a GRAND SLAM!

0-0 after two innings. Great to see Umlandt's Duck-Stuff pitches on TV, as he certainly has some action on them! And his pitches create sweet double-plays!

Game summary at the bottom of the thread later! -------------------------------------------------------------- I'll bet we'll see Ian Umlandt on the hill, and I would imagine that if we get a decent lead--we'll see Will Sanford in to work out is "yips" he's been having lately. The Pride of Sherwood, Ian Umlandt.

SIDEARM Integrations GODUCKS.COM The Ducks play at Georgetown on Monday morning at 8 a.m. (PT) on CBS Sports Network

13-3 Ducks is the final score over Maryland, and not only did the bats get going, but we had some pitchers come through in a B1G way. (Primarily Jason Reitz)

9-3 Ducks after seven innings! Reitz has handcuffed the Terps, and rescued Oregon today!

9-3 Ducks after six innings! Oregon's Jason Reitz has pitched the most pitches and innings ever at the D1 level today against Maryland.

And Oregon's Jason Reitz is keeping Maryland at bay...

8-3 Ducks after five innings...boy, what a B1G inning! A three-run bomb by Mason Neville! And a two-run blast by Jacob Walsh!

3-3 after four innings...as too much to report for the three runs...