Charles Fischer

This will be at PK Park, and obviously--we gotta win every game possible from this point forward. Early Playoff projections this morning show Oregon as a No. 2 NCAA Playoff Regional Seed again...and traveling to the Cal State-Irvine Regional, which is better than last week's projection of the Ducks as a No. 2 in the Corvallis Regional. Better yet...let's win a bunch and host our own Regional! Our RPI is No. 45 out of 300 D1 Baseball teams, and we play No. 9 RPI in Beavis this weekend four times. Oregon is coming off a crucial series win over UCLA, where both Grayson Grinsell and Mason Neville were named B1G Players of the Week. On the hill for Oregon will be Will Sanford, and I am hoping he can get his confidence back. I also anticipate seeing Ian Umlandt for a few innings too. Will Sanford

And they wonder why the Super-2 want to take control? So that teams that come from lower conferences like Boise State and Arizona State do not hose us....as Oregon was in the Playoff. How much did that cost Oregon and the conference? It may not be fair to the other conferences...but it will not be fair to us if we continue with this nonsense. They will get their two years of out-sized reward, and then....

It is a scheduling thing...as on another site they reported that prior to playing Michigan this last weekend...the teams Iowa had played had a B1G winning percentage of .375 in conference. Michigan stands at .444 right now, although the Wolverines took a game from us, while Iowa swept them. Your point is quite accurate; the Hawkeyes have not played the best in the conference yet. As stated before--Iowa plays Indiana, No. 6, and Washington, No. 5, and Oregon No. 3 in the conference before the end of the season. We have a chance to catch them... We're going to be SAFE, Beavis!

Thus far...we have about 70% of the sports finished with championships in the B1G, and you can see them right here, although they have not credited Oregon with the Womens Golf Championship yet. What I have below is how many each of the B1G teams have won thus far, and I do NOT count the conference Tournament winners, just those who won the conference the tough way, through the season. For those teams who tied for the conference championship from the regular season--I counted a championship for both. It is unfortunate that Lacrosse counts the same as football--but I'm sure other conference members feel the same about Indoor Track. B1G Championships Won: Oregon: 5 (Womens Cross-Country, Football, Mens Indoor Track, Womens Indoor Track, Womens Golf) Ohio State: 3 Penn State: 3 Michigan: 2 Indiana: 2 USC: 2 Wisconsin: 1 Northwestern: 1 Nebraska: 1 Michigan State: 1 UCLA: 1 Considering the remaining sports left...I do not project Ohio State or Penn State to catch Oregon. In fact, the Ducks have a shot to add to their total with Baseball, and in particular Softball. I will add to this over the next two months, as it is a curious thing. Is Oregon going to end up as the BEST overall athletic program in the B1G in our first year? Nikko Reed finishes off Penn State...

Amen. The research he does...and then his analysis from that is a gift to all of us. As a fellow writer--I can attest to the boatload of time it takes to create an article like Jon's...and yet he keeps writing as if they were easy.

If you write for the Bruins...you gotta come up with something to get attention...right? A Little Too Much Blue...

The conference standings are as follows, and Iowa plays Indiana, and Washington before Oregon plays at Iowa for the final B1G season series. We have our chances! And four of the top five are former Pac-12 teams...

This week's D1Baseball rankings came out, and the Ducks moved from No. 16 up to No. 13 after winning a series at home against then No. 10, UCLA. The ominous part of the rankings is how Oregon State has moved up to No. 3 in the nation, and Oregon plays four games with them starting on Friday. (Three at PK Park, and one in Corvallis) That is great for the RPI, but damn...we gotta get two games off them! We have a shot at hosting a Regional, but we need to win most of our remaining games and split with Beavis. All the other ranked B1G teams are UCLA at No. 15,....and that's it! Too late Beavis!

Jon....GREAT stuff as always, and while I hoped that Oregon might sneak up on people this year--I acknowledge that those days are now past. Last year was the "surprise tour," and as you said--our schedule is perfect for doing well. But I have to think that Ohio State is reloading well too, so we have some great games ahead of us. This will be a monster game...

Ducks Late Rally Clinches Series vs. No. 10 UCLA EUGENE, Ore. — Freshman Burke-Lee Mabeus hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a tie and spark a four-run rally to lead No. 16 Oregon to a 10-6 Big Ten Conference series-clinching win over No. 10 UCLA on Sunday at PK Park in front of 3,005 fans. After UCLA tied the game with a run in the top of the eighth, Mabeus stepped to the plate and drove the first pitch he saw the opposite way for the go-ahead homer. The freshman’s long ball started an inning where Oregon (27-11, 14-7 Big Ten) sent 10 batters to the plate and built a four-run lead before eventually leave the bases loaded. Following Mabeus’ home run, Carter Garate continued the rally with a one-out walk before moving to third on a Mason Neville hustle double. Dominic Hellman loaded the bases on a hit-by-pitch before giving way to pinch runner Jax Gimenez. Jacob Walsh gave the Ducks some cushion lining a two-run single into the right-center field gap putting runners at the corners before he swiped second to put two in scoring position. Still with one out, Drew Smith drove a 2-2 pitch deep into centerfield scoring Gimenez from third on the sacrifice fly. Oregon’s dramatic rally overshadowed Neville’s record setting effort from earlier in the game. The Ducks’ centerfielder belted a three-run home run in the fourth inning to cap the Ducks’ four-run frame and give UO a 6-4 lead. The homer was his 19th of the season, setting a new Oregon single-season record for long balls. How It Happened: After a 1-2-3 first inning, the Ducks sent six hitters to the plate in the second inning while scoring a pair of runs. Smith led off the frame with a single and moved to third on an Anson Aroz base hit before scoring on a Maddox Molony RBI single. After Mabeus moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt, Aroz scored on a Ryan Cooney ground out to make it 2-0. UCLA took a 4-2 lead with a run in the third and three more in the fourth, but the Ducks rallied in their half of the fourth with four runs to regain the lead. Aroz led off the inning with a solo home run to trim the lead to one. After Cooney singled to left and Carter Garate reached on an infield single, Neville blasted the record-breaking homer to put Oregon on top by two. UCLA (29-10, 13-5 Big Ten) scored on in the sixth and one in the eighth to tie the game, but Oregon got out a jam in the eighth to keep it tied to set up the four-run rally. The Bruins had the bases loaded with one out after tying the game, and Oregon turned to Seth Mattox out of the bullpen. After falling behind 2-0, he got Roman Martin to hit a weak chopper toward third where Garate gloved it, stepped on their and fired home to get the runner trying to score ending the Bruins threat. Box Score Notes: The announced attendance (3,005) marked the 36th time in the history of PK Park that a crowd has exceeded 3,000 fans … Oregon’s series win was its ninth this season with just one series loss … Neville went 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored … Walsh was 2-for-3 with two RBI … Aroz went 2-for-4 with a RBI and two runs scored … Mattox moved to 2-0 with the win. On Deck: The Ducks play the first of five consecutive nonconference games when they host Portland at 5:05 p.m. on Tuesday (B1G+). Coach Waz Quotes: Head Coach Mark Wasikowski On the game overall… “Good. It’s good to win a conference weekend series, they’re hard to win, and against a good program, UCLA. The guys played a complete game today. They were a little bit salty after how yesterday ended. Thought we played a really good game yesterday through five plus innings, and we were salty about how the thing ended. We didn’t give ourselves a chance to win three games by the way we played yesterday, and came out today and took care of business.” On Burke-Lee Mabeus’ home run… “Really impressive. I mean, the guy’s throwing 97-98 miles per hour, and Burke went first pitch fastball. I think he just got a good barrel on it. And I was happy to see him being aggressive in that situation. For a freshman, that’s pretty cool. He caught a win too, today. Another win that he caught, that’s equally as important.” On Mason Neville breaking the single-season home run record… “He’s a talented young player, and we recruited him really hard out of high school and we finished in second place, which is as good as 10th place when it comes to recruiting. It stinks when you lose a kid out of high school. And then when he decided he was going to come our way after his first year, we were thrilled. I would have loved to have another year with him to be able to help him develop, because he’s a tremendous young man. The only sad part is I didn’t get a third year with him to help him in his game, because he’s been fun to work with on a daily basis. He’s not perfect, none of these kids are. But on a daily basis, he tries his best, he gives you everything he’s got. He’s got a great heart.” Mason Neville On the team’s current attitudes… “We’ve got a chip on our shoulder. We know we’re a good ball club, and we can do a lot of good things. We went to a Super Regional last year and had almost our whole lineup come back. The standard is high, but it’s baseball. You’re going to lose some games here and there, but we also shoot to win every game.” On if he feels relief after achieving his new record... “It’s not something I really focus on too much. It’s pretty cool, but it’s just about getting to Omaha. That’s the main focus. It’s a pretty cool thing to do, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not really thinking about that. I just want to put good swings on the ball and help my team win.” Jason Reitz Seth Mattox On how he feels about his pitching right now... “I feel good. I feel like I’m attacking the zone more. Getting ahead is big, especially with my stuff. As long as I can get ahead, I can get to my secondary pitches, which is what I want to do.” On how the pitching staff had crucial outs today and what it does for their confidence... “It’s massive. I think that builds confidence for every guy that pitched today, knowing that their stuff can beat anybody. That’s a really good hitting team. So, just knowing that our stuff can win is a huge confidence booster.” Burke-Lee Mabeus On if he thought his homerun was going over... “No, I think I was sprinting out of the box. I wasn’t sure. They have a pretty talented left fielder out there. I saw he got a decent jump on it, and I was thinking maybe I would get a hustle double. I was looking for the umpires, trying to see if they were going to tell me it was over. I think I found out when I was rounding second, and I was still sprinting.” On the team’s ability to execute bunts... “We work on those every day. There are some days when the coaches let us work on bunts only during hitting. If it’s going to make us better, they want us to do it. It’s something we really value as a part of our game. When you play good baseball, it helps for sure.”

Ducks win 10-6! Seth Mattox finishes out the Bruins in the ninth, as Oregon wins the series!

10-6 Ducks after eight innings! Umlandt gave up another run, but Seth Mattox came in for relief and stopped a bases-loaded rally by UCLA. Freshman catcher Burke-Lee Mabeus hit a homer to put Oregon up by one, and then Jacob Walsh came through with a huge single that scored two!

6-5 Ducks after seven innings as the Pride of Sherwood Oregon, Ian Umlandt, dispatched the Bruins, but Oregon had two base runners again with no outs...and got nothing!

6-5 Ducks after six innings. Ian Umlandt gave up a run in relief, but left the Bruins with bases-loaded!

Those darn pesky former Pac-12 schools are beginning to torque-off the B1G stalwarts... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Ten Champs! Ducks, Romero Run Away With Conference Title HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. - Trailing by three strokes entering the final round, the Oregon women's golf team put together a dominant performance on Sunday to run away with the 2025 Big Ten Championship at Bulle Rock Golf Course. The No. 5 Ducks fired a stellar 12-under 276 to win the team title by a whopping 14 strokes, matching the tournament 54-hole scoring record in the process with a 12-under 852 for the weekend. Sophomore Kiara Romero gave Oregon a championship sweep by claiming the individual conference title at 7-under par, winning by three strokes after a 4-under 68 in the final round. Oregon won the Big Ten title in its first year in the league while claiming the second conference championship in program history, joining the 2021-22 team that won the Pac-12 Championship. It is the second tournament win of the season for the Ducks and ninth under head coach Derek Radley. It is also the fifth Big Ten title for Oregon Athletics in its first year in the conference, joining women's cross country, football and both men's and women's indoor track and field. "Just really proud of the way our ladies performed this week," Radley told Big Ten Network after the round. "I was really proud of us because the wind switched today; it was out of the south for rounds one and two and we came in with a strict game plan today and really stuck to it. When those putts start falling, I just stay out of the way and keep cheering. I couldn't be more proud of this group." Romero becomes the third Duck to win an individual conference title, joining Hsin-Yu Lu (2022) and Caroline Inglis (2015). She earned her first individual tournament win of the season and third of her career, moving into a tie for second all-time at Oregon. "I think we all inspire each other and look up to each other a lot," Romero said while with her teammates at the trophy presentation. "It feels good to finally get this dub for all of us." With the conference title, the Ducks earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Regional round and will find out where they will be heading on Wednesday during the NCAA selection show. How it Happened: Oregon started the day three strokes back of No. 24 Michigan State, which fired a 7-under 281 on Saturday to surge into the lead. The Ducks didn't take long to erase that deficit, as their four counting scorers combined to shoot 3-under par on the front nine compared to a 4-over par showing for the Spartans. The Ducks were even better on the back nine to run away with the title, combining for 11 birdies against just one double bogey from the four counting scores. Oregon's 12-under 852 ties the 2016 Ohio State and Northwestern teams for the lowest 54-hole team total in Big Ten Championship history. The majority of the attention on Sunday was on Romero as she captured the individual title, but it was freshman Tong An who provided the low score of the day for the Ducks. An made six birdies en route to a bogey-free 6-under 66, her lowest round as a Duck and the lowest individual round of the weekend. An was 3 under through 15 holes before rattling off three straight birdies to end the day, finishing in a tie for fifth overall. "Just an unbelievable day from AT," Radley said. "For a true freshman to come out and play like that in the final round with a championship on the line is truly amazing. I'm so proud of her and was so impressed with her poise and composure out there today." Romero was nearly flawless on her way to the individual Big Ten title, making five birdies and just one bogey on her way to a 4-under 68. She was 1-under par at the turn to take a one-stroke lead after entering the final round in a three-way tie atop the leaderboard, and she began to separate with a birdie at the par-3 12th. Back-to-back birdies on No. 15 and No. 16 put Romero firmly in control of the individual race, and she finished with a pair of pars to officially secure both the team and individual championships. "To be honest, I didn't look at the leaderboard this whole week so I had no clue," Romero said. "I kind of had an idea that I'd be somewhere around the top and when I made those back-to-back birdies I was feeling pretty confident going down to these last few holes." Freshman Suvichaya Vinijchaitham also put together her best round of the weekend, making four birdies and just one bogey for a 3-under 69. She was even at the turn before shooting 3 under on the back nine, including three birdies in five holes between No. 11 and No. 15. She gave the Ducks three players in the top 10, finishing in ninth overall at 1 under. Sophomore Ting-Hsuan Huang, who was the 18-hole leader at 3 under, rounded out Oregon's counting scores in the final round with a 1-over 73. Outside of a double bogey at No. 13, Huang was 1 under across the rest of her 17 holes, and she tied for 19th overall to give Oregon four Ducks in the individual top 20. Ducks on the Leaderboard: 1. #5 Oregon — 286-290-276 — 852 (-12) 1. Kiara Romero — 71-70-68 — 209 (-7) T5. Tong An — 74-74-66 — 214 (-2) 9. Suvichaya Vinijchaitham — 75-71-69 — 215 (-1) T19. Ting-Hsuan Huang — 69-77-73 — 219 (+3) T46. Darae Chung — 72-75-78 — 225 (+9) What it Means: Oregon has looked like a national championship contender all season long, and the Ducks only confirmed that this weekend by capturing the conference title in their first year in the Big Ten. UO won the conference championship with a lineup of all underclassmen, and even did so without one of its top players as sophomore Karen Tsuru was forced to sit out of the tournament with a back injury. The Ducks are a virtual lock to be a No. 1 seed in a NCAA Regional, needing to finish in the top five there to reach the NCAA Championships. After reaching the national semifinals at the NCAA Championships a year ago, Oregon appears poised to be a force to be reckoned with once again this spring. Notable: Oregon's 12-under 276 in the final round is tied for the fourth-lowest team round vs. par in program history and is tied for the fifth-lowest overall team score ... UO's 12-under 852 for the tournament is the program's second-lowest ever at a conference championship, behind only an 848 at last year's Pac-12 Championship ... Oregon led the field in total birdies (51) and par-5 scoring (-11), and Romero led all players with 14 total birdies. Up Next: The 2025 NCAA Women's Golf Selection Show is scheduled for Wednesday (April 23) at 10 a.m. PT and will be broadcast on Golf Channel. The NCAA Regional round is scheduled for May 5-7 at six different sites with 12 teams at each site. Oregon will make its 17th consecutive NCAA Regional appearance after earning the Big Ten's automatic bid.

6-4 Ducks after five innings, as Reitz put the Bruins down 1-2-3, and Oregon had two on base (walks) with no outs...and did nothing with it. Damn.

6-4 Ducks after four innings. Whew! While UCLA got hits off Reitz, our beloved Maddox Molony made two errors that allowed the Bruins to get on base and score a bunch...along with a dinger against us. But then Oregon got going with an Anson Aroz homer, followed by the three-run blast by Mason Neville that set the UO record for most HRs in a season. He is also the current homer-leader in the season to date... Watch the top of the metal roof where his blast landed...

2-1 Ducks after three innings. Got two walks, but did nothing with them...

2-0 Ducks after two innings, as Oregon's starting pitcher, Jason Reitz, is also hitting great control on his breaking-drop ball. UCLA is showing weakness at pitching to start as Oregon got some hits and moved base runners along with a two sacrifices to score runs!

0-0 after one inning, as Oregon's 6'11" monster pitcher, Jason Reitz, has the fast-ball and the changeup working well early against UCLA.

Jon...your tongue-in-cheek imitation of Coach Lanning is pretty good! Our young HC really has learned "Coachspeak" pretty well, and that is why I skip most of the press conferences and reports. A ton of "blah-blah" over the years!

14-4 UCLA is the final with a run-rule in the eighth. Bottom line is that none of our relief pitchers could do a lick...and we went through a ton of them. Yeah, I need more Beer...

8-4 Bruins after seven innings. Oregon's Santiago Garcia only knows how to throw fast-balls, and UCLA hit them out of the park. Jacob Walsh added a homer for the Ducks, but....

4-3 Bruins after six innings. Oregon's Will Sanford missed an easy throw to first base off a bunt, and UCLA scored as a result. The Duck pitcher has the talent, but is learning the mental toughness needed, and two straight bunts by the Bruins were meant to test the Duck pitcher. Whew!

3-3 after five innings, as Oregon's Colin Clarke continued to get beat up, and finished the inning with Bruin runners on 1st and 3rd, but he got through the inning without another run. He has plinked three batters in five innings, and now it looks like another Duck pitcher who has work off the "Yips," Will Sanford, is coming out for the sixth. This can be great, or a nightmare....what entertainment! And Jacob Walsh tied it up...