Charles Fischer

I do like to listen to Coach Waz in a radio discussion on the GoDucks.com phone app, where a 15-20 minute pregame is done with an interview with Waz before each game. Do sign up right here for the B1G+ streaming to watch 60 Oregon Baseball games this spring; what a deal! And today's starter, Collin Clarke, is a big surprise to me, as he did not have great stats last year, (6.41 ERA) and I would have thought that other pitchers would have been the Saturday starter. But obviously he must have improved, and I look forward to watching him. RHP, Collin Clarke The second game of the double-header will probably start around 3:00 PM...

Opening Day a Success at PK Park EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon baseball came into 2025 wanting to prove it was a well-rounded club that could beat opponents in multiple ways. In Friday’s opening game of the season, the Ducks indeed looked strong in all facets. The Ducks got a dominant start from Grayson Grinsell, solid relief pitching, clean defense and production up and down the lineup to beat Toledo on opening day at PK Park, 9-2. Oregon jumped out to an early lead, weathered a tie score through the middle innings and then broke things open late to win the first of four games at PK Park this weekend. “One day trying to play clean baseball, we did it,” UO coach Mark Wasikowski said. “And I think that was a good product we put out there tonight. It was just complete.” Grinsell, one of the top starting pitchers in the country entering the season, allowed only a game-tying solo homer in the second over five innings, striking out seven with two walks. Ryan Featherston (1-0) and Seth Mattox combined to allow one unearned run the rest of the way, while UO career home run leader Jacob Walsh bashed his first of this season on a day eight of the nine starting position players had at least one hit. How It Happened: A single to right field by Mason Neville, a single to left by Drew Smith and a base hit up the middle by Walsh gave Oregon the lead just three batters into the season. Grinsell allowed the homer to tie it in the second, but he bounced back and kept it tied 1-1 through five innings. “Definitely a confident feeling, knowing that they trust me to come here on opening day and come out and just do what I do and attack the zone,” Grinsell said. “Definitely tried to just go out there and set the tone for what the other team should be expecting from the other three starters this weekend.” Grayson Grinsell After Smith reached on an error in the bottom of the sixth, Walsh followed with home run No. 41 of his career. It was a high fly hit the other way to left field, putting the Ducks up 3-1. “I've taken a lot of ABs here, and I've learned a lot of things,” Walsh said of the maturity he showed with the first-inning single and opposite-field homer. “Just using that and trying to spread that around the team, help everyone out.” A passed ball allowed a run to score in the top of the seventh, bringing Toledo back within 3-2. But the Ducks weren’t done hitting. Jack Brooks led off the bottom of the seventh with a double, and an infield single by Ryan Cooney put runners at the corners with nobody out. Carter Garate followed with a double to score Brooks, and a sacrifice fly by Neville plated Cooney for a 5-2 lead. Oregon then added on again in the eighth, after Mattox threw his first of two shutout innings of relief. The first three batters of the inning reached, with Maddox Molony scoring on an error and Brooks coming home on a balk. An RBI double by Neville scored Cooney, and Smith followed with a single to drive in Neville. Mattox closed out the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning, striking out the final batter to give the UO staff a dozen strikeouts on the day. On Deck: The two teams meet Saturday in a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m.

Ducks finish it at 9-2!

Omigosh! Ducks blew it open to a 9-2 lead after eight innings!

5-2 DUCKS after seven innings!

After six, Oregon leads 3-1 on a Jacob Walsh two-run Homer to the off-field! Ryan Featherston came in relief and downed the batters 1-2-3... They've done well in the ongoing showers...

After five, still 1-1 as Grinsell has been super.

1-1 after three innings, as Grinsell gave up a homer. Yet he pitched NINE strikes in a row this inning to go 1-2-3 with outs. Toledo pitcher is pretty darn good...

We watched the Pride of Portland Ryan Cooney bat 2-2, along with Mason Neville and Jack Brooks who went 2-4 today, while Oregon's pitchers were superb. Grayson Grinsell gave up one run in five innings, and Ryan Featherston gave up an unearned run in two innings as he struck the batter out, but the ball bounced off the catchers glove and a runner from third scored. That was the end of scoring for the Rockets, as Cal Baptist transfer Seth Mattox had a shaky eighth inning, but got out of it with no runs, and he closed off the Rocket batters easily in the 9th. Oregon hit the ball better later, but benefited from four costly errors by Toledo after the fifth inning. But twelve hits by Our Beloved Ducks doesn't suck, as it was a great start. Saturday has a double-header starting at 11:00 AM on the B1G+ so sign up right here and watch the No. 12 team in the nation play smart baseball. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grayson Grinsell got three outs in four batters, (walk) and the Ducks got the first three batters on base to take a 1-0 lead after one inning. In the pregame, Waz made reference to a couple of guys being dinged up, thus the lineup impacted, but the depth is superb for the Ducks. Chase Meggers out at catcher and thus replaced by Anson Aroz. Aroz replaced in left field by Jack Brooks, a speedy utility man. Ryan Cooney replaces Drew Smith at second base. Although Smith is DH for Oregon with his .314 last year. To watch...go to the B1G+ right here and sign up!

P.S. I am so grateful for your donations, as it helps us have GREAT photos for our articles. Below is a fantastic one in the article from the Big-House! Touchdown, Baby!

My Duck Brothers and Sisters: We normally publish articles in the early morning, but in the offseason--I will sometimes have to publish at other times in the day due to the backlink orders I receive which help pay the bills. (You will see the ubiquitous sentence in them of, "Mr. FishDuck took a break from his fun at Top-Flight Casino site to delve into this important topic.") The rest of the article is written for you, our audience, but that sentence helps to pay the site bills. This recruiting article has a TON to look at and consider, and I would hope you would take the time to look at the chart in the article and offer me your thoughts about the future of B1G teams based upon what you see. There are so many surprises in both directions, and frankly....I spent too much time in pondering and creating the article. I wanted to publish this article this morning, but was waiting for final details from a SEO-PR company in Romania to provide the final details for the backlink order. I just got the information at nearly midnight their time in Bucharest, and thus could now publish. Thoughts about B1G recruiting? Bucharest at night...

I agree with you, as we should be playing in tournaments in the south for the first month. I have three theories as to why we are not, and I think you hit on the first one; we have some significant travel trips, and Waz is trying to balance it out. A second reason, I believe, is that we and Washington blend into the B1G without an issue in terms of playing temperature conditions. We are both Cold-Weather teams, and Oregon State has shown that a cold-weather team can win a 'Natty in Baseball, thus the transition for us will not be much in terms of temperature. I see that our first opponent (Toledo) is also from a cold-weather area, and our next series is also against Rhode Island. I think Waz is embracing what we are, and scheduling teams we can beat, but also have done well in their conferences for our RPI. I also note that A) of the top projected teams in the B1G, three of the top five are from the former Pac-12 teams, (Oregon, UCLA and USC) and we play three of the other projected top four, thus....we may have got hosed with conference scheduling. I believe there is a third reason; Oregon is preseason ranked No. 12, the highest ever for Waz, and for a very long time. Waz is trying to build a bigger fan base, and get more fans to PK Park, and perhaps he is trying to capitalize on the high preseason ranking to get fans to come? Still a tough draw with snow and ice yesterday, and very cold temperatures projected for today. Those are my thoughts, but who knows what his real reason is?

I think Oregon fans can be understanding of another team having a bad day…

Oh no! Oregon has to play both Ohio State and Michigan? Easy Charles...we're not talking football here!

First game is Friday at 3:00 PM!

We have series with UCLA, Michigan and USC...

It is going to be fun to watch the No. 12 in the nation team play!

Oregon returns seven pitchers from last year, but will have a total of 23 to turn to. Four transferred from 4-year colleges, and two transferred from JCs with notable reputations. Oregon will have nine true freshmen pitchers, which includes star Will Sanford, but also the top HS pitcher in Nebraska, Michael Meckna. Sam Boyle transferred to Oregon; can you blame him?

Former Top-100 talent Mason Neville from Las Vegas, struggled to hit while at Arkansas, and transferred to Oregon last year. His hitting woes continued at first for the Ducks, and then in the final third of the season--nobody was hotter at the plate. He finished second on the time with 16 homers, and batted .318 when he became a starter in the outfield for the final 23 games of the season. He moved to the leadoff batting spot in the Playoffs, and batted .333 along with three stolen bases. He is very fast, and is slated to start at center field. Mason Neville has words for Arizona Wildcats after another homer...

More Notes... Experience Reigns: Oregon returns 11 position players from last year that helped the Ducks advance to the Super-Regionals, and eight of them started at least 35 games. Fabulous Freshmen Return: Ryan Cooney (Portland, Jesuit) set a freshman record for home runs at shortstop until Maddox Molony (Springfield, Thurston) returned from injury, won the position and set a new freshman record for home runs with 10, and batted .315 for the year to be the first positional player at Oregon to become All-Pac-12 as a freshman. Maddox Molony

Actually, I think it won a club national championship in the past.

Don’t know a thing about Hockey, but respect those who grew up around it, and love it. I have to admit that I am often shocked to go on the Big Ten network and see really well covered telecasts of wrestling matches, and hockey games unlike you would ever see on the West Coast. Good-gosh, they are into high caliber volleyball and Lacrosse! Cool conference, and Oregon will bring glory to their weaknesses. (Baseball season is about to begin and Our Beloved Ducks are favored to win the conference) Being realistic, that with all the changes in college sports, and pending lawsuits, I don’t anticipate us ever adding hockey, and in fact, we will probably end up deleting sports before it is over, and ended up in court over that too!

Look at the bright side... We got No. 12 in the nation Baseball starting Friday!

Yep, and that is why Waz was looking for non-conference games that would boost our RPI. Even teams in lower conferences--we are playing the best ones in that conference, and who will be in the NCAAs in the spring. Playing No. 7 Oregon State in a four game series helps both teams with the RPI. As I look at our schedule--I believe it is not quite as tough as Pac-12 schedule, (No Arizona or Stanford!) but we have enough juice to do well, and it is tough enough to harden the team. This is a very experienced team in the field, one of the best ever for Oregon and I expect the hitting to be pretty good. The only question is pitching, but he brought a boat-load of pitchers in, and he will find out who can do the job. Ian Umlandt from Sherwood is back...