Charles Fischer

Ducks win 2-0! Ryan Cooney hits to the RF corner, as the fielder lost it in the sun. He charges past second and barely gets into third for a triple. Jax Gimenez was plinked, and Dominic Hellman hits a grounder, but they threw home to get Cooney out. Both remaining runners are in scoring position... Drew Smith was intentionally walked to load the bases...so we have Ducks-on-the-Pond! A wild pitch scores Gimenez for our second run! Closer Devin Bell was brought in, got an out, and then walked a batter, and looked shaky on his first pitch to the next one. That brought a mound visit, and he generated 95-96 mph heaters to create two fly-balls to finish the game. Santa Barbara has one of the best pitching staffs in the nation, as their problem as of late was scoring as much as they'd like. But Oregon really matched that staff with stud pitching today by Cal Scolari, (who got the win) Tanner Bradley, and Devin Bell. (Who got the save) We went 4-1 on the road trip, and getting our butts-kicked yesterday was the perfect wake-up call to remind the team how much they hate losing. Sorry for no videos, as UCSB did not provide any, and the game recap will be here in 2-3 hours. Way to go DUCKS! Cal Scolari Today...

1-0 Ducks after eight innings. Nothing on offense... Tanner Bradley was sharp, and made it look easy to dispose of the Gaucho side. On to the ninth... Nervous Time!

1-0 Ducks after seven innings. Stranded two again... Tanner Bradley made his second relief appearance this weekend, and after a short stint on Friday. He is our No. 1 reliever, and gave up a double, but then finished them off.

1-0 Ducks after six innings. We stranded one base runner... Cal Scolari pitched the sixth and finished with nearly 100 pitches, and six scoreless innings!

1-0 Ducks after five innings. Santa Barbara brought in a relief pitcher, but Oregon still stranded two on base! Cal Scolari is sharp, putting them down 1-2-3.

1-0 Ducks after four innings. Angel Laya caught an inside 89 mph pitch and blew it over the CF wall! Cal Scolari struck out the side and four-out-of-five of the last batters. Whew!

0-0 after three innings. Ducks left a runner stranded on second... The Gauchos got two in scoring position, but Cal Scolari snuffed the threat with a strikeout featuring a tough breaking ball that caught the batter by surprise for the third strike and out!

0-0 after two innings. The Gaucho pitcher is really good, and having a great day thus far. Hard to hit... Oregon's Cal Scolari walked two batters after two outs, but after a mound visit from pitching coach Matt Flores...he generated a long fly-out to finish the inning.

0-0 after one inning. Ducks left two stranded in scoring position! Oregon's Cal Scolari created to fly-outs and a strikeout. He was fired up coming off the mound, and I imagine the team is fired up after not playing their best yesterday.

The group of pitchers used on Friday for Oregon were superb, while the pitchers on Saturday...disappointed us. Today we have Gaucho pitcher Kellen Montgomery, who has an ERA of 3.86 to face against Oregon's Cal Scolari (3.27) and it should be a dandy again. Can the relief pitchers on Sunday come through? Cal Scolari

Gauchos win 8-2 as my "pitching depth" did not deliver today. Ugly.

8-2 Gauchos after eight innings. Oregon did nothing at the plate, and our pitchers of Blake Crawford, Leo Uelmen and Cooper Markham gave up hits, walks, plinked batters and the floodgates opened against the good-guys.

4-2 Gauchos after seven innings. Oregon is being tortured by opposing pitchers today, as their reliever is pretty darn good. The Ducks new pitcher brought in, RS Freshman Blake Crawford, who had only pitched three innings this year, but must have inspired the confidence of the coaches. He delivered with a scoreless inning.

4-2 Gauchos after six innings. Nothing from our batters, but Michael Meckna came in to relieve Clarke and did well with a 1-2-3 inning.

4-2 Gauchos after five innings, as the Santa Barbara pitcher finally tired. With two outs--a flurry of four Oregon hits began. Ryan Cooney got a hit with a grounder up the middle, and Jax Gimenez got a hit through the right infield, while Cooney put on the jets to move to third. Then Dominic Hellman drove a hit through the right infield as well to score Cooney, and put Gimenez on third. Drew Smith then hits to mid-CF to score Gimenez! Then Collin Clarke got tired. Bottom line is that he gave up a slew of hits to allow two more runs.

2-0 Gauchos after four innings. Our Beloved Ducks are facing a pitcher who is hot-hot-hot... Collin Clarke gave up a walk, but closed them down after that. He is not at his best today, but more than good enough to keep them scoreless.

2-0 Gauchos after three innings. Ducks got things going at bat, but stranded two on base.... Collin Clarke was not happy after last inning, and put them down 1-2-3...

2-0 Gauchos after two innings. Ducks can't hit this opposing pitcher yet. Collin Clarke gave up a hit, but then self-inflicted wounds began. He plinked a batter to have two on base, then an error by the 2nd baseman allowed a run to score...and then a wild pitch scored another run for UCSB.

0-0 after one inning. Ducks went down a bit too easy as batters, and Collin Clarke had two on base, but got out of it.

I don't know which pitcher Oregon will face, but it will be between Nathan Aceves, (3.77) and Kellen Montgomery (3.86) of the Gauchos. We counter with Collin Clarke, (2.79 ERA) and it figures to be another low-scoring affair unless the Ducks can get the pitch count high enough to get their starter out. It is hard to know if the offensive woes yesterday by Santa Barbara were due to a batting lineup in a slump, or if the pitching they faced was that good. Their starter was impressive, and our runs were scored on relievers. I do believe today, as yesterday, that we have a better batting lineup who can break through sooner in the game. But you know how it goes...it all depends on how that pitcher is doing today. Sometimes we get snuffed by a pitcher in the high3s for ERA, and other times we have beat them up. And that is what makes the game so interesting to watch! Today you will see a ton of a pitch you rarely saw yesterday; the change-up, and Clarke has a few variations that are darn hard to hit. He has a tendency to give up home-runs, but often--that is all they get, hence the low ERA. Collin Clarke

The resentment is strong, and the fact that Oregon won the most Big-10 championships in all sports, (considering we only have 18 of the 28 B1G sports) enhances that bias against us. The recent baseball polls with three west coast teams on top of the B1G...

They did not have videos available during the game, so a couple are now showing up. Good Stuff!

Thought You'd Enjoy This...

I could hardly believe my eyes reading an email from The Athletic, as he was writing about four Big-10 teams making the Elite Eight, and he wrote... "The basketball conference of the year: We’ve mentioned a bunch of Big Ten teams in here, haven’t we? Since 1985, this is just the fourth time a conference has taken up half the Elite Eight. Guaranteed one Final Four spot, and could have three. Pleasingly, these are all traditional Big Ten members, too. So … is this the year the B1G breaks its quarter-century championship drought (2000 Michigan State)?" Pleasingly? How do YOU read that? The new West Coast teams are invaders? The Vikings from the West? That only pure members, those who founded the conference count? How much more can you diminish new conference members? Especially when we have brought so much WINNING to the Big-10? What say YOU?