Charles Fischer

In the sixth inning...we only got through the Nebraska side as Will Sanford disposed of them, but damn....the dark skies began to just UNLOAD rain. We have quite a lightning/rain delay as the big drops obscured visibility--even up close. Flashes of lightning and thunder to do not promise a rapid return to the game...

4-2 Ducks after five innings. Will Sanford gave up a solo homer, but tied a career high with his TENTH strikeout of the day! True freshman Braden Jaksa nailed a grounder through the infield to get on base, and then stole second. The new clean-up hitter, Drew Smith, blasted a pitch over the LF Wall and hit his own image on the scoreboard for a two-run homer!

1-0 Nebraska after one inning. Will Sanford gave up two hits, but stranded two and limited the damage. 1-0 Nebraska after two innings, as Oregon stranded two runners in scoring position, and Will Sanford held them down. 1-0 Cornhuskers after three innings as Sanford gave up base runners, but held off the scoring. 2-1 Ducks after four innings, as Drew Smith nails a line-drive to medium CF depth, and Burke-Lee Mabeus zips a pitch down the middle to get on base and move Smith to third. Then RS freshman Naulivou Lauaki hit deep the LF/CF gap and to the wall to score both!

Oregon's Will Sanford (2.54 ERA) will take on Ty Horn (4.70 ERA) of the Cornhuskers today. Yes, the time was moved up two hours because of weather, so unfortunately....I have an appointment this afternoon that I cannot miss. I will probably begin posting in the fourth or fifth inning, and will try to catch you all up gradually. Let's go Ducks!

Those are great story lines to follow, and I would add watching the young-guns on the defensive line--are they ready to step up?

The Direction of Oregon Mens Basketball?

Ducks lose 13-9...fourth loss to the Pilots in a row. Un-fricken-believable.

13-8 Pilots after seven innings. Too ugly to report as both Luke Morgan and Michael Meckna gave up three-run homers.

7-5 Pilots after six innings. Toby Twist gave up a couple of hits and a run. Luke Morgan came in to pitch for the Ducks, and closed out the inning.

6-5 Pilots after five innings. Nothing on offense of consequence, and Toby Twist came in for relief for Oregon and easily retired the side.

6-5 Pilots after four innings. Both teams went down 1-2-3...

6-5 Portland after three innings. Jax Gimenez got plinked, and Brayden Jaksa hit to shallow LF for a hit. Ryan Cooney sac-flies out to move both runners up, and then Drew Smith blasted a 3-run homer over the LF wall. But geez...Miles Gosztola got beat up. He gave up a plinked batter, two walks, two hits to tie it up. Oregon's Tanner Bradley came in to give up a double that scores another Pilot run.

2-2 after two innings. RS freshman Naulivou Lauaki is playing DH and hit the ball to the wall for a double, and Burke-Lee Mabeus hit deep down the RF line to score Lauaki. Miles Gosztola had a bad inning with giving up a plinked batter, two walks, two hits and two runs.

1-0 Ducks after one inning. Freshman Brayden Jaksa got a beautiful swing and knocked the pitch over the LF wall for a solo homer! Pitching for Oregon is Miles Gosztola, who gave up a hit, but dispensed with the rest. Miles Gosztola

Agreed. We should not have lost the series last year at Ohio State, and now at Michigan. We cannot change the B1G schedule, and we will have back-to-back road series, but Waz has learned to not add mid-week games which add to the energy drain. (I hope)

In short....travel. Oregon played great in California beating San Diego in two mid-week games, and then a tight series with Santa Barbara. Between being on the road for nearly a week, and the emotional intensity of the games--they were spent when they returned home. In the loss to Portland, (3-0) our pitching was good, but the hitting was off. Then, due to weather...the Michigan series got moved up to Thursday, and the team arrived in Ann Arbor at 2:00 AM on Thursday...and played terrible later in the day. Flat effort pitching, and flat effort hitting in the 10-0 loss. Oregon was better on Friday, but still not up to their usual in their win. On Saturday--the Ducks stranded 13 base runners and could not get the timely hits, nor the pitches in the 4-3 loss. Too much traveling over ten days, and loaded with intense, energy-draining games as well. Coach Waz learned from this and I am sure he will not schedule future mid-week games on away trips...especially when we have two travel weekends in a row. I am concerned about the game at Portland later today at 5:00 PM, and am hoping that being back in their own beds for a few days will return the sharpness needed. After Portland beat us last week...they traveled to Seattle Pacific and lost the series. ☹️ Oregon dropped in the rankings with D1Baseball, (rightly so) to No. 20 and we play No. 19 Nebraska this week at PK Park. Time to turn it around!

Holy Crap! That is the FIRST Mens Championship in any NCAA sport that Washington has won in over 130 years of existence. Their first nine championships were all done by the women. (Softball, Rowing, etc.) Damn. There goes my favorite joke.... "The Men of Washington are Proven to NOT be Championship Caliber."

Great information, as the Big-10 winning Mens and Womens Basketball AND Football? Currently UCLA is No. 1 ranked in Baseball...

Hall is a Rivals 4-Star, and besides Oregon had quite an offer list containing Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas, Georgia, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Auburn....etc. Now you got me excited!

Not a knock, as I have some pet-peeve subjects of my own. An observation--if whether we would ever see Oregon schedule a SEC team on the nonconference part of our season? I agree with Canzano's answer; if there is no penalty for losing a non-conference game later with automatic conference qualifiers...then yes--we could have some blockbuster early season games that everyone would enjoy. Good persistence by Thomas, and thoughtful answer by Canzano. Q: Do you think Oregon football will still schedule “Power” opponents that aren’t the eight (now non-conference) former Pac-12 schools? — Thomallister2911 A: It depends on what happens with the College Football Playoff expansion. Right now, there’s no incentive for the Ducks to play a non-conference game they might lose. They’ve got enough strength of schedule in Big Ten play. So unless ESPN is going to pay Oregon $4 million to play Alabama or Georgia or LSU in a season-opener, there’s no way they’re taking that game. If the CFP expands to 16 or 24 teams, and offers automatic berths to the top Big Ten finishers, that scheduling logic could shift. TV would definitely be into seeing Oregon play SEC opponents in non-conference games. Want a Non-Conference Game with HIM?

Michigan wins 4-3 as Devin Bell gave up three hits and a plinked batter. The final hit scored two for the walk-off. Ducks had plenty of chances to win, as we ended up stranding 13 on base.

3-2 Ducks after eight innings. My stomach is churning as Oregon stranded two in scoring position again for a total of 12 runners stranded on base. We should have this game in hand, and yet could lose it. Luke Morgan kept our recent tradition of pitching to retire the side 1-2-3 continued!

3-2 Ducks after seven innings. My gosh...Oregon strands two in scoring position again. Coming in to pitch is Luke Morgan, who has an ERA of 2.45 and he put the Wolverines down 1-2-3!

3-2 Ducks after six innings. We are stuck on offense, but Michael Meckna just put down Michigan 1-2-3...two innings in a row.

3-2 Ducks after five innings. Nothing on offense, and Oregon brought Michael Meckna in for relief with a 4.20 ERA. He got beat-up in a recent game, but retired the side with three fly-balls easily this inning.