Charles Fischer

4-3 Utah Valley after four innings. The Wolverines exploded on Reitz in the third inning, and while he kept them scoreless in the fourth--it was heavy damage. Meanwhile the Ducks got going with a Jacob Walsh single to opposite side, and the Drew Smith did the same past the right field fence for a two-run homer! Anson Aroz got under the first pitch to send it over the left field fence to score three in the inning.

0-0 after two innings. Ducks are getting on base, but not doing much with it. Jason Reitz put them down 1-2-3 again, and a hint given by the sportscasters as to why he started? He has not pitched in nearly two weeks..

0-0 after one inning, and the Ducks left two stranded on base. Jason Reitz got the start, and the in the pregame interview....Coach Waz danced around why. It could any number of factors, such as more rest for Grinsell, a tweak with Clarke...who knows? Lurch got them put down 1-2-3 with his 95 mph fastball, and then a changeup that makes them whiff.

In Eugene on Comcast, the game is on channel 420, or HD at 1210. And streaming on ESPN+.

I will make this the official game thread, and I brought over a superb analysis from another site about our opponent, the WAC Tournament Winner, Utah Valley. No. 171 Utah Valley Wolverines (32-27, 13-11 WAC) What a strange year it was for the Wolverines. They lost easily their most talented player in program history (Daniel Dickinson, who transferred to LSU and has a plus-1.000 OPS in the SEC), their head coach (Eddie Smith, who was swept by the Ducks and missed out on the tournament in his first year at Washington) and finished their regular season losers in 16-of-20. What? None of that takes you by the shoulders and yells "tournament team!" but indeed, for the first time since 2016 and just the second time in the programs' Division 1-history, the Wolverines are tournament bound. It's an immensely fun offense. The WAC is notoriously hitter-friendly, but the Wolverines have four players with double-digit homers, seven with double-digit stolen base,s and nine qualifiers with an OPS north of .800. Their only qualifier with a sub-.800 OPS is DJ Massey, who's hitting .331. Oregon fans may hold their breath at this, but the offense reminds me a lot of the 2023 Oral Roberts team that came to Eugene and knocked the Ducks out of a College World Series berth. Not only is there talent, but the talent is experienced. Their best hitter, Mason Strong, is 22 years old. CJ Colyer has nearly 600 collegiate plate appearances and had no problem jumping between divisions. Utah transfer Landon Frei (team-high 73 RBI) was terrific, and incumbent Luke Iversen more than doubled his home run impact from his first two seasons in Orem. Corbin Kirk Things do get a little suspect on the mound, both as a result of the WAC in and of itself and UCCU Ballpark being extremely hitter-friendly. Corbin Kirk is the Wolverines' Friday starter, coming off a legendary 13-strikeout, one-run complete game against Abilene Christian in the WAC Tournament. After a terrible three-start stretch where he had an 18.00 ERA, he's allowed just five runs total over his last three. No. 2 starter Colton Kennedy is also assuredly now a fan-favorite, combining with reliever Cooper Littledike to throw a no-hitter against top-seeded Sacramento State in the WAC tournament. Still, his season-ERA is over six, but he's got the best stuff of the starting rotation. Littledike is the best pitcher in the Wolverines' bullpen, leading the team with five saves as just one of four pitchers on the roster with a sub-4.00 ERA. Carter Krosky and Ray Hernandez are viable options, but they've combined for under 30 innings between them. Carston Herman had a legendary performance of his own against UT Arlington in the WAC tournament, going six innings of one-run ball out of the bullpen, but still has a 6.02 ERA. With over 50 innings, he's clearly the most trusted bullpen option. Some combination of Garrett Miller, Alan Huerta and Landon Zaborowski are going to have to eat quality innings for Utah Valley if it wants any success in the tournament. All three have high potential, with Miller's 10.0 K/9 representing the low mark of the trio, but control flaws have hampered their run-prevention ability. Under-the-radar X-Factor: SS Dominic Longo Trivia question: how many players nationally have over 20 stolen bases and more than 10 home runs? Answer: probably more than you'd think! I was ready to search for every player before realizing that it's relatively easy, especially in smaller conferences. Then, I whittled my search down to players in the NCAA tournament before giving up on doing that because of how many there are. Still, it's not exactly a common feat by any means. But Longo has done so. The transfer from Spokane Community College has played far better at the Division 1 level than he did at SCC last year. He didn't homer once last season and had just a .709 OPS, up to .930 with ten tanks. Playing shortstop at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds with solid power and terrific speed, it's easy to see Longo getting some draft consideration when he's eligible. But he's sixth amongst team qualifiers in OPS and gets somewhat hidden within the offense. And he's got more multi-hit games (22) than no-hit games (20), so when he gets hot, he can carry the team on his shoulders. The Eugene Regional begins on Friday at 1 p.m. PST, as the second-seeded Wildcats take on the third-seeded Mustangs live on ESPN+. (Arizona won 3-2) The hosts, the top-seeded Oregon Ducks, take on the fourth-seeded Wolverines at 6 p.m. PST after the first game's conclusion.

The Eugene local Comcast still shows the UC Irvine vs. ASU at 6:00 PM, yet when on ESPNU just now watching a bit of USC beating TCU 6-1...in both the footer running announcements, and the box that appears in the right corner showing scores and upcoming games...it has Oregon's game on ESPNU. We shall see...

There is confusion on where to watch tonight's Baseball Regional Playoff game. Originally, the schedule on GoDucks.com stated that the game was on ESPN+, but then yesterday morning it changed to TV on ESPNU. Problem is, my TV listing locally for Comcast/Xfinity shows UC Irvine vs. Arizona State at that time, and as of this morning on Friday--it continues to show that. Meanwhile, GoDucks.com continues to show ESPNU, and I emailed the Sports Information Director for Oregon Baseball about the issue, and he says that what is on the schedule at GoDucks.com, (ESPNU) is correct. When I go to the schedule for ESPN+...it shows the Oregon game to stream at 6:00 PM! When I go to the online schedule of ESPNU at their website....at 6:00 PM it states...."TBA" of which is pretty damn strange for the day-of a Playoff game. So there IS a chance of our game on ESPNU at 6:00 PM, and I guess we will find out tonight.

There is confusion on where to watch tonight's Baseball Regional Playoff game. Originally, the schedule on GoDucks.com stated that the game was on ESPN+, but then yesterday morning it changed to TV on ESPNU. Problem is, my TV listing locally for Comcast/Xfinity shows UC Irvine vs. Arizona State at that time, and as of this morning on Friday--it continues to show that. Meanwhile, GoDucks.com continues to show ESPNU, and I emailed the Sports Information Director for Oregon Baseball about the issue, and he says that what is on the schedule at GoDucks.com, (ESPNU) is correct. When I go to the schedule for ESPN+...it shows the Oregon game to stream at 6:00 PM! When I go to the online schedule of ESPNU at their website....at 6:00 PM it states...."TBA" of which is pretty damn strange for the day-of a Playoff game. So there IS a chance of our game on ESPNU at 6:00 PM, and I guess we will find out tonight.

He has been a complete jerk in past Oregon telecasts...as I recall.

Below is another take that makes sense considering Oregon has a Blue-Chip roster that is primarily young... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Quote:..."shift their NIL focus from paying for high school prospects large sums of money but instead spending large chunks of their money to keeping its current talent on roster beyond the current season, and then hitting the transfer portal" That's not a viable long term plan. If you don't keep bringing in high level talent, 2-3 years later there aren't enough guys left worth paying that big money. Which makes me think this is a short or medium term strategy, reacting to an unbalanced roster. Unbalanced rosters aren't the worst thing. Michigan loaded up on older guys to win in 2023. tOSU wasn't that different in 2024. This could be us preparing for something similar in 2026. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This could be an "Oregon" strategy for now? It makes sense to tailor your planning to your roster, what you have in NIL funding, and where you believe legislation is going?

Over at 247, the principals there just revealed what they believe is the adjusted recruiting strategy for Oregon Football, and it below.. "It sounds like Division Street, Oregon's sports programs, the AD, and other various NIL outlets have started to shift their NIL focus from paying for high school prospects large sums of money but instead spending large chunks of their money to keeping its current talent on roster beyond the current season, and then hitting the transfer portal. I believe in this move and think in the long run it will pay off for the Ducks, but time will tell there." It is possible that they anticipate new maximum levels attached to NIL, and thus are adjusting to it now and not have to alter NIL contracts and deal with that aftermath later? I also wonder if they are now fully realizing their positioning in the CFB food-chain, in that even if there are few good transfers available at a given position, such as offensive line--that they will be able to attract what they want from the portal such as this year's Nevada OT Isaiah World, USC OG Emmanuel Pregnon, and Texas State OT Alex Harkey? (Whew!) Are you better off spending enormous amounts for an unproven, inexperienced HS player or star transfer at that position? I think it is obvious, and perhaps my attitude towards portal QBs might be seeping over to other positions? To pull this off--you have to be very aware of what you can truly attract from the portal, and I gotta say...Lanning and staff have been elite at evaluating, recruiting, and coaching up those who come to us from the portal.

The "Stemming" penalty, and "Kickoff Signaling" new rules are a good addition. Thanks to David for bringing us up to date!

For the last two days, my desktop had something very weird going on when I tried to read a post. The black FishDuck header at the top would appear in the middle of the page, and you had to scroll the page to be able to read the post around that black column. Throw in ads that would pop up, and it made reading posts difficult. Of course it was the advertising platform again...just as it was a month or so ago. They implement new stuff often and fix things when they get a complaint. Our web developer for this forum in England provided them the error code for them to change--and it worked. I have not had it happen now for a few hours, and if you have...please email [email protected] and let me know. Any time you have a problem...please let know. BTW...you have heard about my "Backlink Orders"&quot from around the world where gambling links are placed in FishDuck articles to help pay the bills. We publish articles this week on Thursday and Friday, and the SEO companies that contracted the orders are as far as away from each other as they can be. The SEO company behind the link Thursday is in the Philippines, while the Friday order is a company in the Mediterranean Island nation of Malta, near Italy. That is on opposite sides of the globe with Mr. FishDuck in the middle in Eugene, Oregon. Digital is global! Malta

He actually writes great articles about Oregon...sucking up to that audience, while writing "Poor-Me" articles for his Pig-2 subscribers. He is straddling the fence pretty well! I'm sure he knows what he's doing...

As I reflect upon it....each team in the B1G, even Purdue, Northwestern, and Rutgers are receiving 21 million a year just from the college football playoff? Wowsa. It sure pays to be in the right conference!

I won't waste your time with very much of Canzano's recent article where he is declaring that the B1G and SEC should, "do what is right." You mean like letting two Pac-12 schools get paid a massive amount more than they were worth for decades by the conference...but now you want to do it on a national scale with all Group-of-Five teams? No, the Super-2 Conferences deserve to finally get what they contribute to college football, and they are finally being strong about it. The stat that caught my eye was..."Those two conferences already control 58 percent of the CFP revenue, or about $21 million per school. Think of it...the Pac-12 media revenue that the Pig-2 wanted us to accept was what...22 million per year? And now we receive nearly as much just from the Playoff revenue alone? Looks like we made the right move, getting our fair share of what our brand deserves after all the work creating it for years. No, we did not just sit there and receive an over-sized portion of the pie for doing nothing. It is payoff time for Oregon, and the projected 54 million+ per year is needed to survive in the future. Sure the little guys want to survive, and I don't blame them for that, but they really just want to pull us down to their level.

Excellent article, and it makes me appreciate what we have and explains why it is so hard to create the depth at offensive line that we strive for. The amount of quality, proven depth at offensive line at Oregon is WAY below what it is at other positions, and that article helps to confirm why. We do have some talented newbies that will eventually be starters, and because we are Oregon...we will get portal transfers easier than most schools.

Something I just noticed from the post above... Oregon is facing three conference champions in this Regional!

Below is a press release to Credentialed Media, and I hope to have a photographer there for the last home series of 2025... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ducks Get 12 Seed, Face Utah Valley in Regional Opener EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon is seeded 12th in the NCAA Tournament and will host a four-team regional starting on Friday at PK Park. The Ducks will face Utah Valley in the first round with Arizona and Cal Poly meeting in the first game of the Eugene Regional. The Ducks (42-14) open the regional at 6 p.m. on Friday against Utah Valley (32-27) on ESPN+. The Ducks’ game follows the Arizona (39-18) vs. Cal Poly (41-17) matchup which opens the Eugene Regional with a 1 p.m. start. Winners on Friday advance to play on Saturday at 6 p.m. while the two losers meet in the first game of the day at 12 p.m. Game times on Sunday are at 3 p.m. for the loser-out game and 7 p.m. for the championship game. If an if-necessary game is needed, it will by played on Monday with a time to be determined after Sunday’s action. Oregon is 29-32-1 all-time against the field including a 29-29-1 record in the modern era of Oregon baseball. Arizona holds the series edge against UO with a 30-25-1 record against the Ducks and a 27-25-1 record in the modern era. Oregon holds a 3-2 edge vs. Cal Poly with all five of those games played in San Luis Obispo in the 1960s and 1970s. Oregon and Utah Valley have met just once on the diamond with the Ducks winning 12-9 in Provo on March 27, 2019. Oregon will be hosting an NCAA Regional for the fourth time in the last 14 years. The Ducks previously hosted regionals in 2012, 2013 and 2021. Oregon has also hosted a pair of Super Regionals (2012, 2023). Oregon will be making its fifth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, with all five coming during the Mark Wasikowski era. Since the return of baseball in 2009, the Ducks have been selected to participate in the NCAA Tournament 10 times, with the current five-year streak marking the most consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in program history. Eugene Regional Field No. 1 Oregon (At-Large) No. 2 Arizona (Big 12 Conference Champions) No. 3 Cal Poly (Big West Conference Champions) No. 4 Utah Valley (Western Athletic Conference Champions)

From another site for perspective.... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our q3/q4 record of 30-12 is by far the worst record in both # of losses and winning % wise of any national seed. #1 Vanderbilt: 16-1 (94%) #2 Texas: 21-1 (95%) #3 Arkansas: 28-3 (90%) #4 Auburn: 18-4 (81%) #5 North Carolina: 16-2 (88%) #6 LSU: 22-2 (91%) #7 Georgia: 25-1 (96%) #8 Oregon State: 21-1 (95%) #9 Florida State: 21-1 (95%) #10 Ole Miss: 20-2 (90%) #11 Clemson: 20-1 (95%) #12 Oregon: 30-12 (71%) #13 Coastal Carolina: 33-2 (94%) #14 Tennessee: 23-2 (92%) #15 UCLA: 25-7 (78%) #16 Southern Mississippi: 31-6 (83%) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Damn...we made our own bed.

A baseball reporter on 247, Jared Mack wrote this morning that..."No team had ever been named a Top 8 seed with 10 or more losses to Q3 and Q4 opponents, and Oregon had 12." Yep. Losses to Rhode Island 12-11, Grand Canyon 4-2, and Portland 7-6, and 10-9 really hurt us. But B1G losses to Minnesota, Rutgers, Michigan and Maryland did not help, even though we won those series.Beavis was 21-1 in quad 3/4 games, while Oregon was 30-12. (So could three less losses done it?) This new conference is creating new challenges for Coach Waz, and not the way we thought. Our guys have to get mentally tougher, and I grant you that many of those losses were "learning" losses by our pitchers who improved down the stretch. Coach Waz will refine things in future years...

I have to be honest with myself....look at Oregon's first three weeks of the season concerning opponents right here, and then look at the first three weeks for Beavis right here, as there is a big RPI difference right there.

"The Oregon Ducks are headed to their fifth straight NCAA tournament, dating back to the 2021 season. This five-year run marks the most consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in program history." While I complain about the national seeding, I do have to count my blessings. (see quote above) There are over 300 Division 1 Baseball teams, thus just making the field of 64 puts you in the top 20% of all baseball programs nationally. We can do it over time, and I have to let go of the seeding for Beavis, as they got it due to scheduling. We have to schedule non-conference games tougher and WIN them. Gotta keep doing this...

So in the end...this all an RPI game to get a top-8 national seed? (From NCAA.com) National Seed RPI 1. Vanderbilt 1 2. Texas 4 3. Arkansas 5 4. Auburn 3 5. North Carolina 6 6. LSU 10 7. Georgia 2 8. Oregon State 7 12. Oregon 16 This becomes pretty challenging for Coach Waz, as we saw that the B1G schedule had some teams that gave Oregon trouble, but yet their RPI dragged us down. Waz can schedule tougher RPI teams in the non-conference schedule, but you need "warm-up" games for new players to get acclimated...and we certainly needed that this year. In the end, Beavis had more Power-4 teams scheduled in the early season, and that helped their RPI. And they beat Portland twice... It makes me wonder how much Oregon's RPI would have been improved by sweeping Ohio State, winning both against Portland, etc. Or is it simply scheduling? It also makes me wonder....even if Oregon had won the B1G Tournament....would it have mattered? I don't think it would have brought our RPI up enough. Let's win the Regional!

Nebraska is hot right now...if they upset North Carolina, and Oregon wins...we would get a crack at them again at PK Park.