Charles Fischer

Most of the plays in a playbook are the same for all schools. An Inside Zone Read is an Inside Zone Read for all schools for example, but the question is...when are they running it? The playbook does not tell the opposing DC that, nor which 40 plays in the playbook (out of hundreds) are in the game-plan for this game, IMHO.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Making just his second start of the season, Michael Freund struck out a career-high seven Portland hitters to lead Oregon to a 7-4 nonconference road win over the Pilots at Joe Etzel Field on Tuesday night. Freund picked up his first career quality start allowing just three runs (two earned) on six hits in a career-high six innings. Logan Mercado, freshman Ryan Featherston and Bradley Mullan each tossed a scoreless inning to finish the game. How It Happened: Oregon jumped on Portland early scoring three runs with two outs in the first two innings. After the first two batters were retired in the top of the first, Jacob Walsh started a rally with a double off the left field fence. Jeffery Heard followed with a walk before Anson Aroz doubled into the right-field corner plating a pair of runners for a 2-0 Ducks lead. Portland starter Kaden Segel set down the first two batters in the second inning, but Oregon responded again with a two-out run. Carter Garate singled to start the rally before moving to second on a passed ball and then scoring on a Bryce Boettcher RBI single. Portland put a pair of runs on the board in the third, including one that was unearned, before the Ducks scored again. With two outs in the fifth, Heard looped a hit into center field scoring Boettcher who led off the inning with a single. Oregon added three runs in the top of the sixth without the benefit of a hit. Bennett Thompson reached on an error to lead off the inning before moving to second on a Walsh walk and to third when Heard reached on a fielder’s choice error. Aroz then drove in another run with a sacrifice fly before a Maddox Molony hit-by-pitch and a Carter Garate walk scored two more. Box Score Notes: The Oregon win snapped Portland’s seven game winning streak … Walsh’s first-inning double was the 37th of his career moving him within one of Drew Cowley (2022-23) and J.J. Altobelli (2010-13) for fifth all-time at Oregon … Aroz (2-for-5, 2 RBI) had his eighth career multi-hit game and sixth career multi-RBI game … Boettcher (2-for-6, R, RBI) finished with his 11th career multi-hit game … Freund made his second consecutive start on the mound after coming out of the bullpen for his first eight appearances … Outfielder Justin Cassella missed his fourth consecutive game. On Deck: The Ducks return to Pac-12 play with a three-game series at UCLA starting Friday with a 7:05 p.m. first pitch.

Oregon goes to 20-7 with the 7-4 win over Portland. Our opponent is leading the WCC, and beat WSU last week...and kicked our butt in PK Park a month ago. This was a decent start by Michael Freund, and finished off with nice innings from Ryan Featherston, Logan Mercado and Bradley Mullan in holding the Pilots to their four runs. More later, but enjoy the results!

Yep. That is why the Pig-2 needed to steal over 300 million from the other ten teams who actually earned it. It is a natural transition going on...of Power-5 talent moving away from Group-of-5 teams. Makes me so SAD for them!

Gotta keep it real. How many national championships has Ohio State won? (And we have not won any) How many times have they been in the playoffs in the last 10 years compared to us? At the present, they are a step higher, until we prove otherwise. And this year is the beginning of that step for OBD!

My predictions: Oregon will be first in the B1G in 2024 in football. We will have challenges in Mens/Womens Basketball, Lacrosse, and Volleyball. We will vault to the top of conference in Track and Field, Softball and BASEBALL! Oregon will explode on the scene with new exposure, as the numbers of people watching Oregon football on TV will increase by 40% over last year and that is just the beginning. We will be a valued new member of the conference, a prize that can bring their conference additional glory. And I'm sure the Pig-2 will do just fine...

I do not doubt you, but how does he fail upward then? Dan will hire well.

For those who asked recently why the program declined? The three article series by Don Marsh is a must-read. My thanks again for the guest article, although it was painful reading how well former Ducks are doing compared to their time at Eugene. BTW...John Canzano hinted that there is scuttlebutt out there about Mark Campbell...that due to actions we don't know about--he is not welcome at the Casanova Center? Bad blood between him and Graves? Or the Athletic Department? This is all rumors, but Canzano said he heard murmurings from several different directions and sources. So, Campbell may NOT be an option later? These rumors might be as welcome as a cat at a Yoga session...

You don't wear black on a hot sunny day....as they have on September 7th? It should be Yell-O for the Ohio State game...

To me, there is some pretty dumb thinking here. The BEST color that shows on TV is yellow...by a mile. THAT is what all fans should be wearing most of the time, IMHO. Penn State has WHITE-OUT, and Oregon has YELL-O!

Look who is at the top of the conference! Yes, we have most of the season to go, but this is a fantastic start with players who are improving before our eyes! I am a shameless promoter and fan of Oregon Baseball!

Oregon (19-7) is ranked for the first time this season at No. 20 with the Baseball America rankings, although unranked yet on the D1 Baseball list. The only other Pac-12 team ranked with Baseball America is Beavis at No. 9, which again bodes well for the future as orange is not allowed in the B1G, and the only other B1G team ranked is Nebraska at No. 22. We play at Portland Tuesday night, and then travel to Los Angeles to play at UCLA this weekend. Go Ducks!

Over 20 years ago...I actually did have some OSU shirts to appease my extended family when going to games. Not anymore!

There have been tons of posts and tons of articles posted about this over the last six months. I cannot rewrite all of it along with all the ramifications, and impacts down the road as has been discussed at length already. And, I cannot explain it again without....

To each his/her own. We have had platypus fans from the beginning, and as one of the biggest "haters" of all that is orange at the moment--I was one of the biggest supporter of both schools for my entire life....up to a few months ago.. I grew up in Corvallis, and loved-to-hate-the-Ducks, as my father was a professor at OSU. But I went to Oregon, and thus began 37 years of cheering for both schools except for Civil War games. I even had season tickets for BOTH teams for a number of years. (Imagine that? Mr. FishDuck with season tickets to OSU games?) But this stealing of millions they did not earn, and the shameless attitude of their fans has really drawn a line in the sand for me. I will not support the Beavers in any way again, and will continue to actively make jokes at their expense. If you wish to continue to cheer for them--I respect that, but would suggest you do not expect that of others here. The Pig-2 are taking over 30 million total from Oregon Athletics, and it is unconscionable, yet they have no shame. Not the actions of winners, IMHO. And they will waste the money stolen, and still be a Group-of-5 team five years from now. (Bad management got them to this point, so why would that change?)

That was so well played...gotta have some fun as we go, and that was a dandy. Thanks Darren!

Nailed it. Precisely the result.

Yep, one of the few downsides of great success. And note this is not a move to a Mid-line P5, or a G5 team; this says a lot again about Dan Lanning finding the gem at Western Kentucky and attracting him to Eugene.

On a pay site--they unfortunately say that there is truth to him talking to them, and perhaps leaving. Not good...

I was not pleased with our pitching today, as giving up seven runs will lose games most of the time. But it was nice to see another team have a pitching collapse at the end of a game instead of OBD. Some superb hitting performances today, and we have an Oregon native who is really skyrocketing upward. (More on that later)

USC (11-15) took the series from Oregon State in Los Angeles, as today's Baseball game was rained out. The Trojans humbled the No. 2 in the nation, Beavers, (21-4) 2-1, and 17-4 to put Oregon State with three conference losses along with Oregon, but the Ducks have one more win from the extra game played, thus OBD is a half a game ahead of Oregon State in Pac-12 standings. (I will fully update that later as we are referencing the top of the standings, and this really helped OBD) Of course I will have the good taste to not celebrate the Beavs in misery... Good thing I never said I was noble.

You gotta see this slide into second by Jeffrey Heard, as it was so perfect. As the second baseman is reaching down to make the tag....Heard sweeps his left arm away in swim-move like defensive players do in football to get a sack. Heard's right arm slid into the bag to make him safe! The officials reviewed it on the replays, and confirmed he was amazingly safe. Not something you see very often... I did an article a year ago about Jeffrey Bassa using a superb swim-move for a sack in the Holiday Bowl....same technique!

EUGENE, Ore. — Another strong start on the mound, production throughout the lineup and some spectacular defense all added up to a 9-2 win for the Oregon baseball team over Seattle at PK Park on Friday night, clinching a series win for the Ducks entering Saturday’s finale. Grayson Grinsell (3-2) allowed one run over six innings while striking out nine, Springfield native Maddox Molony hit his first career homer as part of a three-hit night and Bryce Boettcher had yet another diving catch in center field for the Ducks. Oregon (18-7) has won seven of eight entering Saturday’s weekend finale scheduled for 12:05 p.m. Molony’s home run in the fifth put the Ducks ahead for good and sparked the first of two four-run innings by the UO baseball team. The other was in the eighth, in the midst of Ryan Featherston’s seven-out save, the first of his career. “There’s a lot (to like),” UO coach Mark Wasikowski said. “I thought we bunted well; I thought Maddox Molony played really well, hit his first career home run; Grayson gave us a good start; Ryan Featherston came in at the end and pitched very well. I thought it was pretty complete, in terms of offensively we were able to pull away at the end. I thought that was really good.” Molony is a graduate of Thurston High School in Springfield, whose grandfather played for the Ducks. An injury sidelined him for the beginning of the season, but he’s making up for lost time with his second three-hit day in a row Friday, and his first career home run. “I grew up watching these players at this stadium,” Molony said. “The fence was a little farther out; but hitting it in this uniform was really cool.” How It Happened: Following on the heels of solid starts from Michael Freund and RJ Gordon to open the series, Grinsell matched his career high by going six innings and struck out nine, one off his career best. Seattle led off the third with a double and a walk, but Grinsell allowed only a one-out RBI single to minimize the damage as his start set the tone for Oregon’s well-rounded performance. “Being a starter, there’s a standard set by Waz and (pitching coach Blake Hawksworth) to go out there and dominate, and that’s what we try to do,” Grinsell said. The UO offense had Grinsell’s back, knotting the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the third. Carter Garate led off with a bunt single, moved up two bases on a walk and a single, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Bennett Thompson. After Grinsell stranded two runners in the top of the fifth, the Ducks gave him the lead. Molony led off the bottom of the inning by pulling his first career home run to left field for a 2-1 lead. It might have come earlier in the season if not for an injury, but Molony kept himself ready for when his time came. “It was just being there for my teammates, loving their success,” Molony said. “Like my buddy (and fellow freshman infielder) Ryan Cooney, I live with him, and seeing him succeed is like the best thing ever. … It keeps me locked in and keeps me ready to go, so when I get a chance it’s right there for me.” A one-out single by Thompson and a two-out base hit for Jeffery Heard put runners at the corners, and Anson Aroz brought both home with a double. After a walk, Drew Smith singled to plate Aroz for a 5-1 lead. The Redhawks added another run in the seventh, which Featherston closed out by coming in and getting out of a two-on, two-out situation. He then faced the minimum in the eighth when, with one on and one out, Boettcher made a diving catch in center field and threw to first to double off the runner and end the inning. Boettcher then came up in the bottom of the eighth with the bases loaded and nobody out, and made it 6-2 with a sacrifice fly. Thompson followed with a two-run triple, and he then scored on a single by Jacob Walsh. Featherston retired the side in order in the ninth to complete the save, and put a bow on a game in which pretty much everyone who saw the field contributed for the Ducks. “We talk a lot about just sticking to the process and taking everything one pitch at a time,” said Featherston, a freshman right-hander. “So I think not getting ahead of yourself and thinking, ‘Oh, I have to close this game out, I have to do this.’ It's just committing to this pitch and letting everything else take care of itself.” On Deck: The Ducks and Redhawks close out the series Saturday at 12:05 p.m.

I am out driving in traffic and have John Canzano on the radio, as he interviews an Oregon State media correspondent about the recent womens basketball game and upcoming contest. They both complained about the East-Coast media giving the Beavers no credit in advance, and they spoke of how the eastern media did not know anything about Oregon State. I'm nodding and saying, "no kidding," as I've seen quite a few examples of that among B1G media in their discussion of Oregon football. I mean c'mon...are you really surprised? It has always been this way--right? Then they went on a tangent of how, "Pac-12 departing members will have buyer remorse in a few years. We have to hold it together for their possible return, as they will not like the travel, the culture, etc." I shouted at the radio..."you are out of your mind!" "Didn't you just talk about how Oregon could be on the MOON for all the eastern media is concerned? You think you could approach even HALF of what the B1G is going to pay us, not to mention our massive jump in fans and viewership that will occur?" "Good gosh, the delusion runs deep!" Of course it was at this time that I glanced at the car next me at the red light, and noted them staring at the wacko shouting in his vehicle... (Good thing I never said I was noble) But I hear the Pig-2 have selected their new headquarters...