Charles Fischer

2-1 Ducks after eight innings! Oregon's Grayson Grinsell has been tough on Bruin batters, as he now has 76 pitches, held UCLA to nothing in the eighth, and is out on the mound for the ninth. Can he complete the victory? Wowsa. What great drama!

2-1 Ducks after seven innings, as UCLA got a dinger at the bottom of the inning. Grayson Grinsell is back out there for the eighth inning, and has 76 pitches thus far, and has gone just over 100 pitches before...can he hold the Bruins off?

I can't say enough about the pitching of Grayson Grinsell, as Oregon could be down 5-2, 6-2, etc, but he has held UCLA to nothing, while the Ducks are barely scoring. If he stays locked in like this--he might be able to go eight innings?

2-0 Ducks after six innings, as we get a DOM-BOMB from Oregon's Dominic Hellman against the UCLA reliever. We have the PK Park fence, and then there is 20 yards, and then another fence that borders the parking lot. Hellman it over the parking lot fence! Whew!

1-0 Ducks after five innings, as the pitching duel continues. Great crowd on a beautiful day.

1-0 Ducks after four innings as both opposing pitchers generate ground-outs, and fly-balls. Oregon's Grayson Grinsell has only about 50 pitches, so he might be able to go deep into the game. (Hope so!)

1-0 Ducks after three innings! Grinsell continues to keep UCLA at bay, while Ryan Cooney got a hit, and then stole second as Dominic Hellman got a hit, and put Oregon on the board!

0-0 after two innings. No surprise--the Bruin pitcher is tough, but so is Oregon's Grayson Grinsell!

Molony named to Brooks Wallace Award Watch List EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon shortstop Maddox Molony is one of 100 players named to the 2025 Brooks Wallace Award watch list, which was released Friday by the College Baseball Foundation. The award honors the nation’s top shortstop and will be presented by the College Baseball Foundation later this year. It was named for former Texas Tech shortstop Brooks Wallace, who played for the Red Raiders from 1977 to 1980. Wallace died of leukemia at the age of 27. Molony, a sophomore from Springfield, is batting a team-best .352 with 11 home runs and 31 RBI. He has reached base at a .442 clip while slugging .664. In Big Ten Conference games, the Thurston High School product is slashing .366/.423/.662 with six home runs and 18 RBI. He has a team-best 16 multiple-hit games during the season while posting seven multiple-RBI games. In 2024, Molony became just the second Oregon freshman, and first position player, ever to be named first-team All-Pac-12 Conference. The all-league honor came after Molony etched his name in Oregon’s record books earlier in the season setting a freshman program record with 10 home runs. He finished his freshman campaign batting .315 with 31 RBI and 32 runs scored.

I do not see any glaring open holes in the lineup that are not already filled by transfers, and young-guns getting their turn. Like...A'Mauri Washington

For the first time this season...Oregon is the underdog, and it would be against former Pac-12 foe UCLA, thus I think we will see inspired performances from Our Beloved Ducks. We will need it! While our Friday night starter, Grayson Grinsell, has had a great stretch and moved his ERA from nearly 7 down to 3.38, the Bruin starter Wylan Moss has an incredible ERA of 2.43, the lowest the Ducks have faced this season. Gonna have to manufacture runs! And play great defense.... Not this base!

Hey! I gotta change my attitude...."it is good for the conference."

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He is shaky, mentally. If you don't believe me, ask Texas Tech fans. (I got a Red Raider buddy who has given me an earful..."what did you send us?")

The word is that Oregon does not have room for this receiver.

Look, I know this stuff may almost be routine in the future, but for me--the recruiting competition with four players has me dazzled, and bumping into walls. These four are ALL Rivals 5-Stars, which is the most difficult ranking service to qualify to be a 5-Star. Oregon has an excellent shot at landing two of the four, since they are at two different positions. Jared Curtis, QB, is deciding May 5th, and it is down to Georgia and Oregon. It is tough battle, that looked like distance may knock us out, but now we are back in it and even with the Bulldogs. After he decides....Oregon has a shot to get the verbal from Rivals 5-Star QB Ryder Lyons, and this is truly a good-or-good situation. The finalists for this superbly talented player is Oregon and USC. There is rumor that Curtis may come to the Spring Game? If so--that would be B1G... At Blindside offensive tackle the Ducks are after Rivals 5-Stars Jackson Cantwell and Immanuel Iheanacho, and again--we are right there on both, but the competition is hot. Cantwell is coming to the Spring Game on the 26th, and decides on the 30th which should bode well for the Ducks. But the 'Mo is with Miami right now, because it appears they made him a monster NIL offer. I was ready to count us out until I learned he is coming to Oregon's Spring Game. Iheanacho has been a Maryland lean by many sources, because that is where he resides, and Our Beloved Ducks have to overcome the distance issue...a B1G one. But we are in it! The Ducks have been finalists two years in the row for the best O-Line in the nation, and with that rep comes some swagger for recruiting that not many schools have right now. Oregon will not get all four, at best--one at each position. But you know how this can go--we can get shut out of both positions too. I just can't believe how we are closing in on 5-Star or 5-Star....at two positions! Not something we have witnessed before...routine for Georgia, Alabama, or Ohio State. But Oregon? I'm in Shock at the Recruiting...

And GOOD weather forecasted!

The Bruins needed to do something to attract attention...

Gotta dodge the bad ones... At Oregon...we learn to DUCK

When you have defensive backs as talented and deep as Oregon has...the question is not "if," but "who?" While I am disappointed at Pleasant leaving....it means he was passed up on the depth chart by someone even better, which is cool for the team. Someone like Rivals 5-Star Na'eem Offord?

We also have some superb batting averages, as for the projected starters... Maddox Molony .352 Jacob Walsh .331 Mason Neville .328 Ryan Cooney .324 Dominic Hellman .318 Carter Garate .306 Jeffrey Heard .286 Anson Aroz .268 Chase Meggers .222 Meggers was one of our best hitters last year, and is coming back from injury--and he'll be back over .300 eventually. Ditto for Heard, and Anson Aroz has an incredible OPS of 995, which combines hitting percentage, slugging percentage, and getting on base percentage from walks and hit-by-pitches. Burke-Lee Mabeus is another catcher who fills in for Meggers, and is hitting .308. And the heck of it is...this team has a ton of upside left! The Pride of Springfield, Maddox Molony!

Good stuff, and you beat me to it, as I was going to review this tomorrow. The good news is that the two major leaders above us in the standings, (UCLA and Iowa) are on Oregon's schedule, thus we have the chance to catch them. Playing Beavis helps both our RPI, and theirs, and both teams need it. I think a major element contributing to the team's frustrations are how the Ducks' team mental attitude has been, "we are the hunted." In every telecast you hear how the other team would "have our greatest ranked win in years by beating Oregon," thus we got everyone's best shot. Ohio State pitchers were bad before they played us, and have been bad since...but when they played us--they threw out of their mind to beat us. It reminds me of a few years ago when we had a good pitcher, but not great. Against a highly ranked Stanford team...he pitched the game-of-his-life and went nine innings to shut them down. He never did that before, and never did it again, but going up against the best brought out his best. I now believe that is now going to happen for Oregon, as we are No. 16 in the nation with D1Baseball, while UCLA is No. 10 and Oregon State is No. 6. Now, "we are the hunter," for once this season, and thus I think we will see our best baseball emerge from Our Beloved Ducks. These next two weeks will decide a ton for the entire season.... Grayson Grinsell has his ERA down to 3.37!

...but you are. I am going to choose to celebrate tremendous accomplishments by all Oregon Sports, without looking hard for something negative to tarnish the successes.

I was surprised to see these polls, where Our Beloved Ducks went from No. 4 in the nation, to No. 5 in the NFCA poll, while UCLA was No. 6. In the ESPN/USA poll, Oregon was No. 6, while UCLA was No. 5. The good news is that the Ducks and Bruins will settle it in a three-game series this weekend at the Jane!