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.

 

Get 'em, Lurch!

 

In Eugene on Comcast, the game is on channel 420, or HD at 1210.

 

And streaming on ESPN+.
 

Temporarily on ESPNNews not ESPNU

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.

 

 

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..

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

4-3 Utah Valley after five innings. Jason Reitz is doing well pitching, while Oregon batters...not so much yet.

 

4-3 Utah Valley after six innings. Reitz has struck out an incredible 14 batters with 104 pitches.

 

6-3 Utah Valley after seven innings.  Not good…

That's like crap 12 officials back in New York or wherever these people are how can they review that for 7 minutes and get it wrong he was clearly blocking and that was clearly not malicious

6-4 Utah Valley after eight innings. Drew Smith homers, and then a massive play which turned this game occurred. Chase Meggers flied out to left field and Anson Aroz tagged from third base. The throw to home was not secured by the catcher and bounced up. While the catcher was reaching for it--he blocked the plate and Aroz ran into him trying to get to the plate. They called him out, and instead of 6-5 with one out and a runner on second, it was two outs and a runner first while stil 6-4.

 

Teams have great games against us...

 

Oregon loses 6-5.

 

We play Saturday at noon.

 

Honestly we should just play on the road

 

LSU, Kent State, Oral Roberts

 

it can’t happen and it keeps happening 

 

pretty bad approaches by most of our hitters, just swinging for the fences

 

Horrible decision to leave Reitz in after he walked the first hitter in the sixth

 

also question letting Meggers hit instead Lee-Mabeus late in the game after Meggers looked pretty bad against the lefties

 

really bad game, and we are going to have climb Everest to get to the supers

Losses today by Top 25 D1Baseball.com ranking (not seed):

6-5 Utah Valley vs 5-Oregon

6-4 S. Mary’s vs 8-Oregon St

11-4 Columbia vs 12-S. Miss

9-6 Murray St vs 15-Ole Miss

11-6 E. Carolina vs 17-Florida

11-2 Miss State vs 19-Northeastern

13-1 USC vs 22-TCU

4-2 ASU vs 23-UC Irvine

5-4 Miami vs 24-Alabama

11-4 Creighton vs 25-Kansas

 

Oregon Ducks go down in first round of Eugene Regional to Utah Valley

WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM

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The host Oregon Ducks received a mostly strong performance from pitcher Jason Reitz, save for two innings that ultimately cost the Ducks.

 

As everyone thinks about the umps, keep in mind the home plate ump called him safe.

 

It was the NCAA review crew somewhere that made the call after a several minutes delay while they checked Aunt Polly's Cookbook for an interpretation.

In other news: Saint Mary's 6 Oregon State 4

This was one of the worst calls I've seen in baseball.  Why is no one (including the tv announcers) screaming about the fact that at the last second Aroz tries to get down into a leg slide, thus trying to avoid contact (read creaming the catcher which he did a nice job of)?!

 

Yes, he creamed him anyway. BUT HE TRIED NOT TO!

 

THERE WAS OBSTRUCTION!

 

Home plate umpire had it right.

 

Bottom line:  We got screwed royally.

 

Silver lining:  Ducks got the stuff to beat someone twice. Women did it.

 

Side note: I almost felt bad for the Mississippi pitcher after she walked in the winning run......Almost........

 

Well…Oregon would have to win four in a row, and I am afraid we don’t have enough pitchers for that.

 

Although freshman Tanner Bradley was a bright spot…

Speakin' of bright spots.  The Ducks won 11 in a row at one point.  I'm just not ready to count them out yet.  I've seen too much grit this season.  Here's hoping for the best.

A few years back I think the NCAA added the "Collision Rule" (8-7) which made nearly any significant contact at the plate by the baserunner to the catcher above the waist an out, unless the player is clearly sliding toward the base. The rule basically defines contact above the waste as an illegal attempt to dislodge the ball.

 

As SmithRiver points out, I think if tagged out, there would have been obstruction. Taking a quick look at 8-7, there doesn't seem to be anything covering if the act of obstructing directly leads to a runner contacting the catcher above the waist (so I guess replay looked first to the runner having responsibility to approach the catcher in a full slide, not starting a slide, I don't know?).

 

I guess now in this situation a player must potentially take the out and hope for obstruction rather than risk hitting the catcher up high. Tough to teacher a player to do. Sort of reminds me of the early years of targeting in football where players just had to learn they could no longer do certain things? Even if the catcher is doing it wrong, the baserunner needs to first make sure they won't contact up high (which I'd agree isn't always easy when a catcher is crouching down to try for a tag).

 

On 5/31/2025 at 2:45 AM, AnotherOD said:

A few years back I think the NCAA added the "Collision Rule" (8-7) which made nearly any significant contact at the plate by the baserunner to the catcher above the waist an out, unless the player is clearly sliding toward the base. The rule basically defines contact above the waste as an illegal attempt to dislodge the ball.

 

As SmithRiver points out, I think if tagged out, there would have been obstruction. Taking a quick look at 8-7, there doesn't seem to be anything covering if the act of obstructing directly leads to a runner contacting the catcher above the waist (so I guess replay looked first to the runner having responsibility to approach the catcher in a full slide, not starting a slide, I don't know?).

 

I guess now in this situation a player must potentially take the out and hope for obstruction rather than risk hitting the catcher up high. Tough to teacher a player to do. Sort of reminds me of the early years of targeting in football where players just had to learn they could no longer do certain things? Even if the catcher is doing it wrong, the baserunner needs to first make sure they won't contact up high (which I'd agree isn't always easy when a catcher is crouching down to try for a tag).

 

None of this matters as the catcher didn't have the ball. This was obstruction and it was an inexcusable call.

contact above the waist...

 

Uh, when the catcher drops to his knees, how is that avoidable?