Arizona will be a step-up in competition, but not as much as we thought it would be. Last year Arizona won our Regional, won the Super-Regional and was in the CWS. This year they are 1-7...and reeling. The word is--they have good-to-great pitching, but can't hit a lick. We will be facing a good pitcher tonight at 6:00 PM PST.

He is one of those guys that has a first-and-last name that are interchangeable, as righthander Smith Bailey was a Freshman All-American in 2025 and his stuff ticked up this fall. The 6-foot-4 sophomore shows uncanny pitching for a young arm and his fastball has been up to 96.3 mph this spring. His slider strike percentage (66.7%) is in the 90th percentile, and the changeup has an outrageous whiff rate of 76.9% through two starts. (3.27 ERA is all!) Velocity plus secondary out pitches plus command equals a hitter’s worst nightmare.

I assume we will counter with emerging star pitcher, Will Sanford, who has an ERA of 0.00 after two starting appearances. Pretty darn good! I assume he will start because I don't think the coaches want to change the rest days schedule for the pitchers.

The number of Oregon fans watching online will be sparse; the stream is through D1 Baseball, and they charge $30.00 for four tournaments...of which three I have no interest in. So I am paying through the nose for my devotion to Our Beloved Diamond Ducks, and will report to you the action, but...

The bastards who run this streaming do NOT have a fast-forward feature. They have a ten second rewind, (good) but not a fast-forward. This is important because in between innings I would go write up the last inning and come back way behind on the stream. But I would catch up as I would hit the ten-second fast forward between pitches, mound conferences, etc. and get caught up.

This means I HAVE to watch it live and not leave it. I can post scores after innings from my cell phone, but no game-action and descriptions this weekend. After the games--I will put up the press release about the games with more information. Let's Go Ducks!

Previewing Oregon Ducks' Las Vegas College Baseball Classic Matchups

The Oregon Ducks are off to a strong start to the season with an 8-0 overall record heading into the 2026 Las Vegas College Baseball Classic. Here is a preview of Oregon's three matchups in the classic.

Oregon Ducks On SI

Previewing Oregon Ducks' Las Vegas College Baseball Class...

The Oregon baseball team is off to a hot start to the season. Following series sweeps over the George Mason Patriots and the Youngstown State Penguins, the Oreg

The first game went long...so Oregon's game does not begin until 6:40, and will be a touch later I assume. Cool. So on a Friday night I get to bask in Our Beloved Diamond Ducks...what could be better?

1-0 Ducks after one inning. Jax Gimenez got his first home run of the year over the RF fence!

Will Sanford gave up a hit and a walk, but struck out two, and kept the Wildcats scoreless. He threw most in the 94 mph range.

4-0 Ducks after two innings. Will Sanford is getting into a groove, and has four strikeouts in just two innings.

Drew Smith hit a MONSTER off the wall in the gap, and flew to third SO FAST! Burke-Lee Mabeus got a hit in the SS-2nd gap to score Smith!

Ryan Cooney hit a homer that cleared the fence by 15 feet…and brought in Mabeus too! A two run dinger!