Ducks Facing a Tough Pitcher: Oregon vs. Northwestern at Noon PST on B1G+

Northwestern lined up their best pitcher today for their best chance to win. They will start Matt Kouser with an ERA of 2.57 vs. Oregon's Cal Scolari with an ERA of 2.37 who was absent last week because of the flu.

This figures to be a tight, low-scoring game that either team could win. I give Oregon the edge with home field, and better batting averages. Oregon now has seven of their nine starters hitting over .300 and the Wildcats only have one.

Cal Scolari

Information I pulled from D1Baseball taken from their scouting of Cal Scolari at Oregon fall practices....

Cal Scolari showed as the top prospect for the Ducks. He’s a redshirt sophomore and 2026 draft-eligible who transferred from San Diego and was named the West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year last season (over then-teammate Logan Reddemann, who is now the ace for UCLA). The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Scolari is a good athlete with a loose arm.

His other starter-type traits include two above-average pitches for strikes, a repeatable delivery with a loose, high leg lift and above average extension out front (6-foot-6 for Scolari with 6-foot-2 the MLB fastball average). His fastball touched 97 and sat 94-95 for much of his five-inning, eight-strikeout start on 84 pitches on a hitter’s day. And it’s just not a garden variety heater.

It showed riding life and some swing-throughs at the top of the zone and had good carry, holding its plane down in the zone which resulted in some called third strikes. His 78-81 mph downer curveball is an even better pitch with up to -15” IVB depth and spin rates into the 2600s rpm. It’s a pitch he threw to both sides of the plate with success. He also flashed a promising 86-87 mph cutter/slider.

Scolari looks to be building into another Friday option for a spot that’s already a strength for Oregon with Sanford as the current Ducks’ ace. At this point the industry has Scolari evaluated around the fifth round, but I saw a higher round prospect on my look. Time will tell what he turns out to be, but Scolari impressed during week four.