Oregon scored in every offensive inning but the third and capitalized on 15 free passes from Rhode Island pitching to secure a long 19-12 win over the Rams and sweep Saturday’s doubleheader. 

“We won two games today and that was the goal,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. 

After Oregon outlasted the Rams in 11 innings in the first game of the doubleheader, the Ducks’ offense got started early in game two. Anson Aroz launched his third homer of the year out to right-center to plate himself and Jacob Walsh, who reached on a fielding error. 

The Rams jumped on Oregon starter Jason Reitz in the following frame. After Reitz issued a pair of walks to open the inning, the Rams strung together a trio of singles, another walk and a hit-by-pitch to erase Aroz’s blast and chase Reitz after just 52 pitches. 

“I thought he pitched pretty good in the first inning,” Wasikowski said. “I think he had a flukey thing happen and in the second inning, it got away from him and I’m not too sure why.”

Retiz finished with 1.1 IP, five runs on four hits and three walks. Ian Umlandt entered with the bases loaded and one out in the second, and he only allowed one more run to cross before the inning mercifully ended, but Rhode Island had an early 5-2 lead. 

Jax Gimenez led off the next inning with a double for his first collegiate hit and came around to score on a Ryan Cooney RBI groundout to narrow the Rams’ lead. 

Evan Maloney exited in the second after a rogue pitch. He called for the trainers and immediately left the game, holding his elbow and not moving his throwing arm. He only threw 29 pitches in his injury-shortened outing. 

Anthony Depino led the top of the fourth off with his third hit of the contest (he finished 4-5). Umlandt looked set to work out of a two-on, one-out jam, but an error on a pop fly to Carter Garate extended the inning and three unearned runs came across in the frame to extend the Rams’ lead to 8-3.

However, the Oregon offense went back to work in the bottom of the fourth. The Ducks took advantage of five-straight free passes to open up an eight-run inning and climb back into the contest. A slew of walks and hit batsmen spelled disaster for the Rams, who quickly surrendered their large lead. Walsh cranked a ground-rule double (the only hit in the frame) out to center to plate two in the crooked inning. 

“Making them throw the ball over the plate,” Wasikowski said of his team’s approach. “Being patient. You’ve gotta be able to win in a lot of different ways. You’ve gotta be able to win by hitting the ball over the fence, you’ve gotta be able to win by bunting sometimes or stealing a base. We showed that we can win in a different way today and that was the first time we’ve shown that.”

In all, the Rams issued seven free passes in the fourth inning alone (part of their 15 total) as the wheels fell off for Rhode Island. When the frame finally ended, the Ducks were up to 11 runs on only three hits. 

Walsh collected his second RBI double in as many innings as a part of a four-run fifth that expanded the Ducks’ advantage. Mason Neville hit his team-leading fourth homer of the season to the opposite field the following inning to make it a 16-9 lead. 

“He got me on a changeup that I had rolled over on in the at-bat before that,” Neville said of his first blast. “So I was just really focused on letting it get deep. I didn’t exactly get all of that how I wanted to, but I put a good swing on it and let the ball travel a little more.”

Freshman Kellan Knox threw 2.1 solid innings of relief work. He allowed two runs on one hit across 35 pitches. Similar to his first outing — where he earned the win — he was subject to a good amount of loud contact, but minimized damage aside from a Jack Hopko (4-5, 4 RBIs) two-run homer in the seventh. 

“All of our freshmen have really good arms,” Wasikowski said. “They just need more experience and we just need to be patient with our young arms, but we’ve got a really good group of them.”

Neville smacked another no-doubt, two-run homer off outfielder Ryan Thompson in the eighth to extend the lead. Tyler Jones closed out the ninth and the Ducks took a 2-1 series lead. 

“The objective was to win two games today and we did,” Wasikowski said. 

The final game of the series is slated for Sunday at 12:05, but could be flexed or cancelled with serious weather expected in Eugene for the remainder of the weekend. If the game happens, it’ll be Will Sanford for the Ducks.

The post Mason Neville’s two-homer game earns No. 11 Oregon 19-12 win over Rhode Island appeared first on Daily Emerald.

Trystan Levesque threw 10 shutout innings on Saturday using 119 pitches in just Rhode Island’s fifth game of the season. 

As soon as the Rams (finally) turned to the bullpen, the Ducks worked an unearned run to capture a 1-0 win. 

No. 11 Oregon (4-2, 0-0 Big Ten) got outhit 5-4 and never showed much offensive attendance, but outlasted Levesque and Rhode Island (3-2, 0-0 Atlantic 10) to even the series.

Dominic Hellman grounded a chopper to Reece Moroney with two outs in the 11th, but Moroney’s throw got past DJ Perron at first base and Ryan Cooney scampered home to give the Ducks a 1-0 win in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. 

“It was an unbelievable pitcher’s duel,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “Both those guys just went back-and-forth and matched pitches. I was just impressed that Collin didn’t back down. Their guy was pitching really good and so was our guy. It was a well-pitched game.”

In the early goings, it appeared that both offenses left their firepower in Friday’s 12-11 marathon. After four full innings, the contest was knotted at 0-0 with both squads only mustering a hit and an occasional walk. Both starters were on point in their Saturday starts.

Oregon’s Collin Clarke made his second start of the season after throwing five scoreless frames last weekend in a 5-3 loss to Toledo. Through his first five innings on Saturday, he only relented four runners to reach base, but none of them got past first. 

“All my pitches were in the zone, so it felt good,” Clarke said.

The first signs of any real threat came in the sixth on a two-out double from Reece Moroney, but Clarke picked him off to end the threat. Four of Clarke’s seven innings went 1-2-3 as he recorded 21 outs on 84 pitches. Clarke walked one, struck-out five and only allowed four hits in his incredible no-decision outing. 

Clarke’s ERA remains at 0.00 as he’s now thrown 12 scoreless frames on the season. 

Lefty arm Trystan Levesque climbed the bump as the Rams starter. He was stellar in his 10 innings of work. After allowing a walk and a single in the second, he retired 17-straight Ducks on a streak that he took into the eighth inning. 

“That guy’s really good,” Wasikowski said. “There’s a reason why he shined in the Cape Cod League last summer. He’s a really good pitcher. He was as-advertised.”

Neither starter recorded an overwhelming number of strikeouts — Clarke had five and Levesque fanned nine — but both arms were able to rely on steady and impressive defense behind them. Both Levesque and Clarke surrendered a fair amount of hard contact, but there always seemed to be someone in the way of a hit. 

Both offenses were aggressive, hitting into quick outs. The lack of long at-bats and strikeouts allowed both starters to work into the seventh inning. 

“We were taking a lot of [pitches],” Wasikowski said. “But the problem is when you’re taking pitches and he’s throwing strikes, [Levesque] was hard to hit.”

Cole Stokes came in to relieve Clarke in the eighth. Following suit, Stokes recorded a 1-2-3 frame with a pair of swinging strikeouts. 

“We have the pieces to be really really good,” Wasikowski said. “We haven’t put them all together yet, but it’s really clear that we have the pieces to be really good.”

The Ducks entered the bottom of the eighth frame with only one hit when Maddox Molony led off with a single. Drew Smith bunted pinch-running Jax Giminez to second, but Levesque responded with a pair of strikeouts to escape the jam and send PK Park scoreless into the ninth. 

Both Stokes and Levesque worked scoreless ninth innings. Rhode Island took a 4-2 hitting advantage into the 10th frame. Gabe Howard took over on the mound in extras for Oregon, but he hit DJ Perron to start the frame and give the Rams an opportunity. 

On a concerning note, Smith pulled up lame on an infield single in the 10th inning and was subbed out. 

After trading zeros (two from Oregon’s Gabe Howard), the Rams finally subbed out Levesque for Connor Johnston. Cooney reached on an infield single and scored on a throwing error by Moroney to end the chess match. 

The Ducks evened up the series. The second game of the doubleheader will start later on Saturday afternoon. 

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Games like that aren’t good for your heart rate, but they sure are fun to watch.

Drew Smith stepped up in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs; it’s the scenario you dream of as a kid. Once trailing 12-4, the Ducks had a chance to tie Rhode Island or even walk off a winner. Instead, Smith’s flyball fell short of the warning track, sealing a 12-11 Rams’ win.

Rhode Island (3-1, 0-0 Atlantic 10) sent 10 hitters to the plate in the top of the sixth inning and nine in the seventh, frames that proved disastrous for the No. 11 Ducks (3-2, 0-0 Big Ten) in their series-opening loss.

“We lost the game and we didn’t play well enough to win,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowksi said. 

Fresh off a 36-22 win (yes, you read that right) win over William and Mary a weekend ago, Rhode Island’s red-hot offense exploded in the sixth and seventh innings at PK Park to steal an upset win from the No. 11 Ducks

A sixth-inning meltdown that featured a pair of three-run homers — one from DJ Perron and another from Adonis Medina — spoiled what initially looked to be a solid performance from Grayson Grinsell. 

Long before the late onslaught, Rhode Island’s Rob Butler (2-4, two RBIs) opened the scoring in the second with an RBI double off Grinsell. However, Oregon’s lefty settled in nicely after the double to retire the next 10 batters he faced. 

Smith singlehandedly knotted the contest in the bottom of the second. After stretching a two-out single into a hustle double, he forced a pickoff error to advance to third and drew a balk to score. His heads-up, nifty baserunning served as an equalizer and sparked his 2-5 day. 

Oregon left a ton of potential on the basepaths on Friday. The Ducks had five hits in the first two frames, but only pushed one run across. In all, Oregon stranded 14 on Friday while Rhode Island only left four runners aboard.

Mason Neville temporarily put Grinsell in line for a win with a towering solo homer in the bottom of the fifth. His third of the season landed on the roof of the Karcher Korner Bullpen and put the Ducks ahead 2-1. The blast was admirable, and Neville made sure to watch it fly before tossing his bat in celebration. 

But disaster was waiting in the sixth. 

Grinsell was pulled after allowing three hits (including an RBI single from Anthony DePino) for Santiago Garcia, who immediately gave up a towering three-run homer to Perron (2-4, three runs, four RBIs). After walking the next hitter, Santiago was pulled before he could record an out. 

Ryan Featherston came in and surrendered another three-run homer — this one to Medina (2-3, three RBIs) — as the Rams opened up an 8-2 lead on a seven-run, five-hit frame. 

Grinsell was responsible for two of the runs on the Perron homer, putting his final line at 5.1 IP, four earned runs on six hits, four strikeouts and a walk. He threw 81 pitches in his second outing of the season, but earned the loss as his ERA climbed from 1.80 to 4.35.

“He was pitching good,” Wasikowkski said of the decision to send Grinsell back out for a sixth frame. “He was pitching good and [wasn’t] at the pitch count we wanted him to get to.” 

Rhode Island starter Jeremy Urena surrendered a lot of hard contact, but altogether did a solid job keeping a talented Oregon offense at bay. He didn’t allow the Ducks to string together successful at-bats. The homers to Neville and Aroz were the only real damage dealt on the Ducks’ eight hits against Urena. He went 5.1 innings on 81 pitches in what has to be the biggest win of his collegiate career. 

When the Ducks had runners on, Urena wouldn’t allow momentum to build. He forced 10 Oregon groundouts and relied on the guys behind him.

“He threw a lot of strikes,” Wasikowski said of Urena. “The kid had a good arm. He was constantly ahead in the count. He didn’t do anything secretive, he just threw the ball over the plate.”

Anson Aroz (2-3) got one back for the Ducks with a solo shot to lead off the bottom of the sixth and Carter Garate (2-3) tallied an RBI single to bring the Ducks within four, but the Rams’ offense wasn’t done either. 

Rhode Island loaded the bases before Oregon could record an out in the frame. A slew of hits, walks and errors gave way to another big inning as the Rams added another four runs on three hits. Rhode Island hit .500 with runners on base and .300 with two outs. 

Oregon responded with a trio of runs in a two-hit seventh and two on a one-hit eighth. Jacob Walsh (3-6) hit a clutch two-RBI double in the ninth to bring the Ducks within a run. It just wasn’t meant to be. Smith’s last-hope ball fell just short. 

In all, the Ducks’ bullpen allowed eight runs on five hits and four walks in the loss. RIU’s bullpen was tagged for seven runs on five hits and 12 walks. When the starters left the game, the wheels completely fell off for both pitching staffs. 

“We went to the bullpen because we had fresh arms that we trusted and they didn’t pitch very well tonight,” Wasikowski said. 

On the bright side, each hitter in Oregon’s lineup reached base at least once with eight of nine starters recording a hit and Jack Brooks drawing a pair of walks and Dominic Hellman (2-3, 5 runs) reaching base five times. Oregon outhit the Rams 13-11

399 total pitches were thrown across Friday’s three-hour, 45-minute marathon. 10 different pitchers were used, 10 from the Rams and five from the Ducks.

The Ducks and Rams return to action on Saturday with a doubleheader slated to start at 11:05 a.m. Oregon’s Collin Clakre and Rhode Island’s Trystan Levesque are expected to start. 

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“This group has unlimited ability,” Oregon third baseman Carter Garate said after the Ducks’ 6-1 win on Sunday.

No. 12 Oregon baseball (3-1) took three games out of the four-contest weekend with the Toledo Rockets (1-3) to kick off the 2025 season. The weekend was an obvious success with many different headlines emerging from PK Park

Freshman Talent

Head coach Mark Wasikowski got his new guys a good amount of playing time during Opening Weekend. With Chase Meggers day-to-day with a hand injury, two different true freshmen made their collegiate debuts behind the dish.

In the second game of the series, Coen Niclai caught Collin Clarke. Niclai was a hard out, going 1-3 with a hard lineout caught in left field by Luke Walton, who had an unbelievable defensive weekend, and may have single-handedly stolen Toledo the win in Game Two. 

Burke-Lee Mabeus got the start behind the plate in Game Three and started Sunday’s contest as the Ducks’ designated hitter. On the weekend, Maebus was 2-5 with a sac-fly and even swiped a bag. 

“I thought they caught really well,” Wasikowski said of his two new catchers. 

On the mound, the Ducks sent out nine new arms — three freshmen and six transfers. Sunday starter Will Sanford dazzled with four innings of two-hit, one-run ball. Freshman Kellan Knox earned Sunday’s win with two 1-2-3 frames. Saint Mary’s transfer Jason Reitz gave three shutout innings in his Saturday start. In the Ducks’ lone loss, freshman Gabe Howard pitched the final three frames while only surrendering one to keep Oregon in it. 

Offensive Surge

The Ducks scored 27 runs in just 33 offensive innings. That sort of ratio will take Oregon everywhere it wants to go — and deeper — if it holds.

You’ve heard by now that the Ducks set a new program record with seven homers in Game Three, but that wasn’t the only offensive high from the weekend. In general, the Ducks swung the bats pretty effectively against opposing pitching that Wasikowski praised on more than one occasion. 

Even during the lulls, Oregon didn’t go completely cold. They only struck-out seven times in the loss, and twice during a five-inning scoreless stretch on Sunday. While they did strike-out 10 times in the Season-Opener, that was to be expected as hitting often starts the season a bit sluggish. The Ducks put the ball in play — hard — all weekend long, and were rewarded for it for the most part. 

Starting Studs

Oregon starting pitchers combined for 17 complete innings and allowed only two runs. One came on a Tre Mariano missile off of Grayson Grinsell in Game One, but that was literally the only mistake pitch Grinsell threw in his five innings of one-hit, one run ball. The other earned run came on a wild pitch from Sanford in Game Four, but surely some jitters can be forgiven in his first collegiate start. 

The other two starting wings, Clarke and Reitz went five and three innings respectively without surrendering a run. Oregon starting pitching fanned 25 hitters on the weekend to the eight walks they issued. 

Middle Infield Depth

Maddox Molony (.467), Carter Garate (.286), Drew Smith (.250), Jack Brooks (.286) and Ryan Cooney (.125) all got starts over the weekend and all of them produced at a high level. All five of those guys are middle infielders by trade and while Garate and Molony likely have third and short locked up respectively, the other three will likely battle for the second base/designated hitter spots as the season progresses. Wasikowski will have options in his infield with so much talent in the clubhouse. 

“I think it just makes each of us better to be honest,” Cooney said of the competition, “All of us have great ability and love each other as teammates.”

Defensively, they were stellar and the Ducks had just one fielding error during the series. 

Not Overreacting to a Loss

True, the ranked Ducks lost a game to unranked Toledo. But winning four games against any given team is extremely difficult to do. Oregon wasn’t punished in the rankings, either staying steady or rising in every major poll. 

The one loss came as the result of a bad inning from Julian Hernandez, who didn’t record an out while allowing four runs (three earned). One inning does not a team make. Not to mention, without Walton’s defense in that particular contest, the Ducks likely score seven or more runs in what ended up being a 5-3 loss. 

Not a big deal. Oregon was so clearly the better team this past weekend.

“You always want to win as many as you can,” Cooney said. “We’d love to [have won] the four, but getting away with a series win is always important and I think we’ll strive for the four whenever it comes.”

Ruth’s Three Stars

First Start: Maddox Molony – SS

Molony had a career weekend, smacking three homers on 7-15 hitting. Of his seven hits, five went for extra bses, earning him an early slugging percentage of 1.200%. He tallied three RBIs and scored six times while also playing a solid short. Molony was easily one of Oregon’s best overall players down the stretch last season, and he’s already gotten 2025 off to a stellar start. 

Second Star: Ian Umlandt – LHP

Umlandt came in to relieve Reitz in Game Three and threw six scoreless frames while fanning eight, allowing only two hits and not walking a single batter. He earned the win out of the bullpen while the bats racked up homer after homer. 

“He was really effective,” Wasikowski said of Umlandt. “He got out ahead of hitters and made them swing at the pitches that he wanted them to swing at. He really gave us everything we could ask and more.”

Third Star: Mason Neville – CF

The Ducks’ center fielder hit .375 on 6-16 hitting while playing a solid defense. He slashed a pair of homers, two doubles and scored five times on the 3-1 weekend. 

From the press box is a new series covering the ins and outs of each series the Ducks will play in 2025. This is the first edition of Brady Ruth’s new long-form coverage.

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Through the entirety of Opening Weekend, Oregon’s starting pitching allowed just two earned runs across 17 full innings of work. Two freshman arms dazzled on Sunday to earn the No. 12 Ducks (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten) a series-winning 6-1 victory over Toledo (1-3, 0-0 MAC).

“It seemed like a complete game to me,” Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “The guys played well. They played good defense. The pitching was solid from start to finish and I thought there were timely hits.” 

After splitting Saturday’s doubleheader, Wasikowski turned to true freshman Will Sanford to give his Ducks another quality outing. 

Sanford hails from the state of California, where he was regarded as the ninth-best pitcher and 32nd-overall player by Prep Baseball Report. He only allowed 10 earned runs across 63 innings of work for a 1.11 ERA as a senior in high school. 

The Ducks got him some early run support in the first with a bit of small ball. Mason Neville led off with a walk, swiped second and took third on a grounder before Jacob Walsh chopped him home on an RBI groundout. The Ducks gave Sanford an early advantage to protect without recording a hit.

They added another run in the second. Maddox Molony doubled to left-center and Ryan Cooney brought him in with an RBI groundout.  Just one day removed from his two-homer performance in Oregon’s record-setting 9-0 win, Molony finished 3-4 with two doubles and a solo homer in the eighth.

Carter Garate (1-3) and Neville (1-3 with a walk) both added RBI hits to the Ducks’ second-inning barrage to put Oregon ahead 4-0 after two frames. 

Sanford only allowed one hit his first time through the order while demonstrating a speed range anywhere from 73-94 MPH. He racked up six strikeouts and three walks while allowing one run on two hits through 4.0 innings in his collegiate debut. 

“I felt like most of the time, my fastball was playing well,” Sanford said. “Cutter was a great pitch today. I could’ve done better on my secondary stuff… but it feels good to get the first one out of the way.”

Toledo got its lone run on a wild pitch in the third, but Sanford gunned Caden Konczak at third looking to swipe an extra bag to limit the damage. He struck-out the side in the fourth to end his 71-pitch outing. 

“I’ll be critical and say he was just okay,” Wasikowski said. “He’ll probably be put up for Conference Pitcher of the Week as a freshman or [something]… he wasn’t as good as we’ve seen him, quite candidly, but obviously, he’s a special talent.”

He turned the ball over to Kellan Knox, another freshman arm. He threw two frames of 1-2-3 ball in his debut. He allowed some hard contact, but never relented a baserunner to the Rockets’ offense.

“Knox is a dog,” Sanford said. “He’s always working for us and he uses that mentality where he’s just going to attack you. He doesn’t care who’s in the box, he’ll just attack. I feel confident in this whole staff.”

Six of Oregon’s eight leadoff hitters reached base on Sunday, and four of them came around to score. That type of early-inning production can make or break an offense on a wet and rainy day like Sunday. 

“You want a balance,” Wasikowski said. “That’s what we’re looking for. You want to play good defense, pitch well and have a balanced offense where you’re not relying on moving a guy with a sac bunt, but it’s also a part of your game.”

Toledo had a revolving door on the mound in the series finale. The Rockets sent three different pitchers out in the first three innings, two of which gave up at least one run. Starter Jackson Bergman earned the loss despite not allowing a hit in his inning of work. 

Braden Curry threw three innings, but none of the other four pitchers used threw more than 31 pitches in the loss.

Oregon’s offense hit a wall after the third inning and didn’t record another hit until Molony’s solo shot in the bottom of the eighth. That being said, the Ducks were putting the ball in play and only struck-out twice in that time. 

Santiago Garcia came to the mound for Oregon in the top of the seventh. The Central Arizona Community College transfer hurled a pair of shutout innings with a trio of strikeouts and relented just two hits. Cole Stokes made his season debut to pitch a scoreless ninth inning and close out the 6-1 win. 

Oregon returns to action at PK Park next weekend for a four-game series against the Rhode Island Rams. First pitch on Friday is slated for 3:05 p.m.

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Holy Toledo was the ball flying at PK Park on Saturday afternoon!

The No. 12 Ducks (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten) used rocket after rocket to hand the Toledo Rockets (1-2, 0-0 MAC) their second loss of the season and clinch the (at worst) series split. 

The Ducks mashed a program-record seven homers on Saturday, much to the delight of head coach Mark Wasikowski. 

“I like program records,” he said. “Any record is great.”

It certainly was a great day for the Ducks. Seven of their 12 total hits left the yard in the win and Oregon only had to use two pitchers in the shutout. 

Oregon sent Saint Mary’s transfer Jason Reitz to the mound to try and avenge Game One’s loss. Reitz boasted a 3-1 record with a 6.00 ERA in 67 innings in 2024. He allowed a pair of runners to reach in both his opening frame and the third, but kept the Rockets off the board. He tallied five strikeouts (including fanning the side in the second) across his 45-pitch start. 

Oregon’s first hit of the afternoon came in the second inning on Maddox Molony’s first homer of the season. The shortstop’s solo shot gave the Ducks an early 1-0 lead for Retiz to protect. 

“Jason crushed it,” Ian Umlandt said. “He did his job exactly what I’m assuming the coaches asked him to do.”

Oregon got to Toledo starter Ryan Kennedy again in the third inning on a sacrifice fly from Drew Smith. Jeffery Heard hurt him in the fourth, teeing off on a fastball and sending it out to right-center field. Burke-Lee Mabeus added to the lead with a sacrifice fly of his own just a few batters later to make it a 4-0 advantage for the Ducks to take into the fifth. 

Kennedy’s day would end after the fourth. His four-inning, four-hit, four-run outing earned him his first loss of the season. 

Ian Umlandt came in to relieve Reitz for the fourth inning. He needed just six pitches to work a 1-2-3 fourth and eight to work a scoreless fifth. Umlandt struck-out the side in the sixth and his six efficient innings of shutout ball earned him his first win of the season. 

“He was really effective,” Wasikowski said. “He got out ahead of hitters and made them swing at the pitches that he wanted them to swing at. He really gave us everything we could ask and more.”

Umlandt fanned eight hitters while allowing just two hits over his 66-pitch relief performance. He kept Toledo’s offense completely at bay while the offensive homers continued to add up. 

“This is nice as a pitcher,” Umlandt said. “When you’re sitting there and it’s one or two [offensive runs] every inning… it’s just nice because then my job is just continue to go out and attack.”

Oregon’s homer parade continued in the bottom of the fifth as both Mason Neville and Jacob Walsh left the yard for their second homers of the season. Walsh took his out to left field while Neville turned on one and crushed it into the Ducks’ bullpen. 

Molony sent his second homer of the game into the Rockets’ arm barn in the bottom of the sixth as Oregon tallied a run for a fifth-straight inning. Toledo reliever Yianni Skeriotis didn’t fare well against the Ducks’ explosive offense, allowing three runs on four hits across two innings of work. 

Unsurprisingly, two more balls left the yard in the seventh as Walsh and Anson Aroz went back-to-back to put the Ducks’ lead at 9-0. Oregon’s sixth and seventh homers of the game became comical on a day where Eugene’s sluggers torched the Rockets’ staff from start to finish. The Ducks hit six or more homers for the first time since last April in a victory over Gonzaga in which Umlandt also earned the game’s win. 

“It makes everything so much easier,” Umlandt said of the run support. “Helps me do my job better.”

The switch-hitting freshman, Mabeus, made his first collegiate start behind the dish as Reitz’ backstop on Saturday. He finished the day 2-3 with a sacrifice fly and a stolen base. 

“He killed it,” Umlandt said. “He caught me a lot over the fall and winter, so I don’t think there’s an unfamiliarity in the relationship we have. He brings an incredible amount of energy and that’s something that for him is extremely authentic and it’s a blast to throw to him.

Oregon looks for the series win tomorrow while Toledo hopes to earn the split against the No. 12-ranked team in the nation. First pitch is set for 12:05 and freshman phenom Will Samford is expected to start for the Ducks. 

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The Ducks (8-1) only needed six hits to tag Utah Valley (2-6) for seven runs in their first win of the day.

Stefini Ma’ake had a career day as she led the way with four RBIs on 2-3 hitting. She belted a three-run homer in the third and struck an RBI single in the first.

Dezianna Patmon also homered in the third, a solo shot, to create a 6-0 lead that Oregon wouldn’t relent in its eighth win of the season.

Utah Valley’s pitching staff had a rough morning as it issued six walks and allowed Kedre Luschar to score on a wild pitch in the fourth.

Meanwhile, on the Ducks’ side, it was smooth sailing in the circle. Despite walking five, three Oregon arms, Taylour Spencer, Lyndsey Grein and Elise Sokolsky, limited the Wolverines to one run on just four hits.

Grein, who earned her fourth win of the season, went three full innings and allowed one run on three hits while fanning five.

Sokolsky recorded the Ducks’ final eight outs without allowing a baserunner and striking-out a pair.

The Ducks dominated their inferior opponent from start to finish. Game 2 of the day against GCU is slated for 3 pm.

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When the starters were in, it was a pristine pitchers duel. But as soon as the No. 12 Ducks (1-1, 0-0 Big Ten) and the Toledo Rockets (1-1, 0-0 MC) turned to their respective bullpens after five scoreless frames from their starters, it got ugly as an onslaught of walks on both sides led to an 5-3 Toledo victory.

After Grayson Grinsell’s solid start in Friday’s 9-2 win, the Ducks turned to Collin Clarke, who had a 6.41 ERA in 19.2 innings in 2024, took the mound for the Ducks as he looked to earn – at worst – a series split. 

Clarke faced some early trouble in the second after allowing back-to-back hits to start the frame, but he recorded a pair of strikeouts and got JP Wagner to pop out to escape the jam. 

A leadoff single and a walk put him in a similar spot in the third, but he worked out of it again, stranding another pair of runners. In all, Toledo and Oregon both left seven runners on base in the contest.

Clarke wouldn’t be tagged for any real damage at any point in his outing. He retired the final nine batters he faced and finished with five full innings of shutout baseball. Across his 71 pitches, he only allowed three hits and a walk while fanning seven, which is increasingly impressive when remembering Clarke only had 14 strikeouts all of last season (19.2 IP).

“I thought Clarke pitched really good,” Wasikowski said. “He had a couple of jams that he pitched out of very effectively. I thought he pitched very well. [He] pounded the strike zone.”

With any offensive help, he could have been in line for a win. Instead, he turned the ball over to senior transfer Julian Hernandez (7-2, 2.42 ERA at Whitman College in 2024) after five stellar innings.

Hernandez had an outing to forget in his Oregon debut. He walked the first two batters he faced before a fielding error by Jacob Walsh on a bunt loaded the bases with nobody out. He relented a two-RBI single to Troy Sudbrook and was pulled before he could record a single out. 

Sam Boyle (2-2, 3.40 ERA in 2024 at Washington) relieved Hernandez, but Toledo pushed another pair of runs across in the frame on a Cole Cahill single to take a 4-0 advantage. 

Unfortunately, the Ducks’ offense was having trouble with the Rockets’ starter, who was just as good as Clarke on Saturday. 

Toledo’s RJ Shunck got the start for the Rockets. He was 1-4 with an ERA of 8.16 in 2024, but got his 2025 campaign off on the right track as he retired the first 10 batters he faced. He only needed 28 pitches to get through Oregon’s lineup the first time. 

The Ducks strung a pair of hits together (Drew Smith and Anson Aroz) in the fourth, but a spectacular web gem from Luke Walton took extra bases away from Jeffery Heard and kept the game scoreless as it entered the fifth inning. 

Shunck finished with five shutout innings of four-hit ball while fanning three. He didn’t issue a single walk across his 61 total pitches. His dominant effort earned him a well-deserved win. 

“I’ve been impressed with Toledo’s pitching,” Wasikowski said. “They’ve been extremely effective and they have really good arms.”

Oregon finally got on the board in the bottom of the eighth as Mason Neville led the frame off with his first homer of the young season. Each of the next three Oregon hitters drew walks to set Oregon up with a bases-loaded, no-outs opportunity. A wild pitch plated Smith and Jeffery Heard recorded an RBI groundout to cut the deficit to 4-3. 

Just like Hernandez’ outing in the sixth, each of the three arms used by Toledo in the eight issued costly walks, two of which came around to score. 

The Rockets got one back in the top of the ninth on an RBI groundout from Luke Leto. Oregon went down silently in the ninth in its first loss of the season. 

Oregon freshman catcher Coen Niclai made his first collegiate start on Saturday. In his first at-bat, Walton made an incredible diving catch in left-center field to rob Niclai of an extra-base hit. In his second at-bat, however, Niclai laced a single to left field for his first collegiate knock. 

He finished 1-3 with a solid performance behind the plate before being pinch-hit for by Jack Brooks in the bottom of the ninth. 

Freshman and Oregon native Gabe Howard threw the final three innings for the Ducks out of the pen. He allowed one run on two hits while walking one and fanning one on 37 pitches. 

Game 2 will start at roughly 2:30. Jason Reitz will make his Oregon debut while the Ducks face Toledo’s Ryan Kennedy.

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Expectations for these Ducks are at an all-time high. After back-to-back NCAA Super Regional appearances, it’s Omaha or bust for Mark Wasikowski’s 2025 squad. 

You can’t go 56-0 without winning the first one, and No. 12 Oregon (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten) did just that, flexing its depth in a 9-2 win over the Toledo Rockets (0-1, 0-0 MAC).

Toledo, which finished sixth in the MAC in 2024 during a 27-32 season, won’t play a home game until March. The Rockets sent Jacob Tabor (4-0, 3.35 ERA across 37.2 innings in 2024) to the bump for the Opening Day start.

Grayson Grinsell — D1 Baseball’s pick for Preseason Big Ten Pitcher of the Year — toed the rubber for the Ducks on Opening Day. The lefty’s junior campaign is expected to be a big one, and it got off to a good start on Friday as he struck out three of the first five batters he faced. 

“[It’s] definitely a confident feeling knowing they trust me to come out here on Opening Day and just do what I do and attack the zone,” Grinsell said. 

A trio of back-to-back-to-back hits from Mason Neville, Drew Smith and Jacob Walsh opened the bottom of the first and gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead and their first advantage of the season. Oregon was on the board before an out was recorded.

It was a short-lived lead. Tre Mariano blistered a ball off the banner in deep left field to tie the contest at one. Grinsell settled in after that and retired seven-straight. He didn’t allow another hit for the rest of his outing and finished with 5.0 IP, one hit, one run and seven strikeouts. 

“I thought he pitched well,” Wasikowski said. “It seemed like he was in command of all of his pitches. He threw them all over the plate for strikes. One guy got the solo shot, kinda ambushed him on one of them, but that’s going to happen sometimes.”

Grinsell  had an unreal first start of the season. 49 of his 74 pitches were strikes and aside from the one mistake pitch to Mariano, he was untouchable and the Rockets had no answers for his stuff. Later in the season, he’d likely stay out for a few more innings, but Wasikowski typically has his pitchers on a tight pitch count in the early goings of a young season.

Unfortunately for Oregon, Tabor also calmed down after his rocky first inning. He threw back-to-back scoreless innings before Nathan Leininger relieved him in the fourth. Tabor finished with four strikeouts and allowed the lone run on four hits. 

It’s not uncommon for a team’s offense to start slower than its pitching, so the game’s 22 total strikeouts weren’t a total surprise, but still an obvious storyline of the first game of the season. After the Ducks’ 10 strikeouts on Friday, they’re on pace for 560 total Ks in their 56-game regular season.

“I’m not discouraged about the way they swung the bat,” Wasikowski said. “[Toledo] threw a lot of really good arms at us today. They threw an All-American to start, they threw three other guys that are touching 94 miles-per-hour on Opening Night… I was pleased with our effort.”

After the second inning, neither offense recorded a hit until the bottom of the sixth inning when Walsh launched a ball out to left to plate both Smith and himself. Oregon’s all-time home run leader’s 41st career bomb game Oregon gave the Ducks a 3-1 advantage. 

“I’m just going to try and stick to my approach the best I can,” Walsh said. “When I do that, good things happen.”

The blast from Walsh also put Leininger in line for his first loss of the season. Oregon’s Ryan Featherston earned Friday’s win with his two innings of two-hit, one-run (unearned) ball. He fanned three across his 35 pitches. 

Toledo got an unearned run in the top of the seventh on a passed ball, but a string of three-straight hits from Ryan Cooney, Jack Brooks and Carter Garate opened up a two-run inning to open up a comfortable 5-2 lead to take into the eighth. Toledo reliever Josh Laisure got tagged for two earned runs on three hits and a walk on just 11 pitches. He only recorded one out in his first outing of the season. 

“That was a good product we put out there tonight,” Wasikowski said. “I really appreciated that after [Toledo] chipped away a little in the top of the seventh, I thought our guys really responded with four real quality at-bats in a row to kind of put an end to that.”

Oregon earned a quartet of unearned runs in the eighth on a string of errors and balks. In all, Toledo finished with more errors (four) than hits (three).

The Rockets used five total pitchers in its season-opening loss. Oregon used three as Seth Mattox threw a scoreless eighth and ninth in his Ducks’ debut. 

Oregon now holds a 1-0 all-time record over Toledo. The two teams will face off twice tomorrow, with the first game slated to start at 11:05. Collin Clarke will get the start for the Ducks while RJ Shunk will look to even the series for the Rockets.

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For the first time since Jan 21, Oregon men’s basketball was victorious, but was still unable to play a solid 40 minutes. 

It’s not a win the Ducks (17-8, 6-8 Big Ten) should feel great about after allowing Northwestern (13-12, 4-10 Big Ten) to whittle their 14-point halftime lead down to three in the closing minutes, but they were quenching for a win and they got one, 81-75. 

Since beating Washington almost a month ago, things had been going concerningly poor for Dana Altman’s squad. Across the Ducks’ recent five-game skid, they gave up at least 77 points. A key part to getting back on track was limiting Northwestern to 75 on Tuesday night. 

The other key was relying on Jackson Shelstad and Nate Bittle and allowing them to rediscover their groove against an inferior opponent. Shelstad had a much-needed solid night, recording a career-high 26 points and four assists while shooting 4-6 from deep. Bittle had a get-back game of his own as he tallied 14 points and seven rebounds.

“We’re just happy to get back in the win column,” Shelstad said. “ It got a little ugly at the end of the game. I think we definitely need to work on playing a full 40 minutes of basketball at our best level. We got the win and we just gotta keep the momentum going from here.”

Neither team got off to an overly impressive start, but the contest was competitive for the majority of the first half. Both teams traded runs — Shelstad scored five straight before Northwestern responded with a 7-0 run.

A 3-pointer from Northwestern’s Keenan Fitzmorris gave the Wildcats their first lead of the night, but Shelstad and Keeshawn Barthelemy connected for back-to-back threes to regain the lead and some temporary momentum. 

That was the main theme of the opening frame: neither team was able to demonstrate any real dominance or separation. Even after Bittle and Shelstad connected from deep on back-to-back possessions , Northwestern responded to keep it close. 

A pair of Brandon Angel layups (his entire first-half total) extended Oregon’s lead to 10, a nearly four-minute scoring drought allowed the Ducks to take advantage of a 9-0 run to take a 39-25 lead into the break. 

It helped that Northwestern shot a measly 38.5% from the field and 30% from deep in the opening half. Every single Wildcat was in the minus through the first 20 minutes. 

Oregon, a team that lives or dies by its ability to shoot 3-pointers, finished the first half 5-12 after the hot start. It was a concerning decline that, unfortunately, followed the Ducks back onto the court for the second half. 

Barthelemy (19 points) tried to rewrite the narrative, knocking down the Ducks’ first deep attempt of the closing frame. However, Northwestern started the second half 6-8 from the field and just wouldn’t go away. 

After Barthelemy’s dagger, Oregon went ice-cold from deep and finished 8-21 from range after starting 4-5. 

“We were just getting really good inside-out threes at the beginning of the game,” Shelstad said. “We just got to do a good job of keeping attacking, getting to the paint and kicking out for open threes.”

The Wildcats closely resembled Oregon from the Ducks’ loss to Nebraska a few weeks back; they were good enough to keep the game close, but were never in any real danger of winning it. 

Despite Ty Berry (who led the Wildcats with 23 points) guiding Northwestern to 61.8% shooting in the second half, Oregon was able to temporarily maintain its comfortable lead, unlike its second-half collapse just three days ago in East Lansing. 

Free-throw shooting has repeatedly plagued the Ducks throughout the season, but they had a good night from the line, shooting 25-28 and 21-24 in the second half. 

“I’m not disappointed in our 81 points,” Altman said. “I’m just disappointed in our second-half defense.”

Northwestern made it close a couple of times late in the contest, pulling within five with five minutes left, and again with under three to play. Oregon’s timely free-throw shooting and the occasional basket kept the Wildcats at bay, but a better opponent could have easily unraveled the Ducks’ lead. 

The final minutes of the game were as slow as they come, full of fouls and free throws and timeouts. At the end, however, Oregon came away with an unsavory 81-75 win. 

Shelstad went to the line in the closing seconds and hit a pair of free throws to record a new career-high 26 points. 

“I’m confident in my shot,” Shelstad said. “My coaches and teammates are confident in my shot. I just try to play with full confidence… Also, credit to my teammates for getting me open, too.”

While not a perfect night, Oregon hopes the performance will be enough to create some good mojo to take into its Sunday matchup against Rutgers. 

“I’m happy we got the win,” Shelstad said. “ After a few losses, I think it’s just big for our confidence.”

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