Ducks open Wasikowski era at Arizona tournament

FRIDAY, FEB. 14
Game 1: Minnesota
First Pitch: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Tempe Diablo Stadium
ORE Starter: RHP Cullen Kafka (5-5, 5.48)
UM Starter: RHP Max Meyer (5-3, 2.11)
TV: None
Radio: 1320 AM (EUG); 910 AM (POR)

SATURDAY, FEB. 15
Game 2: San Diego
First Pitch: 4:30 p.m.
Location: Tempe Diablo Stadium
ORE Starter: RHP Peyton Fuller (1-0, 7.30)
USD Starter: TBD
TV: None
Radio: 590 AM (EUG); 910 AM (POR)

SUNDAY, FEB. 16
Game 3: Pepperdine
First Pitch: 10 a.m.
Location: Tempe Diablo Stadium
ORE Starter: LHP Robert Ahlstrom (5-7, 3.93)
PU Starter: RHP Trevor Kniskern (4-5, 2.42)
TV: None
Radio: 1320 AM (EUG); 910 AM (POR)

TUESDAY, FEB. 18
Game 4: at Grand Canyon
First Pitch: 1 p.m.
Location: GCU Ballpark
ORE Starter: RHP Brett Walker (2-2, 5.60)
GCU Starter: TBD
TV: None
Radio: 590 AM (EUG); 910 AM (POR)

2020 Angels College Classic
Oregon opens the 2020 season and the Mark Wasikowski era in the 2020 Angels College Classic at Tempe Diablo Stadium. The Ducks face Minnesota in the nightcap of Friday's tournament opening action before playing San Diego on Saturday and Pepperdine on Sunday. The tournament is the fifth in-season tournament the Ducks have played in since 2009.

Grand Canyon
After wrapping up the 2020 Angels College Classic, Oregon will have a practice day in Arizona before facing Grand Canyon on Tuesday. The Ducks and Lopes will meet on the diamond for the first time ever. GCU returned to the ranks of Division I for the 2014 season after playing D-II from 1999-2013. The Lopes also played in D-I from 1991-1998.

Wasikowski Era
Oregon will take the field with a new head coach in 2020. Mark Wasikowski returns to Oregon after spending three seasons at the helm of the Purdue Boilermakers. Wasikowski compiled an 87-82 record in West Lafayette. Before Purdue, the Ducks' skipper spent five seasons as an assistant at Oregon helping the Ducks to a 205-106 record.

Oregon opens season in 2020 Angels College Classic

The Ducks open the Mark Wasikowski era in Tempe, Ariz. in the 2020 Angels Classic.
The Ducks open the tournament against Minnesota before playing San Diego on Saturday and Pepperdine on Sunday.
Oregon is playing in a regular season tournament for the fifth time since baseball returned to Eugene in 2009 (2009 Rose City Invitational, 2012 Nike College Showcase, 2017 Tony Gwynn Classic and 2018 Marucci Desert Classic).
The Ducks are opening the season with a tournament for just the second time in modern era history (2018 Marucci Desert Classic at UNLV).
Oregon is 7-7 all-time in the regular season tournaments.

Oregon regular season tournament results
2009 Rose City Invitational - Portland, Ore. (L, 4-0 vs. Portland; W, 6-4 vs. Washington; L, 3-1 vs. Hawaii; L, 5-1 vs. Washington)
2012 Nike College Showcase - Eugene, Ore. (L, 2-1 Illinois; W, 12-0 West Virginia; L, 3-2 #22 Oklahoma; W, 4-0 Connecticut)
2017 Tony Gwynn Class - San Diego, Calif. (W, 11-4 vs. UC Irvine; W, 1-0 vs. Seton Hall; L, 7-2 at San Diego)
2018 Marucci Desert Classic - Las Vegas, Nev. (W, 6-1 vs. Loyola Marymount; L, 9-3 at UNLV; W, 8-5 vs. Indiana State)

Oregon vs. Minnesota

First meeting between the two teams.
Minnesota is ranked 29th entering the season in the Collegiate Baseball preseason poll.
The Ducks have played 16 games against teams in the Big Ten compiling a 7-9 record in those games (0-1 vs. Illinois; 0-1 vs. Indiana; 1-2 vs. Iowa; 0-4 vs. Michigan State; 5-1 vs. Ohio State; 1-0 vs. Wisconsin).
Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski compiled a 37-35 record in Big Ten games during his three seasons at Purdue.
went 2-4 against Minnesota while coaching in the Big Ten.

Oregon vs. San Diego

Oregon leads the all-time series 7-1, while holding a 6-1 edge since 2009.
The Ducks won the lone neutral site game between the clubs beating the Toreros 5-2 at Ron Tonkin Field in Hillsboro, Ore., on May 2, 2016.
San Diego won the last meeting beating the Ducks 7-2 in the championship game of the 2017 Tony Gwynn Classic.
Oregon is 176-65 all-time vs. teams from the WCC.

Oregon vs. Pepperdine

Pepperdine leads the all-time series against Oregon 1-0.
The Waves won the lone meeting between the clubs 11-7 in Malibu on Feb. 21, 2010.
Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski played two seasons at Pepperdine earning All-West Coast Conference honors both seasons while leading the Waves to the 1992 national championship.
started his coaching career as a student assistant at Pepperdine during the 1994 season.
Oregon is 176-65 all-time vs. teams from the WCC.

Oregon vs. Grand Canyon

Oregon finishes the four-game road trip on Tuesday at Grand Canyon in Phoenix.
First meeting between the two teams.
GCU returned to the ranks of Division I for the 2014 season after playing D-II from 1999-2013.
The Lopes also played in D-I from 1991-1998.
Oregon is 30-8-1 all-time vs. teams from the WAC.

Oregon plays another tough schedule

The Ducks play eight teams that are ranked in at least one of the preseason polls.
Texas Tech, Arizona State and UCLA are ranked in all six, while Stanford is ranked in five.
Arizona and Oregon State are ranked in three with Minnesota and BYU each listed in one.

Oregon lineup features five returning starters

The Ducks head into the 2020 season with some experience returning five starters, including four of their top five hitters.
Oregon returns starters SR 1B Gabe Matthews, SO 2B Sam Novitske (played 3B & SS in 2019), SO OF Tanner Smith, SO C/UTL Aaron Zavala (mostly DH in 2019) and JR OF Evan Williams.
The five combined to start 225 games last season with Novitske (56), Matthews (55) and Smith (52) starting more than 50.
made 37 starts but missed a number of games with injury including 14 of the last 15.
started 25 games, including the team's last 15, while SR OF Taylor Adams started 20 games and SO 1B/DH A.J. Miller started three games.

Matthews returns after gold glove season at first base

SR 1B Gabe Matthews leads Oregon into his senior season after a successful junior campaign that saw the three-year starter hit .290 with six home runs, 34 RBI and 13 doubles while playing stellar defense at first base.
earned one of nine spots on the 2019 ABCA Rawlings NCAA Division I Gold Glove team at first base.
The Ducks' veteran has started 158 games during his three-year career at Oregon, which ranks seventh all-time in school history.
He started 51 games as a freshman in 2017, 55 games as both a sophomore in 2018 and a junior in 2019.
has played in 162 total games in three seasons.
In addition to being ranked seventh in starts heading into his senior season, Matthews is tied for fourth in walks (87), fifth in on-base percentage (.389) and is ninth in at-bats (580), hits (162) and slugging percentage (.410).

Novitske puts together one of top freshman seasons in UO history

SO 2B Sam Novitske will get the start at second base in 2020 after spending most of his freshman campaign at third base.
Novitske put together a stellar first season at Oregon setting freshman school records for runs scored (48), hits (70), walks (34) and at-bats (233).
He also became just the third freshman in modern UO history to bat .300 while starting and batting leadoff in all 56 games.
He became just the second player in modern program history to have three (3) four-hit games in a season (Mitchell Tolman - 2015).
reached base in 49 of 56 games in 2019 while getting on base multiple times in 30 of those games.
The Ducks' infielder finished with 19 multi-hit games.

Smith serves as Oregon's spark plug

SO OF Tanner Smith will start the season in left field this season after splitting time between left field and right field during his freshman year.
returns after batting .284 with a .372 OBP, four home runs, three triples, nine doubles, six stolen bases and 35 RBI last season.
He batted in the second spot in the order much of the season finishing third on the team in extra-base hits and RBI.
also finished the season with five outfield assists, which is tied for the fifth most all-time in a single season and the seventh most in a career.

Zavala looking to rebound from late season injuries as a freshman

SO C/UTL Aaron Zavala exploded onto the collegiate scene as a freshman last season with back-to-back three-hit games at Texas Tech to start his career.
He became the first Oregon player in modern era program history to have four (4) three-hit games in a six game stretch (Feb. 15-23).
hit .542 (13-for-24) in the month of February with two doubles and four RBI.
The Ducks DH was batting .349 on March 16 and over .300 on March 22 before injuries plagued him eventually forcing the Salem, Ore. native to miss a number of games.
Zavala finished the season batting .273 (sixth on the team) with 17 RBI.

Ducks head into 2020 season with experienced staff

Oregon will open the 2020 season with a staff that has 11 pitchers who have experience on the mound for the Ducks.
Of those 11, eight have started at least one game during their careers.
Five have started double-digit games with two starting 20-or-more games.
All 11 have at least 16 appearances with 10 making 20+ appearances, six pitching in at least 30 games, four making 40+ appearances and one (SR LHP Nico Tellache) pitching in more than 50 games.
All 11 have pitched at least 23 innings during their careers.
Six have more than 50 innings pitched, with five surpassing the 70-inning pitched plateau, four tossing over 90 innings, three breaking the century mark and one (SR LHP Cole Stringer) totaling a staff-high 157.2 innings pitched.
As a staff, the 11-experienced Ducks' hurlers have combined for 374 appearances, 93 starts and 802.2 innings pitched.
Those 11 are joined on the staff by five freshmen.

Kafka opens season in Friday night starter role

JR RHP Cullen Kafka will get the ball to open the season on Friday night when the Ducks face Minnesota in day one of the Angels College Classic.
, who pitched in all three weekend rotation spots last season, served as Oregon's Friday night or series game one pitcher five times as a sophomore and once as a freshman.
The Walnut Creek, Calif., native made his first career Friday night start in the season-ending series against Arizona as a freshman where he took a no decision.
As a sophomore, he pitched on Friday's against Loyola Marymount, Hawaii, Washington and Arizona State, while opening the series against Stanford on a Thursday night.
In 20 career starts, Kafka is 7-7 with six no decisions.

Fuller moves from bullpen for first career start

JR RHP Peyton Fuller has impressed Oregon coaches to the point that the career relief pitcher has earned a spot on the Ducks' starting rotation as the Saturday starter.
The Ashland, Ore., native enters the season fourth on the team in appearances with 40, but heading into his junior season Fuller has yet to make a start.
Fuller pitched 16 games out of the bullpen as a true freshman in 2018 before making 24 appearances, third most on the team, last season as a sophomore.
His longest outing came at Washington State as a freshman when he tossed 2.1 innings in a 7-0 Oregon loss.
Used mostly in short stints his first two seasons, Fuller has pitched more than an inning five times in his career.

Ducks turn to Ahlstrom to stabilize Sundays

JR LHP Robert Ahlstrom will open the season in the Sunday spot in the rotation with hopes that Oregon's top pitcher last season can help Oregon finish strong and hopefully put series/weekends into the win column.
started 10 games in his first season with the Ducks in 2019, almost exclusively Friday or Saturday starts.
In those starts, he pitched into at least the sixth inning against NCAA Tournament teams No. 20 Arizona State (6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 8 K), No. 12 Oregon State (8.1 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 6 K) and No. 1 UCLA (7.1 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 9 K)
In the last four seasons, Oregon has failed to qualify for postseason play while compiling a losing record in game threes of weekend series our tournaments.
Oregon is 28-30 (.483) during that time in "Sunday" games going 7-7 in 2016, 6-9 in 2017, 7-8 in 2018 and 8-6 last season.

Yovan working his way back into form

JR RHP Kenyon Yovan will not open the season in the starting rotation, but will be available to pitch.
The two-time All-Pac-12 Conference pitcher and 2017 first-team All-American closer, continues to progress in his return after missing all but one game (2.0 IP) last season.
is 7-5 in his career with a 2.73 ERA, 20 saves while fanning 135 hitters in 118.2 innings pitched. Opponents have batted just .206 against him.