Ducks hit the road to play ranked UCSB

Series History - UC Santa Barbara

This weekend's meeting between the Ducks and Gauchos will be the third series between the two programs since 2015 and the first four-game set.
The two teams have split eight games in the series history with Oregon winning four of six since the program returned in 2009.
UO won two of three the last time the teams met at UCSB in 2015.

Kasevich provides punch to Ducks' lineup

With a year in the weight room, it appears second-year FR SS Josh Kasevich has turned himself into an offensive weapon if the first week's results are any indication.
A part-time starter as a true freshman, Kasevich made his 2021 debut with two home runs and a double in the series against Seattle while hitting .313.

Fuller/Kafka make claim for rotation spot

JR RHPs Peyton Fuller and Cullen Kafka were UO's most impressive starters during the opening weekend.
Fuller tossed seven scoreless innings and picked up the win in game two while Kafka tossed four scoreless innings before being removed because of a pitch count.

Series History - UC Santa Barbara

Oregon and UC Santa Barbara have met eight times in the history of the programs with each team winning four times.
The Ducks have won four of six since baseball returned to Eugene with 2-1 series wins in both 2015 (at UCSB) and 2016 (PK Park).
In games played on UCSB's home field, the series is tied with Oregon winning two of three in 2015 and the Gauchos winning a single game in 1964.
UCSB also won a neutral site game in 1967.

Series history features Major League arms

The last time Oregon and UCSB met in Goleta, Calif., in 2015, the teams' starting rotations included four pitchers who played Major League Baseball in 2020.
The Ducks sent current Oakland A's pitcher, and a member of the Philadelphia Phillies last season, to the mound on Friday night to face off against Dillon Tate, who pitched for the Baltimore Orioles last season. Oregon won the game 5-1 with Tate taking the loss. Irvin, returning from Tommy John surgery, allowed just one unearned run in four innings.
On Saturday, Oregon's David Peterson faced UCSB's Shane Bieber. Peterson had a strong rookie season for the New York Mets last season while Bieber won the American League Cy Young. Peterson got the win in 2015 allowing three runs in five innings while Bieber took the loss giving up eight runs (3 earned) in five innings.
Ironically, the best-pitched game was game three with Jack Karraker starting for Oregon and Justin Jacome getting the nod for UCSB in a 1-0 Gauchos' win.
Future #ProDucks Stephen Nogosek and Garrett Cleavinger both pitched in relief for Oregon.
When the two teams played in Eugene the next season, Irvin and Peterson were again in the rotation for Oregon along with former first-round MLB Draft pick Matt Krook, while Bieber pitched on Friday night against Irvin with the Ducks winning 13-1. Irvin allowed just one unearned run in eight innings while Bieber gave up eight runs (7 earned) in 6.2 innings.

Oregon vs. ranked teams

UCSB enters the series ranked in the top 25 of all six polls, including as high as No. 7 in two polls.
Oregon is 58-79 against teams ranked in the Baseball America poll since 2009.
Oregon is 2-1 against UC Santa Barbara when the Gauchos are ranked with all three of those games coming during the 2015 series.
Oregon's last game against a ranked team came in 2019 when the Ducks lost a pair of games to No. 1 UCLA (May 23-24, 2019) to end the season (game three was rained out).
Oregon's last win over a ranked team came on May 12, 2019 when the Ducks beat No. 12 Oregon State in the final game of a three-game series.

Many familiar faces

Oregon returns 23 of the 31 players that were on the 2020 roster.
All 12 position players who started a game in 2020 are back this season with the team returning 98.6 percent of its at-bats (511 of 518), 97.8 percent of its runs scored (89 of 91), 100 percent of its hits (all 143) and 98.9 percent of the team's RBI (86 of 87).
The five position players who left combined for just 10 at-bats, two runs scored, one RBI and no hits.
On the mound, Oregon pitchers combined to make 58 appearances last season with this year's team returning 86.2 percent (50) of them. The Ducks pitching staff also returns 94.6 percent of the innings pitched (128.1 of 135.2) and 93.3 percent of its strikeouts (98 of 105).
On the mound, the three Ducks that departed combined to throw just 7.1 of the team's 135.2 innings pitched in 2002.

Ducks face another tough schedule

Oregon is scheduled to play 50 games at this point with the chances of adding up to six more based on the maximum number of allowable games.
Of the 50 games, Oregon is scheduled to play 19 against teams currently ranked in the top 25 including seven in the next two weeks.
Oregon visits UCSB this weekend with the Gauchos ranked in the top 10 of three of the six college baseball polls, including a No. 7 ranking by both D1Baseball and Collegiate Baseball.
Oregon State, next week's opponent, is ranked as high as No. 19, while UCLA is also ranked in the top 10 in three polls, Arizona is ranked as high as No. 17 and Arizona State checks in at No. 19 in one of two polls it's ranked in.

Grant, Zavala and Kasevich lead Ducks' offense in season-opening series

While Oregon struggled at the plate as a team in the season-opening series against Seattle, the Ducks got good efforts from a handful of bats.
SO 2B Gavin Grant led the club in hitting (.400), while also putting together a team-best OBP (.500) while going 4-for-10 at the plate with a pair of walks and a team-high three stolen bases.
SO OF Aaron Zavala, who reached base five times in the opener, batted .333 (5-for-15) with a team high in hits and runs scored (4) with a .444 OBP and two stolen bases.
Second-year FR SS Josh Kasevich provided punch to the lineup finishing with three extra-base hits including a pair of two-run home runs and a double. He batted .313 (5-for-16) and led the team with a .750 slugging percentage.

Zavala is a proven fast starter

It was not a surprise to see SO RF/3B Aaron Zavala reach base in all five of his plate appearances in the season opener and finish the series batting .333.
Zavala also got out of the gate fast in each of his first two seasons at Oregon.
exploded onto the collegiate scene as a freshman in 2019 with back-to-back three-hit games at Texas Tech to start his career.
In 2019, he became the first Oregon player in modern era program history to have four 3-hit games in a six-game stretch (Feb. 15-23).
hit .542 (13-for-24) in the month of February in 2019 with two doubles and four RBI.
The Ducks DH was batting .349 on March 16 that season and over .300 on March 22 before injuries plagued him eventually forcing the Salem, Ore. native to miss a number of games.
He started fast again last season batting .418 with a Pac-12 leading 22 RBI with nine multi-RBI games and eight multi-hit games (four 3-hit ) in the 15-game season.
He had multiple hits in seven of the last 10 games, with three 3-hit games during that stretch.

Yovan, Matthews and Zavala earn preseason recognition

Heading into the 2021 season, three Oregon players earned preseason recognition.
Collegiate Baseball named JR DH Kenyon Yovan a preseason first-team All-America pick while D1Baseball named him to its preseason third team.
, SR 1B Gabe Matthews and SO 3B/RF Aaron Zavala all earned a spot on the 48-player Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award watch list.
The Bobby Bragan Slugger Award originally started in 2017 as an honor going to the top college hitter in Texas. In 2019, it expanded becoming a regional award covering Division I programs in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. In 2020, it became a national award.

Yovan, Zavala coming off All-America season

JR DH Kenyon Yovan and SO 3B/OF Aaron Zavala were both named to the Collegiate Baseball All-America Teams following the 2020 shortened season.
Yovan earned first team honors as the designated hitter after batting .429 with a team-high 24 hits, while also having a team-best four home runs, 22 runs scored and 15 walks.
Yovan became the first player in Oregon history to be named an All-American as both a pitcher and a hitter. He claimed All-America honor on the mound as a freshman in 2017.
Zavala claimed third-team honors as a third baseman after batting .418 with a home run and a Pac-12 Conference leading 22 RBI.

Matthews does it with the bat and his glove

SR 1B Gabe Matthews has a resume that not many Oregon players have ever matched.
Matthews ranks among the career leaders at Oregon in 11 career offensive categories, while also boasting an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Award from the 2019 season.
The Salem, Ore., native is third in school history in on-base percentage (.396) and walks (100), doubles (41) and at-bats (636), tied for third in games started (177), fourth in hit by pitches (28), fifth in hits (184) and RBI (103), sixth in multiple-RBI games (21), seventh in slugging percentage (.419) and is tied for eighth in multi-hit games (45).
He finished the 2020 season batting .339 (19-of-56) with a home run, 15 RBI, 13 runs scored, five doubles and a triple.
He ranked among the Pac-12 leaders in HBP (T3rd), OBP (T7th), base on balls (T7th) and RBI (T10th).

Pitching staff optimistic after opening series

Despite splitting the series with Seattle last weekend, Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski came out of the four games encouraged by what he saw on the mound.
Two of the Ducks starters combined to throw a scoreless 11 innings, while the other two starters kept the Ducks' in the game while the were on the bump.
JR RHP Peyton Fuller tossed a career-high seven innings while combining with FR LHP Rio Britton on Oregon's first shutout of the season in game two of the series.
Fuller allowed just five hits while fanning three and Britton followed with two hitless innings with a pair of Ks.
JR RHP Cullen Kafka, while on a pitch count, tossed four scoreless innings on Sunday while fanning six, just one shy of his career high.
SR LHP Nico Tellache got the opening day start and kept Oregon in the game allowing just three runs on four hits in five innings in a game Oregon rallied to win 4-3.
JR RHP Brett Walker, also on a pinch count, allowed two runs in three innings but left with the game tied.
Out of the pen, Britton, JR RHP Hunger Breault, SO RHP Christian Ciuffetelli and JR LHP Kolby Somers all tossed multiple scoreless innings.

Ducks boast experienced staff

Oregon opened the 2021 season with a staff that has 13 pitchers who have Division I experience on the mound.
Of those 13, 11 have experience pitching in an Oregon uniform while two more -- SO RHP Caleb Sloan (TCU), FR RHP Brayden Spears (Boise State) -- pitched at other schools.
The group also has experience in a starters' role with eight of the 13 boasting at least one start.
Five have double-digit starts with one -- JR RHP Cullen Kafka -- starting more than 20 games.
Ten of the 13 have at least 20 appearances with seven pitching in at least 30 games, three making 40-plus appearances and one -- SR LHP Nick Tellache -- pitching in 65 games.
The pitchers with at least 20 appearances have all pitched at least 28 innings during their careers.
Seven have more than 50 innings pitched, with five surpassing the 70-inning pitched plateau, four tossing over 90 innings, three breaking the century mark with a staff-best 131.2 inning coming from Kafka.
As a staff, the 13-experienced Ducks' hurlers have combined for 384 appearances, 89 starts and 798 innings pitched.
Those 13 are joined on the staff by a junior college transfer and five freshmen, with two of the freshman -- Britton, RHP Mark Ayon -- combining for three appearances and five innings pitched against Seattle.

Walker named to NCBWA preseason All-America team

After an impressive shortened 2020 seasons, JR RHP Brett Walker caught the eye of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers who named him third-team preseason All-America.
Walker finished the shortened season 3-0 with a 0.84 ERA while allowing just two runs on 13 hits with 10 strikeouts and one walk in 21.1 inning pitched.
He held opponents to a .176 batting average.
The Ducks' right-hander finished second in the Pac-12 Conference in strikeout-to-walk ratio (10-to-1), WHIP (0.66) and walks per nine innings (0.42) while ranking third in wins.
Nationally, Walker ranked 10th in walks per nine innings, 19th in WHIP and 31st in strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Walker will open the season with a 16-inning scoreless streak, with the last run he surrendered coming on a two-run HR in the fourth inning of his start at Grand Canyon last season.
, who had tossed 21.1 innings last season, held opponents scoreless in 21 of the 22 innings he had appeared.
In the 22 innings Walker faced a batter, he had allowed no hits in 13 of them and just one hit in six of them.
A spot starter during his career, Walker earned a spot in the rotation after back-to-back quality starts against Milwaukee and Hawaii during the final two weeks of the 2020 season.
He got the win against Milwaukee throwing six scoreless innings while allowing just three hits and striking out four.
He bested that effort allowing no runs on just two hits in a career-high eight innings with no walks and three Ks in a win over Hawaii.

Ducks have a number of options to choose from for starting pitching

Oregon has a slew of options when considering what to do with its weekend pitching rotation.
The Ducks have nine pitchers who have started at least one game during their careers at Oregon, while adding a Division I transfer who started a game at his previous start.
Seven of those hurlers have multiple starts during their careers with five of them boasting double-digit starts.