Ducks Host Indiana In A Big Ten Series

Series History

This weekend's games mark the first-ever series between Oregon and Indiana.
The Ducks and Hoosiers did meet in a single game in Riverside, Calif., on March 30, 1979.
Indiana won that game 6-5 in the UC Riverside Tournament.

Weekend Winners

Oregon opened Big Ten Conference play with a series win at Purdue last weekend.
The series win was the 10th consecutive weekend series win for UO dating back to April 4-6, 2025.
Oregon has won 16 of 17 series since the start of the 2025 season.

Arms Race

Oregon's pitching staff heads into the weekend among the best in the Big Ten.
The Ducks are in the top three in all six major statistical categories while leading the league in strikeouts per nine innings (11.7).

Ducks start to season among best in school history

With nine straight wins to start the season, Oregon got off to one of its best starts in school history.
The nine-game winning streak is the longest in the modern era of Oregon baseball, one better than the 2014 squad.
Oregon had its streak snapped on Feb. 28 when UC Irvine rallied from a 5-3 eighth-inning deficit to win 8-6.
This is the third consecutive season Oregon has started the season with at least 14 wins in its first 17 games, which is one of five best starts since 1963.
Only the 1963 team (12-0) and last year's team (15-2) have better starts to a season.
The 1963 team holds the program record for most wins to start a season with 12.
With a sweep or series win this weekend, Oregon will have the third best start through 20 games.

Success in all three phases of the game

Oregon's early season success is a product of excelling not only at the plate, but on the mound and on defense.
The Ducks head into conference play, ranking in the top 25 in the nation in six different statistical categories, including five top 15 rankings.
Oregon is fourth in hits allowed per nine innings (5.74) while ranking sixth in shutouts (3), 10th in home runs (33) and WHIP (1.08), 14th in home runs per game (1.94), 15th in strikeouts per nine innings (11.7), 17th in slugging percentage (.551) and 21st in ERA (3.26).

Going, Going, Gone

For the fourth time in the last five years, Oregon set a new program record for home runs in 2025.
The Ducks broke the previous record on May 16 at Iowa when LF Anson Aroz hit the team's 102nd of the season, breaking the record set in 2023.
The Ducks' top five home run seasons have all come since the 2021 season.
The Ducks have increased the home run record by 67 long balls in the Mark Wasikowski era.
Heading into his first season at the helm in 2020, the Oregon team record for home runs in a season was 48.
The 2025 club averaged 1.98 home runs per game.
Oregon has hit 33 home runs (1.94 per game) in its first 17 games of the 2026 season.

Records are made to be broken

During head coach Mark Wasikowski's tenure at Oregon, the Ducks have rewritten the program's record book on offense.
The Ducks continued that assault in 2025 breaking three records that the Ducks had previously broke during the Wasikowski era.
Oregon belted 115 homers topping the 101 set in 2023, drove in 438 runs, breaking the RBI record set in 2022 and scoring 465 runs breaking the record set in 2022.
The 2022 season ended with the Ducks setting records in eight major statistical categories: batting average, hits, runs, home runs, RBI, doubles, total bases and at-bats.
Of the eight records, three broke school records set in 2021 when the team broke long-time records for runs (376 in 2010), home runs (48 in 1974) and RBI (332 in 2010).
In 2023, Oregon re-set four of the records with 101 HR, 142 doubles, 1,057 total bases and 2,167 at-bats.
While the 2024 team did not break any of the previous teams' records, the Ducks did finish second in home runs (98), third in runs (420), RBI (383) and total bases (996), fourth in hits (575) and sixth in doubles (107).
While increasing the home run record by 59 during the Wasikowski era, the Ducks have increased the runs scored record by 89 and the RBI record by 106.

Smith's 2nd in B1G in batting average, 15th in the nation

In his fourth season at Oregon, SR 3B Drew Smith is off to a hot start while ranking 15th in the nation in batting average RBI per game and 16th in the nation in with 21 (2nd in the Big Ten).
In addition to average, he leads the Ducks in all three slash categories (.472/.581/.944), home runs (6), triples (2) and RBI (246).
A versatile player who has made starts at four different positions plus DH, Smith heads into this weekend with a .342/.440/.532 career slash line.
He had reached base at least once in 118 of his 1283 career starts.
Excelling in big moments, Smith has been named to the all-tournament team in Oregon's last two postseason appearances.
He earned a spot on the Santa Barbara all-tournament team in 2024 at second base, before being named to the 2025 Eugene Regional all-tournament team as an outfielder.
As a true freshman, he earned ABCA/Rawlings second-team All-West Region honors after reaching base in all 26 games with a plate appearance and setting Oregon's modern-era program record with a 20-game hitting streak.

Molony on preseason watch lists and All-America Teams

USA Baseball announced that JR SS Maddox Molony is one of 55 players on the Golden Spikes Award preseason watch list, which begins the process of identifying the best amateur baseball player in the nation for the 2026 season.
It was the second player of the year watch list that Molony was named to joining Baseball America's player of the year, which will be awarded for the first time this season.
On March 4, Molony was named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list, which honors the top shortstop.
He also was named a preseason All-America pick by Perfect Game (3rd Team) and the NCBWA (4th Team).
His inclusion on the Golden Spikes Award list marks the second consecutive season a Ducks' player has been on the preseason list.
Starting pitcher Grayson Grinsell got the nod before the 2025 season.
The Ducks' shortstop is the eighth Oregon player all time to be included on the preseason watch list, joining Grinsell, Kenyon Yovan (2019), Matt Krook (2016), Shaun Chase (2015), Tommy Thorpe (2014), Jimmie Sherfy (2013) and Tyler Anderson (2011).
A two-time all-league selection in his two seasons at Oregon, Molony slashed .309/.403/.565 with a .968 OPS during his sophomore season.
The 2025 third-team All-Big Ten Conference selection belted 15 home runs, good for 10th all-time in a single season at Oregon, while driving in 45 runs, scoring 41 times and swiping 10 bags in 10 attempts.
During league games, Molony hit eight of his homers while batting .297 with 24 RBI and 19 runs scored. He reached base at a .378 clip while slugging .550.
During his career at UO, Molony has slashed .303/.395/.551 with a .946 OPS.
He has slugged 28 home runs, which is already fifth in program history, with 89 RBI, 90 runs scored, 16 doubles, a triple and 13 stolen bases in 112 career starts.
In 2024, he became just the second Oregon freshman to be named first-team All-Pac-12 since the return of the program while also earning second-team freshman All-America honors.

Cooney's strong 2025 finish leads to hot start in 2026

It was quite the last three weeks of the regular season in 2025 for 2B Ryan Cooney.
The Portland native was named the B1G Player of the Week twice during that time, before being named first-team All-Big Ten before the conference tournament.
The Ducks' second baseman closed the season on a tear, improving his batting average by 64 points from March 29 to the end of the regular season.
In Oregon's series sweep of Iowa, Cooney earned POW honors after slashing .556/.692/1.444 with a 2.136 OPS to go with two home runs, six RBI and four runs scored.
Two weeks earlier, Cooney earned his first POW award after slashing .462/.533/.846 with a 1.379 OPS while leading the Ducks to a 3-1 record in a midweek win at Oregon State and a weekend series win at Michigan State.
He homered once and doubled twice during the week while going 6-for-13 with four RBI, three runs scored, two walks and a stolen base.
Four weeks into 2026, Cooney has continued to be one of Oregon's best hitters slashing .320/.407/.480 with an .887 OPS while batting leadoff.

Freshman Impact

Through the first 17 games of the 2026 season, a pair of Ducks' freshmen have made major impacts on UO's back-to-back four-game sweeps.
RF Angel Laya and C Brayden Jaksa have combined to go 32-for-88 (.364) with 12 extra-base hits (7 HR, 4 2B, 1 3B), 23 RBI and 24 runs scored.
The two have combined for a .434 on-base percentage and a .670 slugging percentage with a 1.104 OPS.
Starting all four games in RF vs. George Mason, Laya earned both Perfect Game and Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Week honors after slashing .538/.600/1.077 with a 1.677 OPS, while finishing with three extra-base hits (2 HR, 1 2B) and finishing with multiple hits in the first two games.
He went 3-for-4 in the season opener with a double and two runs scored.
The Ducks' right fielder earned his second Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor after leading the Ducks to a series win at Purdue that included a midweek game against Oregon State.
In the four games, Laya slashed .400/.500/1.133 with a 1.633 OPS while hitting three home runs with a triple.
In the Oregon State game, He went 2-for-4 with a home run and a triple with three RBI and two runs scored.
In the Iowa series, Laya slashed .364/.500/.909 with a 1.409 OPS.
In the series-clinching win on Sunday, Laya belted a pair of home runs for the second time this season while going 4-for-5 with four RBI and four runs scored in a 15-4 win.

Ducks starters off to hot start

Four weeks into the season, five Oregon pitchers have combined to start the 14 games during weekend series while putting up dominant numbers.
The five -- SO RHP Will Sanford, JR RHP Collin Clarke, SO RHP Cal Scolari, JR RHP Ryan Featherston and JR RHP Toby Twist -- have combined to go 10-1 with a 1.82 ERA allowing just 18 runs (15 earned) on 40 hits in 74.1 innings while striking out 91 and walking just 25.
They have held opposing hitters to a .163 batting average with none higher than .190.

Back-to-back shutouts a rarity in program history

Against Youngstown State, Oregon's pitching staff put together back-to-back shutouts beating the Penguins 3-0 on Friday and 7-0 on Saturday.
It marked just the seventh time in the modern era that Oregon has put together consecutive shutouts.
Since 1963, there have only been 12 back-to-back shutouts in program history with the first two making up the only three-game shutout streak.
Two seasons -- 1963 and 2013 -- had a pair of consecutive shutouts.

Doing it right on Friday night

When he took the mound on opening day, RHP Will Sanford joined some impressive names as opening-day starter at Oregon.
The previous names of pitchers who have taken the mound on opening day are impressive with future Major League Baseball pitchers, two MLB all-stars, an eventual Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year and high MLB draft picks who have toed the rubber as series game-one starters.
Twelve of the 14 previous opening day starters have been drafted with four of them playing in the big leagues.
Four of the starters (Tyler Anderson, Alex Keudell, David Peterson, Grayson Grinsell) earned All-America honors the season they served as the "Friday Night" guy.
Of the 16 seasons played since the return of baseball at Oregon, the Ducks' opening day starter has earned first-team all-conference recognition seven times (2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2025).
The 14 pitchers who have served as opening-day starters have a combined 11 first-team all-conference selections on the mound during their careers.