Oregon Hosts Portland Today At 3 p.m.
THIS WEEK
Oregon hosts its final game of the year with Portland at 3 p.m. on Tuesday at PK Park before embarking on a five-game/five day road trip to both northern and southern California. After taking on the Pilots Tuesday, the Ducks return to conference action with a three-game series against California at Evans Diamond. The series begins at 2:30 p.m. Friday, with 1 p.m. games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Oregon will then make a quick trip to UC Irvine to take on the currently third-ranked Anteaters.
FREE O-ZONE BROADCAST
The O-Zone will offer a free broadcast to all Duck fans on Tuesday for the Oregon-Portland baseball game. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. at PK Park. The live video broadcast will be accompanied by the call of Brian Prawitz and Jerry Allen.
RADIO
All four games this week will be broadcast on KUGN 590 in Eugene. Brian Prawitz and Jerry Allen will team to make the call on Tuesday. The audio broadcast will also be available on the O-Zone at www.GoDucks.com.
VIDEO/LIVE STATS
Live stats will be offered on www.GoDucks.com for Tuesday’s home game with Portland as well as this weekend’s series at California. Tuesday the O-Zone will provide a live video/audio broadcast on www.GoDucks.com.
O-ZONE
Oregon baseball fans can now watch all home games live on the O-Zone at www.GoDucks.com. All home games will offer live video and audio. Live stats will also be available for all home games at www.GoDucks.com.
PORTLAND
Oregon and Portland will play one another for the third and final time at 3 p.m. on Tuesday at PK Park. So far the Pilots have had the best of the Ducks, registering a 4-0 victory on March 20 at the Rose City Invitational at PGE Park, as well as a 3-1 victory on March 31 at PK Park. Portland enters this week with a 17-16 record after getting swept at home last week by West Coast Conference rival Santa Clara. Similar to the Ducks, the Pilots have dropped all three of their conference series; Saint Mary’s (1-2), Loyola Marymount (1-2) and Santa Clara (0-3).
PORTLAND-OREGON SERIES NOTES
In the season series thus far, Portland has put seven runs on the board compared to just one for the Ducks. The Pilots have tallied 14 hits in the series led by Riley Henricks, who has hit .600 (3-for-5) with one double, one home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Kevin Armijo is 3-for-7 (.429) against Oregon’s pitching staff with two runs scored. Last time up, Ed Wakefield pitched 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit in a win (controlled start). Danny Pulfer was responsible for Oregon’s only run on March 31 with his RBI single to score Antony Kreitz.
USC SERIES RECAP
For the first time this season, Oregon was swept in a weekend series, dropping three straight at USC last week. The Ducks dropped the series opener 3-2 on Thursday night when Ricky Oropesa launched a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. The Ducks then lost a three-run lead and eventually fell 10-3 on Friday, before dropping the series finale 9-1 on Saturday.
THE LATEST NUMBERS
Oregon enters its ninth week of competition on a five-game losing streak - the longest of its season...the Ducks were swept in last weekend’s three-game conference series at USC for the first time this season...Oregon will face Portland left-hander Ed Wakefield on Tuesday, the Ducks are 3-6 against lefties this season...Oregon only has a winning record (7-1) when it holds opponents to two runs or less...the Ducks also struggle to come back from deficits, sporting a 5-12 record when the opponent scores first.
NATIONAL EXPOSURE
While Oregon’s offense has sputtered recently, the Ducks’ pitching staff continues to keep the first-year program in games. Headed by pitching coach Andrew Checketts, Oregon’s staff currently maintains a 3.90 ERA. Last week Oregon’s ERA was second in the Pac-10 and ninth in the nation. The Ducks’ 8.19 hits allowed per nine innings also ranked fourth in the conference and 18th in the country.
500 AND COUNTING
Oregon’s exhilarating 3-2 comeback victory in the 10th inning over Oregon State on March 28 at PGE Park not only served as the Ducks first Pac-10 victory in 28 years, but was also the 500th Division I victory for head coach George Horton.
WHO’S HOT THIS WEEK?
Last week it was junior Curtis Raulinaitis with the hot bat for the Ducks. The native of Sacramento, Calif., hit .417 (5-for-12) with a double, RBI and stolen base in three games at USC. On the mound, left-hander Tyler Anderson put Oregon in position to win Thursday night’s series opener, pitching 7.0 innings and allowing just two runs to cross the plate on four hits while dealing six strikeouts.
DELIVERING
One of the main reasons for Oregon’s top-10 ERA is the Friday-Saturday starting combination of Tyler Anderson and Erik Stavert. In his last two starts, Anderson (2-3) pitched 7.2 innings against Stanford leaving the game with lead during Oregon’s eventual 2-1 victory on April 3, as well as tossing 7.0 innings at USC last Thursday, exiting the game with things tied at 2-2. In his last two starts, the freshman left-hander is maintaining a 1.84 ERA, while allowing just three runs on 10 hits in 14.2 innings of work. He has struck out 15 while walking just three. On the year, Anderson has a 3.16 ERA in 51.1 innings pitched. He has struck out a team-leading 45, and is holding batters to a .249 batting average.
STAVERT RANKING
Stavert (3-2) is currently the only Oregon pitcher with a winning record. He is maintaining a 3.16 ERA and has pitched 51.1 innings this season. He has dealt 42 strikeouts and leads the staff holding opponents to a .228 batting average. Last week, Real Baseball Intelligence, ranked Stavert as the 140th overall MLB Draft Prospect.
HOME RUN TALLY
Last Friday at USC, Colby Sokol hit his first collegiate home run of the season to give Oregon a 3-0 lead over USC in the second inning at Dedeaux Field. The Puyallup, Wash., native was the only Duck to hit a home run last weekend. His solo shot torched over the scoreboard in right center wasn’t the only damage he did. In batting practice on Friday, Sokol scorched a shot to right field that put a dent in the Dedeaux Field scoreboard. Oregon now has 13 home runs on the year with Caleb Tommasini, KC Serna, Jett Hart and Antony Kreitz each hammering two apiece. Sokol, Mitch Karraker, John Adamson, Paul Eshleman and Eddy Rodriguez each have one.
WALKING OFF
John Adamson’s walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th during a 3-2 victory over Oregon State on March 28 was the third game to end in dramatic fashion this season. In addition to Adamson’s game-winner scoring Caleb Tommasini against OSU, senior Andrew Schmidt’s ninth-inning walk-off single gave the Ducks a historic 1-0 victory over the defending College World Series champion Fresno State Bulldogs on Feb. 27 - to christen PK Park. Freshman KC Serna has the honor of Oregon’s second game-winning hit, coming in the bottom of the 13th inning in a 3-2 victory over Santa Clara on March 8.
SPEEDY TOMMASINI
Oregon senior center fielder Caleb Tommasini moved from the gridiron to the baseball diamond in 2009, and the Tenmile, Ore., native hasn’t missed a step. His 13 stolen bases on the year lead the Pac-10 and rank 65th in the nation. The former defensive back turned outfielder leads the Ducks in batting average (.308), slugging percentage (.400), on-base percentage (.394), runs scored (18), hits (37), triples (2) total bases (48) and multiple-hit games (10). After starting the first 21 games of the season in the leadoff spot, Tommasini was moved to third spot of the lineup for nine games. He returned to hitting leadoff April 5.
FIRST OF MANY
Oregon began its modern era on Friday, Feb. 20 at Saint Mary’s, and the 2009 Ducks began to log some firsts for the program in 28 years...freshman left-hander Tyler Anderson will go down in the record books with the first pitch, first strikeout and first win on the mound...Senior Caleb Tommasini led off the game with the first at-bat and hit of the season, as well as the first walk drawn and the first run scored...The first RBI and double of the new era belong to freshman shortstop KC Serna...The first defensive assist and putout belong to freshman Danny Pulfer and Mitch Karraker....Jett Hart’s two-run triple in the fifth was the first triple of the modern era on Feb. 20, and in the first game of the Feb. 21 doubleheader, Hart slugged a two-run homer to left field in the fourth to go down in the record books...With the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh on Feb. 20, junior left-hander Ryan Fleckenstein, junior catcher Eddy Rodriguez and freshman first baseman Darrell Hunter turned the first double play, 1-2-3, of 2009.
HOME OPENER
Oregon played its first home baseball game in 28 years on Friday, Feb. 27, christening PK Park and a sold out crown of 2,777 with a dramatic 1-0 victory over the defending College World Series champion Fresno State Bulldogs. A pitching duel between Oregon freshman left-hander Tyler Anderson and Fresno State’s Holden Sprague left the game scoreless headed into the ninth. Oregon junior left-hander Ryan Fleckenstein retired the side in the ninth to set up the Ducks victory. Junior catcher Eddy Rodriguez started the rally in the bottom of the ninth with a two-out single, and junior Jett Hart continued with another single that advanced Rodriguez to third. Senior Andrew Schmidt, pinch-hitting, secured the victory with a walk-off single to score the game-winning run.
IN THE RECORD BOOKS
Trailing Fresno State by eight runs entering the ninth on March 1, redshirt freshman Antony Kreitz entered the game as a defensive replacement in right field. In the bottom of the inning, the Eugene native received his first at-bat of the season and promptly made history. Kreitz hit the first-ever Oregon home run out of PK Park over the left field wall.
2008-09 ACCOLADES
The 2008-09 Oregon baseball recruiting class received two top-10 rankings during the fall. First, Collegiate Baseball’s annual evaluation ranked the Ducks’ recruiting class second in the nation, while Baseball America put Oregon’s class at No. 10.
The 2008-09 class includes nine players that were taken in the 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, but chose to instead attend the UO.
STANDING ROOM ONLY
Standing Room Only tickets for University of Oregon home baseball games are still available through the UO Athletic Ticket Office announced today.
Tickets can be purchased on www.GoDucks.com, via telephone (541-346-4461 or 1-800-WEBFOOT) and in person at the Casanova Center Ticket Building.
Standing Room Only tickets for all home contests will cost $8 each. Standing Room Only tickets for the matchups against Sacramento State and Portland will cost $6. There is a limit of four Standing Room Only tickets per customer per game.
For more information, please visit www.GoDucks.com or call 541-346-4461 or 1-800-WEBFOOT.
DUCKS ON CSNNW
The Oregon Sports Network announced that it will broadcast 13 games during the season.
“My staff, the student-athletes and the program are delighted about the news that OSN will be producing a 13-game schedule this season,” head coach George Horton said. “The University and the Athletics Department has made a great step to reach out to all of our fans.”
All 13 games broadcast during the year will be aired on Comcast SportsNet Northwest (37) as well as CSN’s new HD channel (737).
OSN will cover the entire season from March through May, broadcasting three non-conference games and 10 conference games, including the Civil War Series from PK Park and PGE Park.
Two Oregon opponents on the television schedule competed in the 2008 College World Series; Fresno State (March 1) and Stanford (April 4), with the Bulldogs winning the championship.
The first broadcast of the season will be March 1, when Oregon hosts Fresno State, the defending CWS champions, at PK Park.
OSN will also broadcast three games against opponents that competed in last year’s Regionals and Super Regionals; UCLA (May 3) and Arizona (May 23-24).
OSN’s first Pac-10 broadcast of the year will be the conference opener and first Civil War baseball game in 28 years, when the Beavers visit PK Park on March 27. Oregon will also broadcast the third game of that series, Sunday, March 29, from PGE Park in Portland.
