Ducks-Utes To Open With Saturday Doubleheader

Series History - Utah

• Oregon opens a three-game series against Utah with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 11 a.m., after Friday's opener was postponed due to weather.
• During the Mark Wasikowski era, the Ducks are 8-1 in the matchup with series wins in all three seasons.
• Overall, Oregon holds a 29-7 advantage in the series, as well as a 12-3 edge in games played in PK Park.
• Oregon is 26-7 vs. the Utes since baseball returned from its hiatus.
• The teams have played 11 series since 2012 with Oregon winning nine of them with six series sweeps, with Utah's series wins coming in 2016 and 2017.
• The Ducks have won five of the six series played in Eugene with three being sweeps (2014, 2018, 2022).

 
Crucial Pac-12 series

• With just three weeks left in the season, Oregon's series with Utah this weekend has big implications.
• The Utes come into town tied for the league lead while Oregon sits in fourth place, just two games behind Utah.
• Oregon has won all three of its Pac-12 series at home this year, while Utah has won five straight Pac-12 series.

 
Top 10 crowd sees Oregon beat OSU

• UO rallied from a 5-run deficit on Tuesday against No. 11 OSU for a 9-5 win in front of 4,130 fans.
• The win earned Oregon a season-series split with the Beavers, who won two of three in Corvallis over the weekend.
• The crowd matched the largest to ever watch a regular-season game at PK Park (T6th overall).

 
Punched out

• Coming out of the bullpen, SR Brock Moore put on quite the show against Oregon State on Tuesday.
• The Ducks' right-hander struck out eight consecutive batters between the second and fourth innings.
• The eight straight Ks were the most ever at UO besting the old record of six straight.

 
Home run record set again

• Oregon set a new school record for home runs in each of the last three seasons.
• The Ducks have increased the home run record by 53 long balls during the first three full seasons of the Mark Wasikowski era.
• Last season, Oregon broke the school record of 75 home runs set during the 2022 season, which came a year after hitting 56 to break the old record of 48 that was set in 1974.
• This year's team has already moved into third all-time with 71 homers and is hitting home runs at a 1.6 HR per game rate.

 
Another assault on record books?

• During head coach Mark Wasikowski's three full seasons at Oregon, the Ducks have rewritten the program's record book on offense.
• Oregon's record-breaking offensive season ended in 2022 with the Ducks setting records in eight major statistical categories.
• In 2022, Oregon set school bests in batting average, hits, runs, home runs, RBI, doubles, total bases and at-bats.
• Of the eight new 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 HRs, 142 doubles, 1,057 total bases and 2,167 at-bats.
• Oregon had also cracked the top 10 in RBI (2nd), runs (2nd), stolen bases (2nd) and hits (2nd).
• Oregon had a .298 team batting average, which ranked fourth all-time.
• While increasing the home run record by 53 during the Wasikowski era, the Ducks have increased the runs scored record by 76 and the RBI record by 84.

 
Ducks looking for fourth series win over Utah in Wasikowski era

• Oregon's series win at Washington State in 2023 allowed Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski to check the last box in regards to winning a series vs. the other teams in the Pac-12 Conference.
• The Ducks had at least one series win over the other nine Pac-12 teams during his first two seasons at the helm of the Ducks.
• Oregon has four series wins over Arizona State and California, three over Arizona, USC and Utah, and two over Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA and Washington during the Wasikowski era.
• The Ducks are 75-52 (.591) in games vs. Pac-12 teams under Wasikowski including nonconference games vs. Oregon State and Pac-12 Conference Tournament games vs. Arizona (2), Arizona State, California, Stanford and Washington.

 
Walsh earns another player of the week honor

• Coming off a monster week vs. Gonzaga and at Stanford, JR 1B Jacob Walsh was named the NCBWA Co-Hitter of the Week.
• The Las Vegas native slashed .706/.750/1.647 in leading Oregon to a 2-2 record.
• The Ducks' first baseman went 12-for-17 in Oregon's four games with eight of his 12 hits going for extra bases (four home runs, four doubles).
• He had multiple hits in all four games with a 4-hit game and two 3-hit games.
• Walsh drove in eight runs with four RBI in a win over Gonzaga and two in a win over Stanford on Saturday.
• He homered in three consecutive games, running his Oregon career-record total to 38 home runs, which included his fifth career two-home run game against Gonzaga.
• Walsh is just the fourth Oregon Duck to claim NCBWA Hitter of the Week recognition.
• He joins Spencer Steer, Mitchell Tolman (twice) and Kenyon Yovan. Three Ducks pitchers have claimed NCBWA Pitcher of the Week honors.
• Coming off a 4-1 week earlier this year where Oregon won series at both Grand Canyon and Arizona State, Walsh earned Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week honors (3/11/24).
• He claimed his second career conference player of the week award after batting .500 with three home runs and 10 RBI on Oregon's five-game road trip to the Grand Canyon State.

 
Walsh sets program home run record, cracks top 10 in a number of other categories

• After hitting 14 HRs in the last 34 games, JR 1B Jacob Walsh has moved into first on the Oregon career home run list.
• He has also cracked the top 10 in RBI (5th), doubles (5th) multi-RBI game (6th), at-bats (6th) hits (10th), runs (T10th) and games started (10th).
• A three-year starter at first base, Walsh has hit 38 home runs in his two-plus seasons while batting .273 (170-for-623) with 41 doubles and 121 RBI.
• Last season, Walsh hit 16 bombs finishing one long ball short of the previous school record (Kenyon Yovan - 2021) that was broken by Sabin Ceballos who had 18 HRs in 2023.
• In 2022, Walsh became just the Ducks' 10th freshman All-American after setting freshman program records for doubles (18) and total bases (103) while tying the record for home runs (6).
• In addition to the eight categories he already ranks in the top 10 in, Walsh is approaching the program's top 10 in multiple-hit games.
• He also needs just three home runs to set a new single-season home run record at Oregon.

 
Freshman infielders tie Oregon HR record

• A pair of freshmen Oregon shortstops have both tied Oregon's freshman home run record in just a fraction of the games that it took the record to be set.
• In game one of the Stanford series, Maddox Molony homered twice to run his season total to six home runs in just his 16th career starts.
• Earlier this season, with Molony out with an injury, Ryan Cooney tied the freshman record in just his 18th career start (8 SS, 10 2B).
• The six bombs matches the previous record set by Jonny DeLuca in 2018 and matched by Jacob Walsh in 2022.
• Walsh played in 58 total games (55 starts) and hit his sixth home run in his 49th start, while DeLuca played in 55 games (54 starts) and hit his sixth home run in his 50th start.
• Combined, Molony and Cooney have batted .306 with 12 HR, 4 2B, 2 3B and 34 RBI while starting just two games together.

 
Bryce is right

• Playing both baseball and football at Oregon, SR OF Bryce Boettcher is one of just 13 players nationwide playing both sports.
• The Ducks outfielder and inside linebacker has made starts in both sports during his time doing double duty.
• He has started 38 of Oregon's 44 games this season, after starting all three of the Eugene Super Regional games and the Nashville Regional Tournament championship game last year.
• Overall, Boettcher has started 66 games during his baseball career while playing in 172 games.
• In football, Boettcher played in all 14 games for Oregon's Fiesta Bowl winning team while making two starts at inside linebacker.
• He finished fifth on the team with 37.0 tackles while finishing with a sack, 2.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

 
Power coming from slew of Ducks

• Just 44 games into the season, Oregon's recent trend of getting power from all parts of the lineup has continued.
• Thirteen Ducks have hit a home run this year with 12 of those players hitting multiple home runs and six (Walsh, Neville, Boettcher, Cassella, Molony, Cooney) already pounding more than five homers.
• Oregon's 71 homers ranks in third all-time in a season at Oregon.

 
Mercado, Mullan named to midseason stopper watch list

• Oregon relievers Logan Mercado and Bradley Mullan have been named to the NCBWA Stopper of the Year midseason watch list.
• Mullan leads Oregon in appearances (20) and ERA (1.20), while ranking second on the team in saves (4).
• He has 30 strikeouts in 30.0 innings of work and is holding opposing hitters to a .207 batting average.
• He ranks seventh in the Pac-12 in saves and is eighth in appearances.
• Mercado is Oregon's team leader in saves (6), while ranking second in appearances with 19.
• He has fanned 35 batters in a 30.0 innings pitched and has a 3.90 ERA.
• The Ducks' right-hander is third in the Pac-12 in saves, as well as 36th in the nation, and ranks 13th in the league in appearances.
• Oregon is one of just six teams with more than one pitcher included on the watch list.
• The Ducks join Arkansas (3), Vanderbilt (3), Lamar (2), Louisiana (2) and North Carolina (2).

 
Bullpen reinforcements arrive

• Oregon's banged up pitching staff has got some arms backs recently that has made Oregon's bullpen even more formidable.
• With Logan Mercado (30.0 IP), Bradley Mullan (30.0 IP) and Ryan Featherston (27.1 IP) pitching a bulk of the innings out of the bullpen, Oregon needed to add some arms as the season progresses toward postseason.
• Relievers Brock Moore and Jaxson Jordan both have returned after being sidelined, and both were impressive against Oregon State.
• A senior transfer from Menlo College, Moore pitched just once between March 29 and April 27 before making two appearances in Oregon's four games against Oregon State.
• He tossed a scoreless inning in game one of the series on Friday before giving Oregon three dominant innings in a 9-5 midweek win over the Beavers.
• In that game, after giving up a solo home run to the first batter he faced, Moore retired the next nine batters including the final eight on strikeouts (longest streak in modern era Ducks' history).
• Making his first appearance since March 3, Jordan continued Moore's dominance against the Beavers running the strikeout streak to nine straight Beavers before finishing the inning with a pair of groundouts.
• He ended up allowing just a walk in 1.1 innings of work in Oregon's eventual 9-5 come-from-behind win.

 
Friday night guy

• After missing all of the 2023 season with an injury, JR RHP RJ Gordon got the call on opening day on the mound, as well as in game one of the Lafayette, UCSB, Arizona State, Cal, Arizona, Seattle, UCLA, USC, Stanford and Oregon State series.
• In those game ones of series, Gordon has tossed four quality starts while getting through at least five innings in nine of 11 starts.
• His best effort came against USC where he went a career-long 8.1 innings allowing just one run.
• That came after he fanned a career-high 10 in 5.1 innings in a win the week before at UCLA.
• The previous names of pitchers who have taken the mound on opening day are impressive with future Major League Baseball pitchers, a MLB all-star, an eventual Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year and high MLB draft picks who have toed the rubber as series game-one starters.
• Ten of the 12 previous opening day starters have been drafted with four of them playing in the big leagues.
• Three of the starters (Tyler Anderson, Alex Keudell, David Peterson) earned All-America honors the season they served as the "Friday Night" guy.
• Of the 15 seasons played since the return of baseball at Oregon, the Ducks' opening day starter has earned first-team all-conference recognition six times (2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017).
• The 12 pitchers who have served as opening-day starter have a combined 10 first-team all-conference selections on the mound during their careers.