10 in a row
- Oregon won its 10th straight on Tuesday when the Ducks dropped a 9-1 loss to Portland.
- The 10-game hitting streak is the longest in Oregon baseball history since the 1964 team went 12 straight and 21 of 22.
- The 2012 team and the 1969 team both had 10-game winning streaks.
- The current streak began in Game 2 of the Washington State series on April 18.
An international fragrance
Walsh earns Pac-12 honor
- Jacob Walsh earned Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week honors after leading Oregon to a sweep of Arizona last weekend.
- Walsh finished the weekend with a whopping 1.763 OPS while batting .533 (8-for-15) with three home runs, one double and five runs scored.
- He hit a pair of homers in Oregon’s 15-3 series-opening win and another in the Ducks’ 8-5 clinching victory. He added three hits in Saturday’s win over Oregon.
The Ducks set a single-game home run record
- Oregon went deep six times in the series opener against Northwestern State to set a school record for home runs in a game.
- Sabin Ceballos hit a pair of home runs while Gavin Grant, Dominic Hellman, Tanner Smith and Jacob Walsh all passed once.
- The six home runs in a game surpassed the previous record set by five against Central Connecticut State in the first round of the regional tournament in Eugene on June 4, 2021.
Rewriting the record book
- During head coach Mark WasikowskiTwo full seasons at Oregon, the Ducks rewrote the program’s record book for offense.
- Oregon’s record-breaking offensive season ended in 2022, with the Ducks setting records in eight major statistical categories.
- Oregon posted school bests in batting average, hits, runs, home runs, RBIs, doubles, total bases and hits.
- The Ducks also finished in the top 10 in walks (6th) and stolen bases (T6th).
- Of the eight new records, three broke school records set in 2021, when the team broke long-standing records for runs (376 in 2010), home runs (48 in 1974) and RBI (332 in 2010).
- While they increased the home run record by 27 during the Wasikowski era, the Ducks increased the home run record by 76 and the RBI record by 84.
Three years in a row?
- Oregon has set a new school home run record in each of the last two seasons.
- The Ducks extended the home run record with 27 long balls in the first two full seasons of Mark Wasikowski era.
- Oregon set a new school record with 75 home runs in the 2022 season, a year after hitting 56 to break the old record of 48 set in 1974.
- The Ducks have hit 43 home runs heading into the streak against Oregon State with the long ball in 18 of the team’s 26 games.
- Oregon scored six in the Xavier series (4 games), none against UC Santa Barbara, seven against San Diego (4 games), five against UCLA (3 games), five at Washington State (3 games), 13 against Northwestern State (4 game) and five at Arizona (3 games), while scoring one in each of their midweek games against Niagara and Portland.
- The Ducks are averaging 1.65 home runs per game and if they keep that pace up they will finish with 91 in their 55 game regular season schedule.
- Oregon hit 71 in the 56-game regular season last year, with 42 coming in the first 26 games.
The Ducks add a Pac-12 series win over the last remaining opponent in the Wasikowski era
- Oregon’s series win at Washington State in mid-March allowed Oregon’s head coach Mark Wasikowski to check the last box in terms of winning a series against the other teams in the Pac-12 Conference.
- The Ducks had at least one series win over the other nine Pac-12 teams in his first two seasons at the helm.
- Oregon has two series wins over Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon State, USC, Utah and Washington during the Wasikowski era.
- The Ducks are 48-30 (.615) in games against Pac-12 teams under Wasikowski, including non-conference games against Oregon State and Pac-12 Conference Tournament games against Arizona and Arizona State.
A record maker
- Heading into the Oregon State series, OF Tanner Smith already holds eight school records (5 career; 3 single seasons).
- He set the at bats record and tied the RBI record Tuesday against Portland.
- He set a career high for hits with his first of nine against Northwestern State, tying a career-best Gabe Matthews (2017-21) has 246 career hits.
- Smith’s first Ducks career hitting record came in the 2022 season when he broke the record for runs scored in Game 1 of the Washington Series (April 14).
- The Ducks left fielder broke the career hitting streak against San Diego on March 3 in Game 2 of the series against the Toreros.
- In 2021, Smith broke the school single-season doubles record when he finished with 24 (breaking the old record of 20 held by Gabe MatthewsMitchell Tolman and Ryan Healy).
- Last season, Smith added to his resume for single-season hits and multi-hit games, finishing with 85 base hits (KC Serna – 81) and 27 multi-hit games (tied Serna).
- Overall, Smith can add six more career records in the 2023 season.
- Heading into the OSU series, he needs just two doubles and five home runs for those records.
- He ranks in the top five in his career in at bats, games started, runs, hits, home runs, doubles, RBIs, bases on balls, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, multi-hit games, multi-RBI games and assists.
Smith sets records at PK Park
- It’s not just the total career OF records Tanner Smith is threatening.
- The Ducks left fielder already holds the records for runs scored, hits, RBIs, doubles, total bases and at-bats at PK Park (which opened in 2009) and has a chance to set a number of others during his final season in Eugene.
- He set the 2022 season record for runs, added the record for hits in the second game of the doubleheader at UCSB on Feb. 25, set the new record for home runs in the third game of the USD series, the at-bats record in the UCLA series finale and the Northwestern State streak records for doubles and RBIs.
- With three games against Oregon State this weekend, there’s a good chance Smith can add some records.
- Heading into the series, he needs to start two games and hit two homers to set those records.
Nishida is hard to ignore
- Leading off or batting second 25 times while starting all 26 games this season, 2B/RF Rikuu Nishida has made his presence felt on the main paths.
- The Osaka, Japan native already has 13 sacks, including two in two separate games.
- If Nishida maintains his current pace of 1.63 stolen bases per run, he will easily set a new Oregon single-season record.
- The Ducks play 14 series during the season, as well as 10 midweek games.
- The Oregon record for stolen bases in a season is 18, set by Don Banderas in 1965.
- The most stolen bases in the modern era of Oregon baseball came when Aaron Payne had 17 in 2014.
Power coming from a flock of ducks
- While Oregon continues to hit home runs at an unprecedented rate in the Wasikowski era, more than a handful of players are contributing with long balls.
- The Ducks have had 12 different players hit a homer, the second-best by a team in the Ducks’ modern era and just one behind last year’s total of 13.
- Nine Ducks have multiple homers, the second-most by a Ducks team since 2009.
- Five players have already hit five or more ringers, with another hitting four.
- Oregon’s 43 home runs heading into the Oregon Series now rank fifth in program history.
Stoffal leads the rotation
- When Oregon takes the field on Feb. 24 against UC Santa Barbara, JR RHP Jace Stoffal was on the mound after missing the Xavier series.
- Last year’s Sunday starter for the final half of the season, Stoffal put together his best performance in his final start of the 2022 regular season.
- On May 21 against No. 25 Arizona, Stoffal recorded both his first career win and his first official quality start in a dominant performance against the Wildcats.
- He allowed just one run on three hits in 7.0 innings while striking out three and walking just one. He retired 16 batters in a row at one point.
- Oregon hopes Stoffal, who was erased from his season-opening start, can have the success of previous pitchers who have taken the mound Friday night for the Ducks.
- Of the 11 pitchers who entered the season as the team’s No. 1 starter, four played Major League Baseball, nine were selected in the MLB Draft (2 – 1st Rounders) and one claimed Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year honors.
A trio of freshmen open the rotation season
- When FR RHPs Leo Wellman, Matthew Grabman and Jackson Pace start in the season-opening series against Xavier, they became just the eighth, ninth and 10th Oregon pitchers in the modern era to crack the opening weekend rotation.
- The list of freshmen who will start on opening weekend is impressive, with six of the previous seven selected and four of the seven reaching the big leagues.
- Prior to his first weekend start last year, the last freshman to start a game in the season opener was David Peterson, who ended up being selected in the first round of the 2017 MLB Draft by the New York Mets with the no. 20.
Mollerus steps into a closer role
- Oregon boasts a proud tradition of fantastic closers who have locked up wins for the Ducks with clutch late games.
- San Francisco Transfer RHP Josh Mollerus stepped in as Oregon’s shortstop after a two-time first-team All-Pac-12 selection Colby Summers graduated.
- He found immediate success in the role, earning his first win as a Duck in the season opener and his first Oregon save in the series finale against Xavier.
- Heading into the Oregon State series, Mollerus had yet to allow a hit in 13.2 innings spanning nine appearances.
- In four seasons at USF, Mollerus worked in a variety of roles before settling into the bullpen in 2022, when he finished with a 4-2 record and a career-low 3.96 ERA with five saves and the career 52 hits.
- He also had a 1.07 WHIP and held opponents to a .221 batting average last season.