Ducks Open Series at UCSB on Friday

Familiar Foes

UO and UCSB have established a West Coast rivalry meeting on the diamond 16 times since 2021.
Five of those games came during the 2024 season when UO avenged a UCSB series win in Eugene by winning the Santa Barbara Regional Tournament.

Weekend Winners

With three straight wins to open Big Ten Conference play, the UO has continued to pile up series wins.
Oregon has won 12 consecutive weekend series dating back to April 4-6, 2025.
Oregon has won 18 of 19 series since the start of the 2025 season.

Road Test

Oregon is in the midst of its first extended road test.
The Ducks play three games at UCSB to wrap up a five-game trip.
After a home game on Tuesday, UO has four more road games to make it nine of 10 away from home.

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 was 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.
The 1963 team holds the program record for most wins to start a season with 12.
Heading to UCSB, Oregon's 21-4 start through 25 games ties for the best since at least 1963, matching both last year's team and the 1963 squad.
A series sweep this weekend would give Oregon its best start in program history through 28 games, while a series win would match the 1963 and 1964 teams for the best start.

Success in all three phases of the game

The Ducks head into this weekend ranked in the top 25 in the nation in 12 different statistical categories, including seven top 15 rankings, six top 10 rankings and five in the top five.
Oregon is second in hits allowed per nine innings (5.80), third in home runs (53), fourth in WHIP (1.09) and shutouts (4), fifth in home runs per game (2.12), eighth in slugging percentage (.572), 13th in fielding percentage (.983), 16th in strikeouts per nine innings (11.2) and hit by pitch (55), 17th in hits (271), 19th in ERA (3.45) and 21st in runs (222).

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 53 home runs (2.12 per game) in its first 25 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 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 pacing B1G at the plate

In his fourth season at Oregon, SR 3B Drew Smith is off to a hot start while leading the Big Ten Conference in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS, while ranking second in on-base percentage (.001 behind the leader) and RBI (4 behind leader), and sixth in home runs (2 behind leader).
A versatile player who has made starts at four different positions plus DH, Smith heads into this weekend with a .342/.441/.543 career slash line.
He had reached base at least once in 125 of his 136 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 .301/.395/.552 with a .947 OPS.
He has slugged 29 home runs, which is already fifth in program history, with 90 RBI, 93 runs scored, 17 doubles, a triple and 13 stolen bases in 115 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.
Five weeks into 2026, Cooney has continued to be one of Oregon's best hitters slashing .355/.425/.582 with a 1.007 OPS while batting leadoff.

Freshman Impact

Through the first 25 games of the 2026 season, a pair of Ducks' freshmen have made major impacts on UO's success.
RF Angel Laya and C Brayden Jaksa have combined to go 46-for-130 (.354) with 18 extra-base hits (11 HR, 6 2B, 1 3B), 34 RBI and 33 runs scored.
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.
In the Indiana series, Laya added his first career walk-off hit to give Oregon a series sweep.
Of UO's 53 home runs, Jaksa has the longest two with one traveling 467.03 feet and another going 457.29 feet.

Ducks starters off to hot start

Six weeks into the season, five Oregon pitchers have combined to start 15 of 16 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 13-1 with a 2.27 ERA allowing just 29 runs (26 earned) on 55 hits in 103 innings while striking out 131 and walking just 36.
Individually, Sanford ranks fourth in the nation in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (4.02).

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.