Ducks Begin Defense of B1G Championship

Series History

This weekend's series in West Lafayette, Ind., marks the first ever meetings between Oregon and Purdue.
The Ducks and Boilermakers were not on each other's schedules in the Ducks inaugural season in the Big Ten in 2025.

Coach Waz Returns

Oregon head coach Mark Wasikowski makes his return to Purdue where he made his debut as a collegiate head coach.
In his first season at Purdue, Coach "Waz" led the Boilermakers to a 19-win improvement and an NCAA Tournament in his second year.

B1G Title Defense Begins

For the first time since the 1975 season, Oregon heads into conference play looking to defend a regular-season league title.
The Ducks finished last season 22-8 in B1G play, claiming the top-seed in the B1G Tournament.

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 last Saturday 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 10-2, which is one of five 10-2 starts since 1963.
Only the 1963 team (12-0) and the 1965 team (10-1-1) have better starts to a season.
The 1963 team holds the program record for most wins to start a season with 12.
The Ducks can match the best start to a season through 15 games with a sweep this weekend.

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 nine different statistical categories, including six top 15 rankings.
Oregon is fifth in hits allowed per nine innings (5.64) while ranking eighth in shutouts (2), 11th in home runs per game (1.92), 12th in home runs (23) and WHIP (1.07), 15th in slugging percentage (.554), 17th in triples (5), 20th in scoring (9.4) and 24th in ERA (3.20).

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 23 home runs (1.91 per game) in its first 12 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 15th in nation in RBI per game, 16th in RBI

In his fourth season at Oregon, SR 3B Drew Smith is off to a hot start while ranking 15th in the nation in RBI per game and 16th in the nation in with 21 (5 behind national leader).
In addition to RBI, he leads the Ducks in all three slash categories (.472/.581/.944) and home runs (4),
A versatile player who has made starts at four different positions plus DH, Smith heads into this weekend with a .337/.435/.521 career slash line.
He had reached base at least once in 113 of his 123 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 eight 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 first career at UO, Molony slashed .314/.409/.574 with a .983 OPS.
He has slugged 28 home runs, which is already fifth in program history, with 87 RBI, 88 runs scored, 16 doubles, a triple and 13 stolen bases in 107 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.
Three weeks into 2026, Cooney has continued to be one of Oregon's best hitters slashing .358/.443/.566 with a 1.099 OPS while batting leadoff.

Freshman Impact

Through the first 12 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 25-for-66 (.379) with 10 extra-base hits (5 HR, 4 2B, 1 3B), 19 RBI and 19 runs scored.
The two have combined for a .431 on-base percentage and a .712 slugging percentage with a 1.143 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.
In Saturday's doubleheader, Laya homered twice and drove in three runs in the first game before going 1-for-2 with a run scored and a HBP in the nightcap.
He capped the weekend reaching base twice and driving in a run in a win on Sunday.
Making two starts behind the plate vs. George Mason, Jaksa slashed .556/.556/1.000 with a 1.556 OPS and two extra-base hits (HR, 2B).
In his first career at-bat in his first start in the first game of a doubleheader, Jaksa followed a Laya home run with a double off the left-field wall before following Laya's second homer with a single in the eighth to finish 2-for-4.
In game two of the DH, Jaksa belted a two-run home run as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth.
In his second start on Sunday, Jaksa went 2-for-4 and scored a run.
At the Las Vegas tournament and vs. Oregon State, Laya added two home runs and a triple.

Ducks starters off to hot start

Three weeks into the season, five Oregon pitchers have combined to start the 11 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 8-0 with a 1.12 ERA allowing just 10 runs (7 earned) on 26 hits in 56.1 innings while striking out 66 and walking just 19.
They have held opposing hitters to a .144 batting average with none higher than .179.

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

Will Sanford joined some impressive names as opening-day starter when he took the mound opening day.
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.