Diamond Ducks: Oregon Leaves Home to Play Hated huskies

(This is a weekly series focused on recapping, previewing and discussing Oregon Baseball. This article will be updated throughout the week after each game. Feel free to use this as a game thread for the upcoming series against the Washington huskies.)

The Oregon Ducks (18-13, 5-7) had another up and down week of baseball. The highlight being a doubleheader sweep of conference foe and bottom of the PAC Washington State (9-17, 4-8), and the lowlight being a loss to the Portland Pilots (12-19).

Ducks Win Series Against Cougars

Oregon lost the final battle but won the war against Washington State last weekend. The Ducks beat the Cougs twice in a row in a home field doubleheader. The first game finished 2-1, with all runs taking place in the third. The next game consisted of the Ducks protecting a 4-0 lead built by a couple of errors and solid hitting by Gabe Matthews, Kyle Kasser, and Jonny DeLuca. The Cougs chipped away at the Duck’s lead by scoring once in the 6th and once in the 8th, but closer Hunter Breault proved too much.

It seems that this team’s success is completely reliant on Kenjon Yovan and Matt Mercer due to inconsistent hitting and shaky midfield play.

Portland Loss Kills Momentum

The Ducks certainly produced a lot of runs in their match-up against the Portland Pilots, but it was the defensive side of the ball that doomed them in their 7-9 loss. Rising star Kenjon Yovan’s first career homer took the game to extra innings, but unfortunately fell short of saving the game, as the Pilots scored twice in the 11th.

The two conference wins against the Cougars put the Ducks in a great place to make a comeback at this late stage of the season, however, two straight losses to close out the week (including a 0-7 loss in which WSU’s Scotty Sunitsch tossed a no-hitter) means the Ducks will need to play near perfect from here on out if they want to make the postseason.

UP NEXT: THE huskies

• Oregon leads the series 146-133-1, but haven’t won in Seattle since 2010.
• The huskies are coming off five straight non-conference games in which they went 2-3.
• Injury has hit this team hard. Overall, 11 players have been sidelined at one point for the huskies this season.
• Their most impressive wins are against No. 7 East Carolina and No. 9 Oregon State, though in both cases they lost the overall series.
• Their worst losses are against nearby Seattle University (a team that Oregon beat 14-0) and a near sweep in a four-game series against Illinois.
• The huskies are a terrible team with dim-witted fans.
• This will be the 1,400th game for coach Lindsay Meggs- a sweep this weekend will give Meggs a career lead over the Ducks (12-14 currently).

PAC-12 Standings

1 UCLA (8-4) 19-9

2 Stanford (6-3) 24-5

3 Washington (6-3) 15-14

4 Oregon State (7-5) 24-6

5 Arizona State (6-6) 14-19

6 Arizona (4-5) 20-11

7 Utah (4-5) 9-22

8 California (5-7) 19-11

9 Oregon (5-7) 18-13

10 USC (5-7) 16-12

11 Washington State (4-8) 9-17

Friday, 4/13, Seattle, PAC-12 NETWORK

Saturday, 4/14, Seattle, PAC-12 NETWORK

Sunday, 4/15, Seattle, PAC-12 NETWORK