Oregon Ducks Baseball: #21 Oregon Ducks (13-6, 5-1 Pac-12) vs. #19 Gonzaga Bulldogs (14-4, 3-0 WCC)

When: Tuesday, 3/22/22, 3:00 pm PDT

Where: Steve Hertz Field, Spokane, WA

Watch: Here, on SWX Live

The Oregon Ducks visit the Gonzaga Bulldogs for the Bulldogs’ home opener of their season. The scheduling is curious in that: 1) It feels odd that Oregon is scheduling a one-off road game in the midst of a slew of home games, and 2) This kind of feels like traveling to Jamaica to go against the Jamaican Bobsled team.

Fortunately, the Ducks are looking at a pleasant day with temperatures in the mid-60s.

Both teams are coming off sweeps of their respective series, with Oregon having swept Utah and Gonzaga sweeping Pacific. The Bulldogs are 2-17 against Oregon since Ducks baseball came back to life in 2010, with both wins coming in 2016.

The Bulldogs don’t have the bats that Oregon does. The Ducks have 13 batters that have played 14 games or more and swing for better than a .318 average. By comparison, GU has only three comparable batters that average .311 or more.

What Gonzaga lacks in bats, they make up for in pitching. GU has six pitchers that have thrown significant (double digit and then some) innings for ERAs of 2.84 or less. The Ducks have only two pitchers with remotely comparable stats.

Today, Oregon will find out how good they are offensively against a pitching staff that has the ability to shut them down. If the Ducks can get some runs and get a significant lead, then Gonzaga will be hard pressed to rally. This will be a great game for all of us to see just how good Oregon’s offense is.