Oregon Baseball Begins 15 Game Homestand, Face Portland Tuesday Night

Oregon Pitcher Jeff Gold will get the start in the first homestand for the 2014 Oregon Baseball team Tuesday night against Portland. The Ducks have started the season 7-0 vs Hawaii and Loyola Marymount with solid pitching and timely hitting. The Ducks are led by their Seniors, but the bigger story is that Freshman hitters are finding ways to get the most of their early season playing time.

PK Park, Eugene Oregon on Media Day. KPNWSports

The Ducks are off to their best start since 1963 in part because of a solid Starting Pitching Staff including Freshman Matt Krook. Through two games he has 19 strikeouts . He has given up eight hits and five runs and a 2.03 Earned Run Average through two games.. Against Loyola Marymount he threw for 6 1/3 innings and posted eleven strikeouts. Several other newcombers for Oregon have stepped up at the plate.

Freshman A.J. Balta is hitting .353 on the season. In 17 at bats he has six hits, with three runs, two doubles, and a triple. He has helped his teammates as well with six RBI’s. Freshman Austin Grebeck is also hitting for a high mark for the Ducks. At .400 the Outfielder has four hits, two runs and a double in ten at bats for Oregon who opens their biggest homestand of the season starting Tuesday night against the Portland Pilots.

Oregon starts their home season at PK Park with fifteen games in a row that includes six different teams coming to Eugene to face the Ducks for the better part of the next month. Following the one game with Portland, Cal State Fullerton comes to town for a three game set this weekend. Upcoming matchups in the homestand include Seattle(March 4th, 5th), Ohio State from the Big Ten(March 7th, 8th, and 9th), and the beginning of Pac-12 Conference play with USC(March 14th, 15th, and 16th) and Utah(March 21st, 22nd, and 23rd)

Oregon’s Home Opener is Tuesday night, First pitch set for 6pm PT from PK Park.