Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

Oregon enjoyed some home cooking in sweeping Stanford last weekend, and now Pac 12 Player of the Week Ryon Healy and the Ducks hit the road to face Seattle(17-25, 7-10 WAC) on Tuesday and Wednesday and a weekend series at Washington State(20-20, 7-11).

The Ducks will look to Jeff Reed in the opener at Seattle. According to the U of O,

The Ducks and Redhawks are meeting for the fourth straight season with Oregon holding a 7-1-1 record in those games. The Ducks have an overall 16-1-1 series record against Seattle. Last season Oregon swept a three-game series in Eugene winning by scores of 6-0, 5-4, and 6-1. In game one Alex Keudell and Tommy Thorpe combined on a six-hit shutout in the win. The Ducks scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to win 5-4 in game two. Thorpe got the win. The Ducks finished the sweep in game three behind JeffGold who allowed just one run on five hits in 6.1 innings.

Tuesday’s game and Wednesday’s game will be played at separate venues.

The last time Oregon and Seattle met in Washington for a two-game series, the first game was played in Tacoma and the second was played in Bellevue.

Wednesday’s starter for the Ducks has not yet been annouced.

For the weekend Oregon will remain in Washington to face Pac 12 foe Washington State. Tommy Thorpe and Cole Irvin will get the starts for the first two games of the three game weekend series vs the Cougars. Oregon then steps into Big 10 Country for a three games series with the Ohio State Buckeyes (May 10th-12) before returning home. This is the second eight game road trip for the Ducks this season. The last eight game road series started at Arizona State and continued to Oregon State, Cal and Portland. Oregon went 6-2 in that stretch.

The times for the road trip:

Seattle games, Tuesday(6pm), Wednesday(4pm)-

Washington State: Friday, (6pm), Saturday(2pm), Sunday(12pm)

No television for either series at the time of this post.

Oregon Ducks This Week:

Mar 2, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA;            Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Wednesday night was another good example of why they play the games in College Basketball. Five of the Top 25 teams went down, including 6^th Ranked Miami, 7^th Ranked Georgetown and 24^th ranked UCLA. Oregon also had a gift from both Washington State, who beat Cal in Pullman 73-61 and Stanford tool out Cal 83-70.

So, what does this mean for the Ducks heading into the weekend? Oregon now has a half game lead over UCLA and a one game lead over Cal.

Winning tonight at Colorado will get Oregon the Pac 12 Title, and the #1 Seed in the Pac 12 Tournament(6pn, ESPN2). If they lose, they have to win on Saturday at Utah. From there things get a little muddled as far as who gets what. The Ducks could still get part of the title, but it would be shared.

We are also at the point of the year where a win can make or break the bubble for teams. The Ducks are not at risk in this area. Their body of work on the year speaks for itself and winning will keep things on the positive – plus teams on a winning streak tend to look better than a team on a five game losing streak to the Committee making the ultimate decision.

March Madness looks like it may have started a little early, but I doubt that any college basketball fans are complaining.

Oregon Ducks This Week:

Geoff Thurner/GoDucks,com

It was a good weekend to be a Duck. Oregon’s Spring sports kicked into gear with Baseball and Softball both beginning their seasons. Some teams getting to the tail end of the 2012-2013 season also had victories.

Oregon Men’s Basketball had a victorious road trip this past week beating both Washington and Washington State on the road. Saturday’s game was a little more challenging with the ejection of Tony Woods in the first quarter for an elbow to the head of Washington State’s Brock Marion, but E.J. Singer helped win it in overtime, 79-77. The rankings should be kind to the Ducks this week as quite a few teams fell in the polls over the weekend. Oregon should return to the Top 20.

If you follow Oregon Athletics I don’t need to tell you that it has been a rough year for Women’s Basketball. Oregon played a solid game on Sunday night vs Washington State and won 65-60. It is just their fourth win of the season, but for what this team has been through with injuries this year, it was a victory.

Oregon Softball and Oregon Baseball both continued their young 2013 campaigns on a winning note.

Sophomore Righthander Jake Reed set the tone early in the opener vs Honolulu in Hawaii. The Ducks blanked the Warriors 3-0. In game 2 it was more of the same, Junior Ryon Healy got off to a hot start with three doubles and Junior Closer Jimmie Sherfy earned his first save of the season in the 5-4 victory. Game three featured the debut of Freshman starting pitcher Cole Irvin, who did not disappoint. He went seven innings, surrendered a run on five hits, walked two and struck out four in a 9-5 win. Oregon, with the four games series secured in the win column, goes for the sweep Monday at 3:30PT.

Oregon softball is also off to a solid start for the season. The Ducks played in the Eastern Desert Classic this weekend and went 4-1.  On Friday, they opened by beating Long Beach State 10-1 and Utah Valley 9-1 in six innings.  Saturday saw a split, a win 4-0 over Louisiana Monroe and a loss 6-5 to Hawaii. The Ducks returned in the Sunday Finale to beat Cal State Fullerton in shutout fashion 6-0. For the series Senior Pitcher Jessica Moore was 1-1, struck out 9 and walked 1 in 11.1 innings pitched.

Duck Softball heads to Palm Springs this week (March 22-24) for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic and will face five teams: Virginia(Friday), Cal Poly, Nebraska(Saturday) and UNLV, San Diego State(Sunday)

Oregon Ducks This Week:

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Justin Phillips is Sports Reporter for Newsradio 1120 KPNW in Eugene, Oregon