Oregon Ducks Close The 2018 Season Hosting Arizona Wildcats
Oregon Baseball will finish the 2018 season hosting a motivated Arizona Wildcats squad who have their eyes on a larger prize.
The Oregon Ducks are looking for some positive momentum to end the season after being swept on the road against the UCLA Bruins last weekend. UCLA showed the Ducks pitching flaws and also kept them off the base pads for the sweep. The Oregon Starters including Kenyon Yovan helped Oregon to an early lead, but the Bruins were able to decimate the Ducks bullpen in big ways through the weekend outscoring the Ducks 37-7 in three games.
Oregon enters the final weekend of the regular season at home playing host to the Arizona Wildcats. The Ducks have a better home record this season at 17-9, compared to their road record which will clearly need work at 6-18 this season.
Jakob Goldfarb is the lone Oregon Duck hitting over .300 entering the final weekend. Despite the losses at UCLA, he showed leadership throughout the weekend. Senior Kyle Kasser enters Senior Weekend batting .277. The Ducks are batting .238 as a team while opponents are hitting at a .268 clip against them.
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Kyle Kasser, Daniel Patzlaff and Taylor Travess are the three Seniors that will be playing their final games in an Oregon Uniform this weekend. Next season for Oregon looks brighter with new arms coming into the pitching rotation.
The Arizona Wildcats are on the other side of the Standings from the Oregon Ducks and with a sweep this weekend in Eugene, have a good chance at making the NCAA Tournament. It is a place that Oregon Head Coach George Horton was hoping would be a destination for Oregon this season, but it was not to be.
Arizona Pitcher Cody Deason was with the Oregon Ducks in 2015, but was dropped by the program. He was picked up by the Wildcats and worked hard to establish himself. Four years later he is a key Starter in the Arizona rotation. He has no hard feelings against the Ducks, but returning to Eugene with something to play for is a motivation factor for Deason.
Oregon and Arizona open their three games series on Thursday at 7 pm. Game 2 is set for Friday at 7 with the series finale slated for Saturday at 2 pm PT.