Series Preview - Oregon

The Beavers play host to the University of Oregon today in what will be the final regular season game of the year at Goss Stadium, then travel to Keizer tomorrow to take on Oregon again in Volcano Stadium in Keizer.

The Beavers will be looking to get back on the right track in the brief midweek series after dropping their second consecutive series to Washington State last week. The Beavers have lost four of their past five series', beating Arizona State at the beginning of the month to get their only series win since the beginning of April. The Beavers have one series remaining in Pac-10 play-- they'll travel to Palo Alto next week to take on the Cardinal in what seems like a must-win series.

Oregon State enters the series at 31-16 on the year, 13-11 in Pac-10 play. Although the Beavers are playing a Pac-10 foe in the Ducks this week, the games are outside the regular season series and will count towards the Beaverse non-conference record. This will be the fifth game between OSU and UO this season, with the Beavers holding a 3-1 advantage. The Beavers are 10-0 in midweek games this season, most recently defeating Gonzaga 8-1 last Tuesday. The Beavers are 4-0 on Tuesdays this season. On that note, the Beavers have won ten straight non-conference games.

The Ducks enter the midweek series at 14-37 on the season and 4-20 in Pac-10 play. In conference, the Ducks beat the Beavers earlier in the year at PGE Park, defeated Stanford once at home, beat Cal once on the road, took the opening game from UCLA.

Oregon is led at the plate by junior Curt Raulinaitis, who is hitting .280 in the year with 12 RBI's. Senior outfielder Caleb Tommasini, John's brother, is hitting .254 with a pair of home runs.

The Oregon pitching staff is led by Erik Stavert, who is 5-5 on the season. Tyler Anderson comes in at 2-8, and Madison Boer at 1-8. The Beavers will likely see either Chris Garrison, Alex Keudell, or Bennett Whitmore on the hill today, or a combination of the weekend starters on short pitch counts.

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)