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Oregon and Oregon St. Kick Off Baseball Civil War

Michael Conforto had a big series against Oregon last year. He enters the weekend hitting .408, with 51 hits and 41 RBIs, and was 4 of 6 with an additional 4 walks in Sacramento.
Michael Conforto had a big series against Oregon last year. He enters the weekend hitting .408, with 51 hits and 41 RBIs, and was 4 of 6 with an additional 4 walks in Sacramento.
(Photo by Andy Wooldridge)

#19 Oregon (31-10, 10-5) at #5 Oregon St. (28-8, 11-4) / Goss Stadium / 7:00 PM PDT / Pac-12 Channel / KEJO 1240 AM / No KPOJ 620 AM

Game NotesOregon Series Notes

Oregon St. hosts Oregon to start for the conference portion of this year's baseball Civil War, in a top-20 matchup that makes this one of the top series of the weekend.

It's also part of Pac-12 rivalry weekend, with all the natural matchups meeting up with each other.

And the stakes are huge, with the Beavers starting the series in second place in the Pac-12, 1 1/2 games behind Washington, and the Ducks just 1 game further back, in third, while the Huskies are hosting Washington St. in the Apple Cup.

The Beavers bounced back from blowing a 5 run lead Monday night in Sacramento, as the Hornets rallied for the 7-6 win, with a dominating 8-1 win Tuesday afternoon, in which Dylan Davis and Zach Reser combined to throttle Sacramento St.

It was the first action in over a week for Oregon St., after taking the last 2 games in the series from Washington St. in Pullman.

The Ducks are flying high, having won 9 straight since losing the last 2 games in their series at Washington. After taking a pair from Portland, Oregon swept a 3 game series against UC-Riverside, and then downed San Diego, before sweeping the Cougars last weekend at P.K. Park.

Last year, the Beaver and Ducks split 4 games, but Oregon St. took 2 of 3 in Eugene in the conference series, which helped the Beavers to the Pac-12 Championship over Oregon, who wound up the runner-up.

Oregon St. will start senior LHP Ben Wetzler (6-1, 0.68 ERA). Wetzler finished Monday night's game against Sacramento St., but only threw 9 pitches in the 2/3 of an inning he worked. Wetzler also took his first loss of the season the week before, in the Friday night opener against Washington St., leaving in the 6th inning of the 4-1 loss.

Oregon will counter with junior LHP Tommy Thorpe (6-3, 2.26 ERA). Thorpe allowed only 2 hits while striking out 8, with no walks, in 7 innings of shutout work in his last start last Thursday, in the Ducks 11-1 win over Washington St.

Thorpe also got the series opening 3-0 win that started last year's Pac-12 series, allowing only 2 hits in 8 innings, while striking out 7.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com