Though Penn would top the War Tigers, Rider would take down Coastal Cackalacky—both in extras—and Oral Roberts would establish state baseball dominance over The Okie Pokes, The Diamond Dores had no such issues with their #4 seed, the Eastern Illinois University Sex Panthers, dispatching them 12-2 in a game that was effectively over by the 3rd inning.

Our Saturday opponent, the Mighty Ducks, though, nearly got Jaime Moyer’d to death, as Xavier’s soft-tossing crafty lefty Brant “Dr. Zaius” Alazaus had the Jesuits up 4-3 until the 7th inning. In the 7th, all those pitches Dr. Zaius threw in the 1st inning caught up to him, and Xavier had to go to the pen. If not for those damn near 40 pitches he threw in the first, he likely finishes the game and I’m writing an entirely different preview.

What did we learn about Oregon yesterday?

1) They have no starting pitching. Seriously. They went with an intentional Johnny Wholestaff approach in Game One of a Regional as a #2 seed. That’s... well... really dumb unless you have no other choice. They appear to have no other choice.

Yesterday, they used 6 pitchers—Mercado, Grinsell, McShane, Anderson, Dallas, and Mollerus (their closer)—none for more than 2 innings. Of the 6, the only one who popped for me was their closer, Josh “The Mollusk” Mollerus. All of the others looked adequate.

2) You want to open with a strong first inning on the mound against them, and keep any obvious patterns/tendencies in mind. Their coaches seem to do their game plan/oppo research well, as The Mighty Ducks came out with a clear battle plan. Then, once Dr. Zaius had time to regroup, he put their offense on roller skates for innings 2 through 6. As such, Brownie needs to keep this in mind and not be afraid to pitch backwards, or off Hunter Owen’s tendencies, against the first few hitters.

3) They have a perfectly cromulent defensive shortstop in Drew “Aleister“ Cowley. He made a few dark magic plays look routine.

4) Their leadoff hitter is quirky and fast. Rikuu Nishida tries to play like Ichiro. More kids should try that.

...and that’s about it.

To learn more about Oregon, click here.

‘23 Record: 37-20 (16-14 Pac 12).

Player to Watch: #21 Jr. 3B Sabin “Cedric” Ceballos (.342/.439/.637 with 9 2B, 1 3B, 15 HR, and 61 RBI), though with a .300 team average, there aren’t a lot of holes in the Mighty Ducks’ Lineup.

Anchor of Gold Tiger Beat Hottest Pitcher: #9 Jr. RHP Jace “The Pride of Umpqua Community College” Stoffal (6-2; 2.83 ERA; .184b/avg). Of course, he last pitched in late April, as he has some sort of finger injury. No clue whether he will be available for this Regional, but he is their best pitcher.

*Note: Seeing as Oregon went with a Johnny Wholestaff bullpen game against Xavier, it would appear 1) Stoffal is definitely still hurt, and 2) They don’t have any starting pitchers.

On the Mound

Saturday @ 8:00pm CT on SEC Network/ESPN+

#33 Vanderbilt Jr. LHP Hunter “Mr. Manager” Owen (4-0; 3.15 ERA)

vs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, as Oregon has already showed their hand as a Johnny Wholestaff team.

The Lineup

See you in the comments.