Series Preview
#19 Nebraska Cornhuskers (26-7, 11-1 B1G) at #21 Oregon Ducks (24-9, 8-4 B1G)
Location: PK Park, Eugene, OR
Dates: April 10-12th
Times (all CDT): Friday @ 5pm **Time Change!**, Saturday @ 4pm, Sunday @ 2pm
Coaches: Will Bolt (7th season, 196-133-1) & Mark Wasikowski (7th season, 317-197)
TV/Stream: All games on B1G+
Radio: All Nebraska games on Huskers Radio Network, Huskers.com, Huskers App
After a tough first 3 weeks of a non-conference schedule, Nebraska has rolled through the easier part of its schedule.
Prior to the mid-week game against an impressive Kansas team, only a single game against a hot veteran pitcher stopping them from winning 22 in a row. In baseball, it doesn’t matter what level you are playing, that streak is still impressive (just ask the Back to Back Big Ten Champion teams that struggled in the midweek against South Dakota State and Omaha). Now the team gets to find out if the momentum will carry them against the two best teams remaining on its weekend schedule and secure a top 4 seed AND potentially a home regional.
Oregon rolled through the early part of its schedule, with only a slip up against an average UC Irvine team, and a loss in the baseball version of the Civil War to Oregon State. Since a trip to UC Santa Barbara, the offense which had been mashing the ball (it still leads the Big Ten in home runs and total bases) has stalled a bit. They’ve averaged just 3 runs per game in their last 8 games, which included two mid week losses to Portland sandwiched around the team’s first weekend series loss at Michigan.
It’s hard to imagine a whole team has gone cold for an extended period of time. Then again, Nebraska fans only have to look to last season (sorry for the PTSD) to see how a good offensive team can just go ice cold for a couple stretches. Is the past couple weeks just a blip for the Ducks and they just need some home cooking to regain their power? Or can Nebraska’s strong pitching staff capitalize on their recent woes?
Pitching Preview
Game 1: RHP Ty Horn (1-1, 4.70 ERA) vs. RHP Will Sanford (4-1, 2.54 ERA)
Game 2: RHP Carson Jasa (6-1, 3.64 ERA) vs. RHP Collin Clarke (5-2, 2.72 ERA)
Game 3: RHP Cooper Katskee (5-0, 2.79 ERA) vs. RHP Cal Scolari (4-0, 2.81 ERA)
For the first time really all season, Ty Horn struggled mightily, and to the point he couldn’t get an out in the 4th inning. His pitches, which have lived at the bottom of the strike zone, just didn’t seem to have a lot of downward bite to them against a substandard Penn State offense. 3 doubles and 2 home runs took advantage of the elevated Horn pitches. Horn always seems to dig deep and be at his best against top competition, and bounces back big time the week after a rough start.
The Carson Jasa experience continues for the Huskers. He set a career high with 11 strikeouts against Penn State. Other than the disasterous Auburn start, he’s struck out at least 8 batters in each start. He is up to 66 strikeouts in 42 innings over his 8 starts. Joba Chamberlain and Shane Komine are the only Husker pitchers with more than 65 strikeouts over their first 8 starts in a season.
As is his custom, Cooper Katskee gave up 2 runs early, then cruised through a season best 7 innings. Michael Anderson got 2 home runs off of him, but really nothing else of consequence came from the Nittany Lions offense against the senior. It was a real luxury to have him go so deep to help make up for the short outing by Horn. The staff has a good balance of different types of starting pitchers that can all potentially get deep into games. It’s been a while since a Husker team could say that.
After a freshman season in which he started and you saw glimpses of greatness, Will Sanford has taken the Friday night baton and run with it. He’s pitched almost the exact same innings (39) as last season, and has dropped his walks from 39 to 23 and increased his strikeouts from 42 to 51. Like Ty Horn, he is coming off his worst start of the season, giving up 6 runs in 2.2 innings at Michigan. He hasn’t really struggled like that at all this year. How will he bounce back?
When Saturday starter Collin Clarke is on, he really has a ton of movement on each one of his pitches. Really looks like Koty Frank (shoutout Frank Koty!) when he was stalking the mound for the Huskers. He eats up innings, having gone 6 innings in all but 2 starts so far, and doesn’t waste pitches. He will be in the zone on nearly every throw. He can get in hitters heads to, he is very demonstrative on the mound. If you can watch the video on the tweet below, he has something to say after nearly every strike thrown.
The highest ceiling may be Sunday starter Cal Scolari. As a redshirt freshman at San Diego last season (Man, I hate those guys!) he was the West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year. He has 46 strikeouts in just 32 innings. He and Katskee are both undefeated on the year. The series may come down to who gets their first blemish on the year.
Scouting Report
On offense, the Ducks looked to a pair of All-Conference juniors to help replace all the production lost off of last year’s team that belted a conference leading 115 home runs. The two middle infielders who had big time seasons a year ago, have gone in different directions in 2026.
Second baseman and leadoff man Ryan Clooney is taking his game to another level, he is batting .359 and already has as many extra base hits as he did all of 2025. He has 33 runs scored and has 28 RBIs, which is outstanding for a leadoff batter. Cooney is also he biggest threat the Ducks have on the base paths, stealing 11 out 13 bases on the year. His partner, short stop Maddox Moloney is going through his worst season in Eugene. His batting average is down almost 80 points from a season ago to just .235. After hitting 8 doubles and 15 home runs last year, he is at 6 and 5 respectively this season. As D1Baseball’s Burke Granger shows, he has lost the ability to hit the off-speed pitch, batting .225 lower on sliders than last year and .144 lower on change-ups.
One Duck that has been good his whole career, but really exploded this season is third baseman Drew Smith. He really worked on his swing in the offseason and it seems his batting average speed has really taken off. He is leading the team in batting at .386, home runs, with 10, and RBIs, at 38. His OPS is third in the conference behind Penn State’s Michael Anderson (Sorry for bringing him up again.) and UCLA’s Will Gasparino (Who you will find near the top of nearly every offensive category.). Oh, and by the way he is probably the best defensive third baseman in the Big Ten.
One player who has been slumping recently but is capable of changing the outcome of a series with the power in his bat is Dominic Hellman. Listed at 6’6” and 281 lbs, the senior hit 13 home runs in his first healthy season last year, and despite his recent lack of success still has 7 doubles and 8 home runs on the season, including hitting 4 home runs in an earlier series against Northwestern.
One freshman to keep track of, that may be the next great Oregon player is right fielder Angel Laya. Their top recruit is batting .296, but is second on the team in home runs with 9. He also has 25 runs scored and 28 RBIs.
Oregon has the best bullpen Nebraska has seen in a while. The staff as a whole is 2nd in the nation in WHIP at 1.13. Closer Devin Bell transferred in from D-II Western Oregon. He was the closer there as a freshman and sophomore, before becoming an All-American starter as a junior. He has 7 saves this season, an ERA of 4.26, 11 strikeouts and 5 walks in 12.2 innings.
The guy the Ducks go get to get them out of a jam is sophomore Tanner Bradley. After not seeing the field much as a freshman, with only 4 appearances, he is leading the team with 15 this year. And it’s not hard to see why. In his 25.1 innings, he has struck out 41 batters and walked 8. His 1.42 ERA leads the regular on the team as well.
The other regular out of the pen is former top ranked pitcher out of the state of Nebraska Michael Meckna. The Elkhorn South grad is second on the team with 14 appearances, and has struck out 18 in 17.1 innings.
The Ducks are an elite defensive team, fielding at 98.1% on the season, good enough for 4th in the Big Ten currently, behind Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota.
Series History
This is the first regular season matchup between the Huskers and Ducks. You may remember their only previous meeting, a 7-3 Nebraska win over the top seeded Oregon team in that horrible pool play structure.
On Deck
- This is the Huskers’ first weekend series where both teams are ranked since 2015. When #17 Maryland swept #18 Nebraska in College Park, MD.
- Former Oregon Duck Mac Moyer is leading the Big Ten in both batting average (.406) and hits (52). He is 3rd in on base % (.500) behind Iowa’s Miles Risley, and former Husker and current Purdue Boilermaker Aaron Manias.
- The NU pitching staff is holding opponents to a .215 batting average against, currently besting the previous low this century of .227 in 2005.
