Sports

PORTLAND — A new major player emerged as a dark horse to finish highly in the NTT IndyCar Grand Prix of Portland in Saturday morning’s Practice 2. 26-year-old Marcus Armstrong finished with by far the fastest lap, ending with an incredible time of 58.30 seconds. The second-year Meyer Shank Racing driver finished 8th in Portland last year, and looks to rise up the championship standings. Armstrong, a New Zealand native, sits in 13th ahead of the Grand Prix of Portland. A high finish would mean a potential move into the top 10 in the standings, a major boost for Meyer Shank’s second-highest performer.

After finishing with the fastest lap time in last night’s Practice 1, four-time NTT IndyCar champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing finished a distant second behind Armstrong in the second round of practice. Palou’s fastest lap clocked in at a still-incredible 58.61 seconds, but by the nature of Portland International Raceway, a deficit of even 0.3 seconds can…

PORTLAND — Four-time NTT IndyCar champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing emerged as the frontrunner on Friday afternoon to win the 2026 Grand Prix of Portland, finishing with the fastest lap time in Practice 1 at 58.57 seconds. Palou finished third in the Grand Prix of Portland last year, and looked eager to improve on that result. He currently sits at the top of the championship standings, and holding steady in that spot would mean he’d hold sole possession of third all-time in IndyCar championships.
 

The Spaniard finished with a lap time just 0.09 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global. The Florida native finished with a time of 58.66 seconds. Kirkwood is looking for a second win on the year and currently sits in third in the championship standings. Last year, he finished 20th at the Grand Prix of Portland, so a marked improvement from him looks more likely than ever.
 

Rounding out the top three was Rinus…

EUGENE, Ore. — The No. 11 Oregon Ducks (43-16, 20-10 Big Ten) and Oregon State Beavers (45-14) met on Sunday night for the first time in the history of the NCAA D1 Baseball Championship. The Ducks’ pitching staff looked unhittable for the third straight night, while the Beavers’ staff navigated command issues that ultimately would be their downfall.

A 4-1 win would mark the eighth for Oregon in its last ten games vs. Oregon State, a tilt never before seen in the matchup’s history.

Corvallis, home to the Beavers, and Eugene, home to the Ducks, sit just an hour apart along I-5, yet for Oregonians, the two schools couldn’t be more different. The schools’ long-standing rivalry has largely been a one-sided affair, with their respective athletic proficiencies never quite lining up. Winners of three national championships in the past 21 years, Oregon State’s baseball program has become one of the most renowned in the country. For the first two of those, in 2006 and 2007,…

Game Recap of No. 11 Oregon’s win over Washington St. Available by Addison Cerezo

EUGENE, Ore. — The 2026 edition of Oregon Baseball already looks different than early-season expectations. The Ducks have gone to rotations at first base, left field, and designated hitter. Maddox Molony, a program staple and former budding national star, now typically hits behind three different freshmen, and Collin Clarke, the longest tenured member of Oregon’s starting staff entering the season, has spent both the Big Ten Tournament and the Eugene Regional as a reliever. 

One constant for an Oregon team succeeding on the fly has been sophomore ace Will Sanford. The billing Saturday night had all the hype you could ask for: a sold-out PK Park, Oregon hunting a spot in the regional final on Sunday, and a Washington State opponent who had already played spoiler once on the weekend. In his postseason debut, Sanford tossed the game of his life. A career high in strikeouts…

Feature piece by Charlie Martindale on sophomore starting pitcher Will Sanford is available now!

EUGENE, Ore. — The No. 11 Oregon Ducks (42-16, 20-10 Big Ten) and the Washington State Cougars (31-27, 15-9 Mountain West) faced off in the opening game of the Eugene Regional winner’s bracket on Saturday night, and the Ducks asserted their dominance accordingly with a 4-0 win. 

The narrative switched multiple times throughout the game. An instant classic pitchers’ duel preceded a mad dash for an insurance run that ended with a flourish.

Both starting pitchers began the game strong, each facing the minimum through two innings. Oregon’s sophomore righty Will Sanford did so by way of the strikeout, while Washington State’s senior righty Luke Meyers pitched to contact.

Sanford’s early strikeouts included two of senior shortstop Gavin Roy in the first and fourth innings.

“I thought he was good,” Roy recalled. “Early, he attacked with the fastball,…

EUGENE, Ore. — Game 2 of the Eugene Regional featured nothing if not excitement as the No. 11 Oregon Ducks beat the Yale Bulldogs into a pulp by the score of 14-2. 

It was the Ducks’ (41-16, 20-10 Big Ten) and the Bulldogs’ (30-14-1, 17-6-1 Ivy) first-ever meeting, a situation that led to a light-hearted overall feeling in PK Park.

Game 1 of Oregon’s sixth straight postseason appearance coincided with Yale’s first postseason appearance since 2017, when it was flattened by a juggernaut Oregon State squad at the Corvallis Regional. Eugene celebrated its seventh time being a stop on the road to Omaha since 2009 with a thunderous offensive showing.

The game started uncomfortably for the Ducks, with sophomore righty Cal Scolari allowing three consecutive two-out walks before striking Yale’s junior second baseman Collin Sloan out to escape the jam.

Oregon didn’t take the threat lightly and rattled off three straight hits, the last of which came off the bat of…

Game Recap of Yale at Oregon Available by Addison Cerezo

Since being built in 2009, PK Park has been a stop on the Road to Omaha seven different times. As Oregon Baseball has built themselves back into a legitimate program on the fly, the seven Eugene regionals and Super-Regionals have delivered some of the best and worst moments in the “new” era of Oregon Baseball’s history. Whether you draw the line at the re-establishment of the team in 2009, or in 2020 when Head Coach Mark Wasikowski took the helm, a slow development in the program has been palpable for years. 

Ducks Baseball: Sixth straight regional appearance 

• 2021: A 39-win Ducks team returned to postseason play for the first time since 2015. It was a perfect start for Oregon in the first Eugene Regional since 2013, but their two wins to open the weekend were erased by LSU pitching with back-to-back losses.
• 2022: Oregon won 36 games to prove their status as a regional threat…

EUGENE, Ore. — Duck fans packed Jane Sanders Stadium for Day 2 of the NCAA Regionals as the No. 14 Oregon Ducks clashed with the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Both teams advanced after thrilling Day 1 comebacks. Mississippi State (40-18) outlasted Saint Mary’s with an eighth-inning walk-off win, while Oregon (41-14) rode a spectacular fourth-inning grand slam from Ayanna Shaw to power past Idaho State. 

Mississippi State ultimately claimed a historic 4-0 victory, forcing the Ducks into a turnaround. They dropped into the elimination bracket to face the winner of the Saint Mary’s and Idaho State matchup, needing three consecutive wins to save their season. The Ducks faced off against the Saint Mary’s Gaels but fell to them in a 5-4 battle as Oregon’s season ended. 

“We gave everything we got,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “This group, when you talk about love and support, they had it all. They all wanted to work hard for each other, and I really appreciate…

The lights have come on. This was a day game. The PK Park faithful is still bigger than normal. The Big Ten regular season has extended five innings longer than we thought.

Coming off two hard-fought games against each other, the No.16 Oregon Ducks (38-15, 20-10) and No.17 USC Trojans (42-14, 20-10) expected nothing different. And that’s exactly what they got. Another extra-innings affair led to a 6-5 walk-off win for the Ducks.

In the bottom of the first, a leadoff single by junior second baseman Ryan Cooney and a hit by pitch to freshman outfielder Angel Laya created a chance for the Ducks to strike first. Senior third baseman Drew Smith brought home Cooney on an RBI groundout, and just seven pitches later, the lead doubled thanks to a single off the bat of freshman utilityman Brayden Jaksa, bringing home Laya.

In the second, junior shortstop Maddox Molony kept the momentum, delivering a solo home run into the USC bullpen. His seventh longball of the…

EUGENE, Ore. — The postseason atmosphere was electric at Jane Sanders Stadium as a sea of green and yellow welcomed the No. 4 Oregon Ducks at the opening round of the NCAA Regionals. The Ducks (40-12) faced the Idaho State Bengals (37-18) Friday night to start Oregon’s weekend off in an anticipated rematch. The previous encounter at the Oregon Classic saw the Ducks force extra innings, which ended with a walk-off by Elon Butler in the bottom of the eighth to secure a 4-3 victory. The game had a similar outcome — even with an early lead, the Bengals were unable to hold on, as the Ducks took the win 5-1. 

“We’ve had to take on strain at different times of the year,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said of ace Lyndsey Grein being out for the game. “We watch these guys take it on for her, and they're ready to go. We always talk about putting on strain, and it’s not negative, so that’s a blessing to have the opportunity to take on strain for each other.” 

Idaho State…