Expectations for these Ducks are at an all-time high. After back-to-back NCAA Super Regional appearances, it’s Omaha or bust for Mark Wasikowski’s 2025 squad.
You can’t go 56-0 without winning the first one, and No. 12 Oregon (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten) did just that, flexing its depth in a 9-2 win over the Toledo Rockets (0-1, 0-0 MAC).
Toledo, which finished sixth in the MAC in 2024 during a 27-32 season, won’t play a home game until March. The Rockets sent Jacob Tabor (4-0, 3.35 ERA across 37.2 innings in 2024) to the bump for the Opening Day start.
Grayson Grinsell — D1 Baseball’s pick for Preseason Big Ten Pitcher of the Year — toed the rubber for the Ducks on Opening Day. The lefty’s junior campaign is expected to be a big one, and it got off to a good start on Friday as he struck out three of the first five batters he faced.
“[It’s] definitely a confident feeling knowing they trust me to come out here on Opening Day and just do what I do and attack the zone,” Grinsell said.
A trio of back-to-back-to-back hits from Mason Neville, Drew Smith and Jacob Walsh opened the bottom of the first and gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead and their first advantage of the season. Oregon was on the board before an out was recorded.
It was a short-lived lead. Tre Mariano blistered a ball off the banner in deep left field to tie the contest at one. Grinsell settled in after that and retired seven-straight. He didn’t allow another hit for the rest of his outing and finished with 5.0 IP, one hit, one run and seven strikeouts.
“I thought he pitched well,” Wasikowski said. “It seemed like he was in command of all of his pitches. He threw them all over the plate for strikes. One guy got the solo shot, kinda ambushed him on one of them, but that’s going to happen sometimes.”
Grinsell had an unreal first start of the season. 49 of his 74 pitches were strikes and aside from the one mistake pitch to Mariano, he was untouchable and the Rockets had no answers for his stuff. Later in the season, he’d likely stay out for a few more innings, but Wasikowski typically has his pitchers on a tight pitch count in the early goings of a young season.
Unfortunately for Oregon, Tabor also calmed down after his rocky first inning. He threw back-to-back scoreless innings before Nathan Leininger relieved him in the fourth. Tabor finished with four strikeouts and allowed the lone run on four hits.
It’s not uncommon for a team’s offense to start slower than its pitching, so the game’s 22 total strikeouts weren’t a total surprise, but still an obvious storyline of the first game of the season. After the Ducks’ 10 strikeouts on Friday, they’re on pace for 560 total Ks in their 56-game regular season.
“I’m not discouraged about the way they swung the bat,” Wasikowski said. “[Toledo] threw a lot of really good arms at us today. They threw an All-American to start, they threw three other guys that are touching 94 miles-per-hour on Opening Night… I was pleased with our effort.”
After the second inning, neither offense recorded a hit until the bottom of the sixth inning when Walsh launched a ball out to left to plate both Smith and himself. Oregon’s all-time home run leader’s 41st career bomb game Oregon gave the Ducks a 3-1 advantage.
“I’m just going to try and stick to my approach the best I can,” Walsh said. “When I do that, good things happen.”
The blast from Walsh also put Leininger in line for his first loss of the season. Oregon’s Ryan Featherston earned Friday’s win with his two innings of two-hit, one-run (unearned) ball. He fanned three across his 35 pitches.
Toledo got an unearned run in the top of the seventh on a passed ball, but a string of three-straight hits from Ryan Cooney, Jack Brooks and Carter Garate opened up a two-run inning to open up a comfortable 5-2 lead to take into the eighth. Toledo reliever Josh Laisure got tagged for two earned runs on three hits and a walk on just 11 pitches. He only recorded one out in his first outing of the season.
“That was a good product we put out there tonight,” Wasikowski said. “I really appreciated that after [Toledo] chipped away a little in the top of the seventh, I thought our guys really responded with four real quality at-bats in a row to kind of put an end to that.”
Oregon earned a quartet of unearned runs in the eighth on a string of errors and balks. In all, Toledo finished with more errors (four) than hits (three).
The Rockets used five total pitchers in its season-opening loss. Oregon used three as Seth Mattox threw a scoreless eighth and ninth in his Ducks’ debut.
Oregon now holds a 1-0 all-time record over Toledo. The two teams will face off twice tomorrow, with the first game slated to start at 11:05. Collin Clarke will get the start for the Ducks while RJ Shunk will look to even the series for the Rockets.
