Oregon Public Broadcasting

Friday, lefthander Tyler Anderson is expected to throw out the first pitch for the Oregon Ducks baseball team. The first pitch since the University disbanded baseball as an official sport in 1981.

The reconstituted Ducks play a three-game series versus Saint Mary’s College, in California, to open the season.

George Horton is the coach.

At a press conference earlier this month, he said the first game is a good test of the team’s competitiveness.

George Horton: “We’ll get kind of a midterm of where we’re at and how we’re playing baseball. I think what we can do, we’re going to be able to pitch, I think we’re going to be able to play adequate defense behind the pitching, and I think we’re going to have tough outs through our lineups. But no big boppers there.”

When the baseball team was restarted, the school canceled wrestling.

Wrestling fans and alumni remain upset by that decision.

In a recent interview with the Register-Guard, Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny says he regrets how the wrestlers learned about the change, but he's proud of the new baseball team.

The team’s first home game, at a brand-new stadium in Eugene, is next Friday – and is already sold-out.