It's pretty simple today folks. Simple, but important.

Baseball: With yesterday's 7-3 loss to the Bavers combined with Arizona's walk-off 1-0 win, the two teams are now tied atop the Pac 12 standings with two games left. Today, freshman Jake Reed – who's had shaky outings his last few times on the mound – takes the bump to try and help Oregon take the magic number down to 1. Game Access: 1PM. TV: Root Sports/KEZI "9.2" whatever that means. Radio: OSN affiliates.

Softball: With yesterday's 4-2 loss to Texas (due in large part to a 3 run HR in the 5th inning), the Lady Ducks need to win a pair today to advance to the WCWS. Jessica Moore looks to rebound and take the Ducks to their first WCWS since 1989. First game is at 2 PM, second (if necessary) is at 5. TV: ESPN. Radio: 1320AM.

Go Ducks!

We're in the thick of arguably the greatest year of Oregon Sports ever, and big reason for that is the success of the Spring sports. With Golf and Softball entering the post-season, and baseball vying for their first conference title in generations, I'll be posting a Weekend Preview on Fridays, and a Weekend Review on Mondays for the next few weeks, or until it's just baseball.

The following is the preview for the weekend of May 18-20:

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Here are the events going on this weekend:

Baseball: @ Arizona. Saturday at 6 PM and Sunday at 12 PM (PT). Reason it's big: With the win last night, Oregon is 1.5 games ahead of the Wildcats for the P12 lead. How to follow: Twitter @OregonBaseball, The ATQ Open Thread, The Radio. TV? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Softball: Doubleheader today vs. #9 Missouri. Significance: Oregon is trying to cement their status as a high seed in the NCAA tournament, and possibly host a regional.

Lacrosse: Saturday at 1 PM they play against Navy at Pape field for the right to go to their first NCAA tournament. Score is currently 1-0 Navy.

Track and Field: You know that we're good at T&F stuff. The NCAA championship long-form events are this weekend at Hayward Field. Go watch them.

Plan 2.0: Decent turnout... Meet outside entrance to Mo Center @ 10:30. Find Seats. Watch Football. Dual-Sporters can head over to the baseball game (hopefully the weather is nice enough that outfield seats are acceptable). Anyone left after that can take it from there in regards to food/fight club/TPing TDP.

Since nobody seems to know if we have anything in the works for this year's spring game, I'm going to propose one below. It's pretty simple.

Game is at 11 AM. Baseball game is at 2 PM. My suggestion is thus: Find a central meeting space for say, 10:30 AM on Saturday, something easy to find (like outside the entrance Mo Center). Go find seats somewhere (hopefully in the sun like last year. that'd be nice). Watch football. Make stupid bets on fake game. Drink Dr Pepper and Sunny D through a Red Vine Twizzler.

Then, those who are making a day of it and want to continue the fun can head over to the baseball game vs Cal starting at 2. I think there's some sort of promotion for reduced/free tickets, though I can't find it anywhere at the moment. Probably in a press release tomorrow.

If people REALLY want to go nuts and make a day of it, I think Mcminamins would still be open at 6 or post-game. I don't know if any of us could stand a full day of each other in real life though...

Thoughts?

I've been following some Ebay auctions the last couple of days to see how the rookie-autograph cards of our most recent graduates have been selling. Cards I've been able to find have been: LaMichael James, Josh Kaddu, Darron Thomas, Cliff Harris, David Paulson, Lavasier Tuinei. Over the last 3 days, I've been keeping track of what the average price for each player's card was. Now, what do you think the order from highest average price to lowest is? Hint: LMJ is the highest.

Oregon Ducks at Hawaii Rainbow Warriors

8:05 PT :: Les Murakami Stadium :: Honolulu, Hawaii

Radio :: 750 The Game AM (Portland) :: KSCR 1320 AM (Eugene)

Pitching Matchup :: Jake Reed (RHP) UO | Jarret Arakawa(LHP) UH

The Ducks look to rebound from their 4-1 loss last night against the Rainbow Warriors as true freshman Jake Reed makes his University of Oregon debut on the islands. Here's hoping for ALL THE SAC BUNTS! Follow along below.

You'll notice that I've changed my ATQ avatar. To purple. The reason is thus:

This weekend marks 1 year since the tragic drowning of two universally loved seniors in my high school class Connor and Jack while on a Mr. Axemem retreat at the coast. Their deaths really shocked,stunned, and brought our community together. While the pain was different for many and the wounds at various levels of health, it still hurts.

I've changed my profile picture on Facebook to the purple square, same as last year, and it seems right to have all of my "profile pictures" reflect the same. So please no jokes, no poking fun, no harassing me about it. Save it for later; I'll change it back Monday.

Best,

Axemen23

No, this is not a joke. I'm not kidding. Swear to god. Here's the statement from CK

“As in all cases, we educate our players with the information we feel will be beneficial to them throughout the process but ultimately, the decision is left up to the players,” Oregon Head Coach Chip Kelly said. “I will always support Darron in his decision and want to thank him for everything he has done for this program. He obviously has played a major role in elevating Oregon football to new heights and I wish him well in the future.”

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Kenny Wheaton's interception return for a touchdown in 1994 against Washington is universally known among Oregon and college football fans as simply, "The Pick." This brought up an interesting question in my household tonight: What about other plays in Oregon history? The Run? The Fumble? I ask you, ATQ to fill out this form with your answers, and we may revisit this conversation in the dog days of summer.

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Since I haven't figured out a solution for the "I need a car to mark a previously unclaimed spot" part of this equation (If you're willing to donate your car as a placeholder, contact me via email [it's on my profile page TANNEN] and I'm sure we can repay you in some sort of alcoholic way), here's how we're going to do this:

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Alright, now that most of the people who would have tickets actually have them (though I'm sure a few of you will luck into/stubhub/steal some), It's time to plan the very first ATQ bowl tailgate. Benzduck and I will be taking care of the paperwork/phone calls/etc to get this done, even though he doesn't know he volunteered yet, but here's what we need from you (aside from fully charged mouths throats and lungs).

Number of people you'd be bringing, if more than yourself.

Preferred arena (Parking lot, Golf Course Parking Space (that's what they do at UCLA), Sports bar/venue, other

Whether you can contribute to the cost of a parking spot (Best guess is that a parking pass will be pretty close to $50. I wouldn't dare try to park something there myself, but if we can all chip in a few bucks and buy a pass for someone, so be it).

Gracias, and VAMANOS PATOS

We'll be following a time line-style diary format for this one, with picture illustrations, because there isn't time to give it the novel it deserves. Warner Bros has the movie rights though (cost them 3 bags of Twizzlers) so stay tuned. On with the show!

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Old Macdonald had a quack...but then he lost it.

• Adam Jude has a piece in the Register-Guard today that speaks of the recent history of close games when the Ducks travel to Tuscon, the most recent one being the 44-41 2OT thriller in November of 2009.
• Moseley's Wednesday Update providing readers with tidbits such as the fact that senior OL Ramsen Golpashin appears to have a serious knee injury and may be done for the year. Tough break for the redshirt senior.

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Buckle up ladies and gentlemen, our two-day football reprieve is over! Kicking off the 3rd week of college football is a power vs. power SEC clash between the LSU Tigahs and the Mississippi State Fighting Cowbells. As much as it might re-open a recent wound or two, we do need to get on the LSU bandwagon, since they could really, really help our SOS as the season goes forward.

So sit back and enjoy the sounds-like-a-rodeo fun, and get ready for tomorrow night when the Fighting Brotzmans take on Eric Page and the Toledo Golden Rockets in an upset alert game, since next week is Boise's rematch with Nevada.

A long time member of the Register-Guard's staff, most recently as the Sports Editor, Ron Bellamy will retire Friday. His final column can be found here. He's the guy who's held the standard of writing at the Guard to be above and beyond what you'd see at many other mid-to-large market sized papers, and has been responsible for covering the Ducks since the mid-80's.

To me, Bellamy will always hold my utmost respect and appreciation, because it was Ron who sparked my interest in journalism in back in the fall of 2005 when I did an 8 week job shadow with him as part of an 8th grade project. He's been a mentor and role model for me ever since then as I've become more and more enamored with the profession; I'll be entering the University of Oregon in a couple of weeks as a journalism major. He's helped me to further my knowledge and passion for writing since '05 in more ways than one; He introduced me to Rob Moseley in 2008 for another project, and Rob's guidance and mentoring since then has proven invaluable. It's fair to say that without his guidance, I wouldn't have followed, if not found the path that I've traveled in following the only professional field I want to enter.

This post may seem a bit self-serving, but I believe that we all owe the man a standing ovation for his 36 years of unyielding service and coverage of Oregon athletics. He's a pro, and "one of the good guys" in every sense of the phrase, a standard to which many should look to, and will be dearly missed. Thanks Ron.

I suppose this is as good a place to discuss as any...Who from ATQ will be making the trek (or walk down the block if your name is Musgrave) to Jerryworld? Any interest in meeting and greeting either Friday night or Saturday sometime? Might I suggest a laxative-eating contest @ Musgrave's lawn? I don't think he'd mind... I T ' S 7 5 W O R D S N O W, T H A N K S.

Well, we're one week into fall camp, and one week from my previous report. Nobody in Florence wanted to drive an hour both ways to watch the ducks practice. Eh, cest la vie. Anywho, this is going to be more of a bullet points recap, then I'll answer more specific questions below. Mostly because I lost my handy-dandy notebook. Probably when I was shaking Gus Johnson's hand. As always, no pictures due to my lack of a media pass. I will also be including numbers next to newcomer's names so that you may too begin to learn how to identify our future stars.

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Football's back, and it feels so good! The soccer bleachers were full, and the bass pumping for the official start of the Oregon Ducks' 2011 football season. With that comes the return of the HS crew's wrap-up series, though without pictures this year due to increased crackdown on multi-media at practice. Without further ado: Here's what I've got for you today (about 75% offense due to the location of the seat I was able to get @ 1:00.

1. These are the players I will not be mentioning in this post more than once, because they either A) Are players that are established and key contributors to the team; we know what we'll get from them and there are no surprises or B) They were an hour late to practice and didn't really do much (no word yet on reason, I'll bold them in the list): Darron Thomas, Lamichael James, Kenjon Barner, Josh Huff, Lavasier Tuinei, David Paulson. Also, the players who led the stretches at the beginning of practice (a good indication of the captains list) were: Thomas, Paulson, Boyett, Pleasant, Weems.

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@Thirty2zero Aaron Brooks I'm looking for creative part time jobs.... Any ideas?

Former University of Oregon point guard and 2010 NBA Most Improved Player (I think it came with a Kia Rio or something) Aaron Brooks has taken to Twitter tonight/this morning to ask his followers for possible part-time jobs he could get now that he's locked out of his current gig with the Phoenix Suns. I figure we could help him out during this difficult time, so post your suggestions here, or send them to his twitter account if you've got such an urge (and a twitter handle of your own). Previously suggested are:

Pigeon breeder

Radio show host

Kevin Hart stunt double

Peanut salesman

Fat Camp Counselor

*Game played in memory of Connor Ausland and Jack Harnsongkram

**This isn't quite "Duck News" but its still worth seeing. Its absolutely mind blowning the amount of support and love that's shared when a community packs the house to honor two fallen young men.

KVAL news video from the night

Photo from 1 hour before the game.

KEZI sports-news video, with an interview with Terrell Turner and Darrion Weems who were both at the game from tip until finish.

Photo from after the game, as students form a ring around the team's post-game huddle at mid-court.

Register-Guard article

"Connor’s in the house," Greg Ausland, Connor’s father, said to the crowd at South’s gym during a halftime speech along with Saman Harnsongkram, whose son, Jack, also died in the accident. "He wouldn’t miss this for anything."

"It was always our dream as kids growing up to someday fill every bleacher up there," said VanderKley, who along with teammates Gus Craig and Aaron Honn had been classmates with Ausland since kindergarten. "Connor is looking down on us, giving a great big smile and knowing all these people were here for him.

Apparently I should make a post, so here goes.

I have the opportunity/privilege to attend a press conference sunday morning in Glendale that will be attended by Brent Musberger, Herbie, Erin Andrews and Mike Bellotti. I'm doing this for the school paper, but I figured I'd see what you guys thought I should ask them (obviously in jest, but if there's a good one or two on here I'd certainly consider it).

Oregon, our Alma Mater,
We will guard thee on and on,
Let us gather 'round and cheer her,
Chant her glory, Oregon!
Roar the praises of her warriors,
Sing the story, Oregon,
On to vict'ry urge the heroes
Of our Mighty Oregon!

Time: 5:30 PT. TV: ESPN.

Teams: THE Ohio State Buckeyes vs.The  Arkansas Razorbacks

Key Matchup: Quarterbacks Ryan Mallet (Arkansas) vs. "Tattoos" Pryor (tOSU).

This is the final BCS game before the National Title game, so hopefully it's the best one yet.

Other acceptable topics: Who here thinks this will be the final game from the Buckeyes who got hit by the NCAA Banhammer? Is Pryor an NFL QB? Is Petrino the sleaziest coach in the SEC? French Fries or Onion Rings?