Oregon baseball will compete in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season and will begin play Friday in the Santa Barbara Regional.

The Ducks (37-18, 19-11 Pac-12) earned an at-large berth into the tournament after a strong regular season, but are coming off an 0-2 record and a pool play exit in the Pac-12 Tournament last week in Scottsdale.

Last season, the Ducks ran all the way to the Super Regional round before falling just a win shy of the College World Series.

“The stuff that they experienced last year should naturally rub off on others that didn’t experience that last year or even the previous year or two years,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “It’s not really something you can plan out. It’s something that those kids gather, something unique each one of them and then they bring to the team and locker room with what they learned and experienced.”

Oregon will open the regional round as the No. 3 seed in their pod against No. 2 seed San Diego, the winners of the West Coast Conference. Depending on how the games go on Friday, the Ducks will either play host Santa Barbara – the No. 14 overall seed in the entire tournament – or fourth seed Fresno State on Saturday.

The double elimination regional round means the Ducks have to lose twice to be knocked out, and they are very familiar with both the host Gauchos and nearby Toreros.

Oregon lost a three-game series with the Gauchos back in March, dropping the first two games before firing back to take the finale. Santa Barbara’s coach, Andrew Checketts, is a former Oregon assistant and pitching coach from 2008-10 and graduated from West Linn High School in 1994.

“You look back and run through scouting reports on what they pitched to you in the past and what their pitchers did,” Oregon outfielder Bryce Boettcher said of a potential rematch with the Gauchos. “But it’s later in the season and it’s obviously a new series, so you definitely learn from it, but we’ve got to come out hot this weekend.”

Before any potential matchup with Santa Barbara the Ducks will have to get through San Diego, who they played last year and the year before.

After two disappointing losses in the Pac-12 Tournament last week, Oregon is focused on attacking each day rather than what could be down the line.

“We’ve got to stay on it and go for it,” Oregon pitcher Kevin Seitter said. “We know that this team’s success runs through us, and we take a lot of pride in that. We’re sweating the details every single day, and today is the most important day so we’re going to crush it.”

What channel is Oregon baseball’s Santa Barbara Regional game against San Diego?

Who are the announcers for Oregon baseball’s Santa Barbara Regional game against San Diego?

• Broadcast team: Mark Neely and Greg Swindell

What time is Oregon baseball’s Santa Barbara Regional game against San Diego?

• Date: Friday, May 31
• Start time: Noon

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.

Activists pushing San Diego to take over the city’s investor-owned utility aren’t letting last year’s defeat of a similar effort in Maine deter their goal of establishing a nonprofit power company. They recently submitted petitions bearing more than 30,000 signatures from residents who want the City Council to let voters decide the matter this fall.

Advocates say a municipal takeover of San Diego Gas & Electric would deliver cheaper rates and a faster, more affordable, and more equitable transition to clean energy. Still, the measure faces long odds from skeptical council members who have twice rejected similar proposals.

The campaign is the first public power ballot initiative since 70 percent of voters in Maine rejected a proposal to take over the state’s two largest utilities. A group called Power San Diego delivered several cardboard boxes filled with petitions to the San Diego city registrar’s office on May 14. If just over 24,000 of the signatures on those documents are deemed valid, the Council will have to decide whether to put the question to voters in the next election.

What’s happening in Southern California reflects growing frustration with the high rates and lackluster service investor-owned utilities often provide and a desire to accelerate the green transition. Similar campaigns are afoot in Rochester, New York, and San Francisco, and Empire State lawmakers recently introduced a bill to buy out Central Hudson Gas & Electric and create a public power authority. 

“Across the country, people are talking about public ownership of energy,” Sarahana Shrestha, a New York state assembly member who co-sponsored the bill, told Grist. “If we want a just transition — taking care of workers, and making sure that it’s affordable and brings benefits back into communities — there’s no effective way of doing that while you’re still answering to shareholders.”

San Diego residents pay some of the nation’s highest electricity rates, and by one estimate, more than a quarter of customers are behind on their payment. (The utility has attributed its high rates to the cost of everything from wildfire prevention to building transmission lines and other clean energy infrastructure.) Takeover advocates say the move would save residents 20 percent on their utility bills because a nonprofit model eliminates the need to provide shareholders with a return. It estimates the cost at $3.5 billion, citing a study commissioned by the city last year.

That analysis found that the utility’s 3.7 million customers could save 13 to 14 percent annually if the city bought the utility’s grid assets for $2 billion and created a municipal utility. The math is less favorable if the cost of the buyout goes up, however; At a price of $6 billion, ratepayers could face additional costs of $60 million over the first decade but see long-term savings after 20 years.

San Diego Gas & Electric vehemently opposes the effort and has backed the political action committee Responsible Energy San Diego to block it. The organization calls itself “a coalition of diverse San Diego leaders” fighting “a reckless ballot initiative to force a government takeover of the energy grid.” The utility has contributed well over $700,000 to the committee, according to records on the San Diego Ethics Commission website. 

That’s more than twice what Power San Diego has raised and reflects a dynamic in which political action committees supported by Maine’s two investor-owned utilities received 34 times more money than public power advocates. Activists there say that allowed the utilities to finance a robust campaign of advertising and misinformation to defeat the referendum.

San Diego Gas & Electric has hired Concentric Energy Advisors, the same consultants who helped defeat the effort in Maine. The company’s study commissioned by the San Diego utility estimated the cost of a public takeover of the grid at $9.3 billion. 

Matt Awbrey of Responsible Energy San Diego told Grist the city should address other priorities like affordable housing rather than a proposal “to create a new government-run utility that has no plan, budget or verifiable cost estimates.” He said the cost of the takeover likely would bring “higher taxes, higher electric bills, and/or cuts to essential city services we all depend on.” 

Power San Diego intended to gather 80,000 signatures by July, which would have placed the proposal on November’s ballot. But it lacked the funding for such an effort and decided to seek 30,000 signatures, or roughly 3 percent of registered voters. That would require the City Council to vote on whether to put the matter to voters.

Dorrie Bruggeman, senior campaign coordinator for Power San Diego, doesn’t expect the council to do that; it already has rejected such a proposal on two occasions, with council members calling for greater detail on costs and projected revenues. Council President Sean Elo-Rivera is among those with reservations.

“I have no love for corporate monopolies reaching into the pockets of everyday working people,” he told the local news outlet La Jolla Light. “But this is a very complex and important issue and I don’t think this is baked enough to go to the voters.”

Regardless of any qualms the council may have, Bill Powers, chair of Power San Diego, said his organization has prompted an important discussion within the community and sparked voter engagement on the issue. The next step is getting policymakers behind the idea.

“If we can get a couple of council members that are open to public power, if we can get a mayor who is open to public power, which we’ve had in the past, then the movement isn’t dependent on the endpoint of a ballot initiative,” Powers said.

Such campaigns are gaining momentum elsewhere. Public power advocates in Rochester, New York, want the city to evaluate the costs and benefits of a municipal utility. In San Francisco, city officials are currently working with the California Public Utilities Commission to determine how to set a fair price for Pacific Gas & Electric’s distribution grid, in the hopes of creating a citywide public power system. 

On May 17, New York Assemblymember Shrestha and State Senator Michelle Hinchey introduced a bill to create the Hudson Valley Power Authority, a public power entity that would buy out Central Hudson Gas & Electric. The utility has drawn criticism for its high rates and a string of billing failures since 2021. If the measure passes, the Hudson Valley Power Authority would seek to lower rates, improve service, and hasten the green transition while protecting labor rights.

Joe Jenkins, Central Hudson’s director of media relations, told Grist the proposed takeover would involve “significant hidden costs, loss of jobs, and loss of tax revenue for towns and schools,” adding that rates for municipal utilities in New York are nearly 9 percent more expensive than those of investor-owned utilities. 

Shrestha said the legislation reflects her constituents’ growing interest in public power. Her office has hosted seven town halls this past year to discuss energy democracy. “People are so fed up with getting bills that are inconsistent and late,” she said. “People are really excited about learning how we can actually get public power done.”

CineQuest.com are fans themselves, which means they “get it”. For years, they’ve been partnering up with licenses for brands with some of the most passionate fanbases — including Supernatural, Disney, and more. This year, they’re back with a brand new round of exclusives for some of your favorite movies, shows, and beyond.

They’ll be on the show floor at Booth #4539, and just like always, you can pre-order their exclusives for both pickup at the show or delivery after. 

[UPDATE May 30]

We have just met CineQuest’s first San Diego Comic-Con exclusive, and we love it. There’s no cone of shame around loving this Pixar’s Up Dug & Squirrel enamel pin, which is a shared exclusive with Holzheimer’s Distribution (Booth #3745). In celebration of the 15th anniversary of the film, this LE 1600 pin is now available for pre-order for pick-up at the show for $14.99 on either the Cinequest or Holzheimer’s site or for shipping after for $15 on either the Cinequest or Holzheimer’s site. It also comes bagged on a colorful backing card featuring the SDCC 2024 official exclusive logo.

CineQuest also have a scary good offer for fans — when you stop by Booth #4539, you’ll also get a free Monster High sticker sheet, featuring Draculara, while supplies last.