Duck Baseball Broadcast Team Set

The team of Jerry Allen, the current voice of the Ducks, and newcomer Brian Prawitz, will handle the radio broadcasts for all 56 Duck baseball games during the year.

An award-winning broadcaster, Allen is in his 21st year as the voice of the Oregon football and men's basketball games. He began his career as the play-by-play voice for the Southern Oregon A's of the Northwest League.

"What a thrill to return to my roots and announce baseball again," Allen said. "To do it at the University I love, with the return of the sport I love, is an absolute dream come true. Baseball is made for radio, and I can't wait to tell the stories and follow the achievements of all of the young men who are Oregon baseball players."

With Allen encountering men's basketball conflicts during the early part of the baseball season, Prawitz will serve as the play-by-play announcer during those games, and the two veteran broadcasters will then work together for the remainder of the year.

Prawitz started his career as the lead announcer at KQEN and the Roseburg Indians. He worked in Missoula, Mont., as the play-byplay voice of the University of Montana Grizzlies' women's basketball program before moving to 710 KIRO in Seattle. Prawitz worked on Seattle Mariners broadcasts, including pregame and postgame shows. He then returned to Roseburg, where he is currently the news and sports director at KQEN, and working his second stint at the voice of Roseburg Athletics. In 2003, Prawitz was awarded the Oregon Association of Broadcasters Sports Announcer of the Year Award.

"It is an honor to be invited by the Ducks to be a part of the new baseball program," Prawitz said. "I have watched this new endeavor grow from the ground up. To be named to the broadcast team and to work with Jerry Allen and the Oregon Sports Network is the highlight of my career. I look forward to working with coach George Horton and being part of a first-class athletic department, University and baseball program."

All of Oregon's 2009 baseball games will be carried live on Oregon Sports Network stations, including flagship KUGN 590 in Eugene. The Ducks will also be heard on KUIK in Portland, and on Sundays, broadcast on 95.5 The Game as the "Sunday Game of the Week".

Other stations to carry Duck baseball are KSKR in Roseburg, KWRO in Coos Bay and KURY in Brookings. More affiliates are expected to be added soon.

The Oregon Sports Network also plans to televise 15 regular-season games times during the Ducks re-inaugural season with Joe Giansante handling play-by-play, and Rob Closs as an analyst.

Giansante is entering his 10th year as the TV voice of the Ducks, and Closs, the current basketball analyst, was a former Oregon baseball player under legendary coach Mel Krause.

OSN TV broadcasts of Oregon baseball will be carried on Comcast Sports Net Northwest, with the season opener at Saint Mary's on Friday, Feb. 20, marked for the first telecast. A complete schedule for the remaining 14 games will be finalized in the near future.