Oregon softball stumbled in their opening weekend, with defense, pitching, and batting all being mistake-prone at one point or another. All of the teams they faced were in the NCAA tournament last season
and likely will be back this year. Oregon’s record out of the weekend is 2-3, which isn’t a great start, but it’s also not time to panic quite yet.
This weekend, the Ducks were supposed to be headed to The Farm to play in Stanford’s new stadium, but the venue is not quite ready. That has forced the Cardinal Classic to be moved offsite at Santa Clara University and West Valley College.
Oregon will only play one game on Friday, a 9 am match against Cal State Fullerton. On Saturday, they play another early game against Fullerton at 9:30 am, and then face Kentucky at noon. On Sunday, Oregon was to face Cal Poly and then Stanford, but the Cal Poly Mustangs withdrew from the tournament, so the Ducks only play against the Cardinal at noon.
Cal State Fullerton
The Titans did not make the NCAA tournament last year, but that does not mean they will not be a challenge this weekend. Last weekend, they split games against (#24 at the time) Ole Miss. Yesterday, they defeated Kentucky 6-2. The Ducks will have to be awake and ready from the early opening pitch.
The Titans offense is led by second baseman Colby McClinton, who is hitting .381, with three doubles, two HR, and 10 RBI in 21 AB. Six Fullerton batters are hitting .300 and above, so they can score runs if the Ducks get sloppy.
Pitching is led by Trisha McCleskey (3-2), who was a 3.35 ERA in 31.1 innings, with 9 BB and 27 SO.
Cal State Fullerton is Oregon’s sole game today, and their opening game on Saturday.
Kentucky
The Wildcats appeared in last season’s NCAA tournament, where they were knocked out of the Clemson Regional by Clemson. This season, they were picked in the preseason to be 15th out of 15 SEC softball teams. They are currently 6-2.
Kentucky lost yesterday to Fullerton in their first game, but rebounded and beat #13 Stanford, 11-7.
The Wildcats have six batters hitting .333 and above, led by Karissa Hamilton with three doubles, two triples, two HR, and 9 RBI in 25 AB. Six different batters have at least one home run so far this season.
Pitching is led by Hailey Nutter, who has pitched 17 innings and is 3-0 with a 2.65 ERA with 7 hits and 5 runs, 2 BB and 24 SO.
#13 Stanford
We’re familiar with the Cardinal, from the Pac-12 days, and of course they are a perennial NCAA tournament team. Stanford is 5-1 and presents the stiffest competition this weekend, but they can be beat, as Kentucky demonstrated.
The Cardinal has seven players hitting .313 and above. They are led by Taryn Kern, who has hit .647 in 17 AB with 5 doubles, one triple, one HR, and 7 RBI. Ava Gail is hitting .529 in 17 AB with two doubles, one HR, and 9 RBI. Six different Stanford batters have hit at least one home run.
Pitching is led by Zoe Prystajko, who sports a 1.31 ERA in 10.2 innings of pitching, with 2 runs, 3 BB, and 19 SO.
This weekend has a challenging enough slate for us to make some determinations as to whether last weekend was a case of opening season jitters, or whether there are deeper issues with Oregon softball. I’m not as concerned about defense and pitching as I am the batting for the Ducks; however, all facets of Oregon softball need to improve and show up this weekend. If the Ducks want to be a serious top-10 contender, then they must win all of this weekend’s games.
But enough chatter – let’s play ball!
