After two heart-breaking, seventh-inning defeats at Portland State Tuesday, the Oregon women’s softball team is looking to turn its season around this weekend in the Bay Area.
And, if you’re the Ducks, in the midst of a three-game slide and losers of eight of 11, the worst schedule to have is one in the Pacific-10 Conference. Head coach Rick Gamez, however, is trying to keep up his team’s optimism as they embark on a three-game road trip against two of the nation’s top five teams.
The Ducks (23-21 overall, 1-2 Pac-10) travel to San Francisco to take on No. 4 Stanford today for a 2 p.m. matchup, and No. 5 California on Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s not easy going on the road, especially in the Pac-10,” Gamez said. “We’re just trying to keep the team positive and stay positive for seven innings.”
At Wednesday’s practice, Gamez said the focus was for the Ducks to stay strong for the duration of the games. In the second game of a doubleheader against Portland State, the Ducks surrendered a three-run lead in the bottom of the seventh to lose 8-7. Portland State also won the first game in the last at-bat.
“We’ve just stressed working hard for seven innings, which is something we fell short of in both games [against Portland State],” Gamez said.
Gamez has not announced the starters for the series, as he said he will decide just a couple hours before game time.
Junior Connie McMurren (8-11) and sophomore Andrea Vidlund (9-4) will most likely see action on the mound, along with sophomore Lisa Wangler (4-5), who is second on the team with a 3.11 ERA and leads the team with a .387 batting average in the leadoff spot.
Senior first baseman Triawn Custer has been hot of late for the Ducks. Custer tied Oregon’s career home run list with two homers against the Vikings Tuesday. One more shot over the fence will give her 34 as a Duck, which would break the mark set by Jill Robinson last season.
Stanford (23-3) counters with Dana Sorensen, the National Player of the Week last week. The sophomore pitcher is 17-1 on the season, including a shutout of No. 1 UCLA last week. She leads the nation with more than 12 strikeouts per game and her .024 ERA is second-best in the country.
The Cardinal is averaging nearly five runs per game, while allowing its opponents only about one run.
In a March 10 meeting with Cal, the Ducks managed just two hits in a 6-0 Bears victory. Wangler tallied the loss in that game at the National Invitational Tournament.
“Cal is a really good club,” Gamez said. “They have a solid lineup one through nine.”
The Bears (39-4, 0-3) are looking to bounce back from three straight loses to open conference play.
Veronica Nelson leads Cal with 13 home runs and 35 RBI this season. Defensively, the Bears’ .979 fielding percentage is third-best in the nation.
“We’re just gonna go down there, play hard and see what happens,” Gamez said.