Feelings of anticipation, nervousness and anxiety were all going through the minds of the No. 19 Oregon (34-27 overall, 6-12 Pacific-10 Conference) softball team Sunday.
Again the Ducks had to wait to hear their name called by the NCAA selection committee. But, unlike last year the Ducks did not have to wait until the very last invites to see their name appear.
“Yeah, I was really nervous,” senior centerfielder Jill Robinson said. “I don’t really know how the selection committee works, and we had a bad weekend so I didn’t know if that would be the final determining factor for us.”
One thing that Robinson and the Ducks do know is their first opponent.
Fifth-seeded Oregon will travel to Baton Rouge, La., to face a familiar foe in No. 2 seeded Southern Mississippi (56-10). The Ducks lost to the Golden Eagles in their first tournament of the year in the championship round. Southern Mississippi defeated Oregon, 3-0, behind the strong pitching of Courtney Blades, the all-time NCAA strikeout leader.
“This time of the year is always a stressful time of the year for us,” head coach Rick Gamez said. “Not only for the pairings, but also playing in the top conference in the country.”
All eight teams in the Pac-10 made it to the regional tournament, with five of the eight as No. 1 seeds. Four will host. Washington, UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State all host a regional site, while Stanford, the other No. 1 seed, travels to Michigan.
“They look at the regional sites and who can host and who can’t,” Gamez said. “At this time I don’t think that Stanford is in a position to host. So, they go to another somewhere else and be the No. 1 seed.”
The surprising development in the selection process was that No. 9 California, a team tied with the Ducks for seventh in the Pac-10, got a three-seed in Region No. 6 and stays on the West coast to face Florida at Fresno State.
“There’s some awfully tough teams in some of the regions,” Gamez said. “Cal goes in as No. 3 and we go in as a No. 5, but I think our strength of schedule holds a lot of water.”
Washington remains in Seattle to face Army in its first game. Other teams playing there are Mississippi State, which takes on Tennessee- Chattanooga, and Utah, which faces Western Illinois.
Arizona and Arizona State will both remain in the Valley of the Sun as they both host regions. The Wildcats face Middle Tennessee State and the Sun Devils take on Coastal Carolina.
Defending national champion UCLA will also be home when it faces Cansius in its first game.
Oregon is the only team from the West Coast to be in region No. 7. Other teams hosting are Louisiana State facing Northwestern State, and Louisiana-Lafayette taking on Hofstra.
“The travel will affect us a little,” Gamez said. “But right now the kids are more focused on playing than they are on traveling.”
The Ducks came into the selection show dropping their last three games to Washington and UCLA. In the final road-trip of the regular season, Oregon lost to the Huskies, 9-0 on Friday and dropped both ends of a twin bill in Los Angeles, 5-2 and 12-4.
Washington’s Jennifer Spediacci and Bridget Wilcox combined to hold the Ducks to two hits in a game shortened to only five innings by the eight-run mercy rule.
The big inning for the Huskies came in the fourth. Already up 4-0, the first three batters reached with none out. Jenny Topping bounced back to the pitcher but Andrea Gustafson dropped the ball to allow two runners to score. Jamie Clark cracked a double to left field, driving in two more runs. Shannon Walsh added a base hit to run the score to 9-0.
Junior first baseman Triawn Custer was hit in the face fielding a ground ball in warmups before the UCLA double header. She was unable to play thereafter.
Christi Shelton replaced Custer at first, but the Ducks couldn’t get anything going on the day. Both Amanda Freed and Courtney Dale picked up wins on the day.
In the first game, Holly Ray provided the only scoring for the Ducks when she belted her seventh home run of the season.
In the second game, the Bruins broke a 3-3 tie in the third with four runs to coast to an 8-3 win.