Another week, another top-10 team.
For the third straight series, the No. 17 Oregon Ducks will match up with another highly ranked conference opponent as they travel to No. 5 UCLA Friday afternoon.
The Ducks have dropped four of their last six outings after going 1-2 with both No. 1 Washington and No. 9 Arizona State over the last two weeks, and they will have their hands full yet again this weekend in Los Angeles.
“What we’ve got to do this week is make sure we get to the fundamentals,” Oregon head coach Mike White said. “Make sure we get strikes to swing at and that we’re being aggressive and we play error-free ball. If we can do that, I think we’ll be in the games.”
Oregon (31-10, 7-5 Pacific-10 Conference) hasn’t beaten the Bruins since the 2005 season when it took all three games from a UCLA squad that was ranked in the top 15 throughout that year. Since then, UCLA has taken 12 straight conference games from Oregon, outscoring the Ducks by a margin of 87-12 during those meetings.
The Ducks’ offense is far more potent this season than in recent history, but the Ducks will need to get on the board early. The Bruins have outscored their opponents 113-33 in the first three innings this year.
“They’re definitely a good team and they work hard,” Oregon senior center fielder Neena Bryant said. “So it can be intimidating at some points.”
Bryant recorded her fifth home run of the season last weekend, tallying three hits and one RBI with two runs scored during the series. The season has been up and down for Bryant overall after hitting well over .300 her first three years at Oregon. She’s seen that number drop to .291 in 2010.
Sophomore shortstop Kelsey Chambers is coming off another big weekend for Oregon after banging out six hits in her eight at-bats with one home run and three RBI. The Ducks leading hitter, freshman Samantha Pappas, struggled, however, going just 1 for 9 from the plate with no RBI against ASU.
“Last weekend our discipline wasn’t great on the road,” White said. “…we were swinging at a lot of pitches that we expanded the strike zone.”
Pappas does still lead the team in hits (54), home runs (11), RBI (42) and walks (17), while her team-high .429 batting average is good enough for fifth in the Pac-10.
UCLA star Megan Langenfeld has torn through the conference with a league-leading .525 average on the year. Langenfeld has not only gotten it done at the plate — ranking third in the conference with 13 home runs — but also from inside the pitching circle.
Langenfeld’s 0.92 ERA this season ranks second only to her teammate Aleah Macon’s mark of 0.81. Going 5-1 in her limited action this season, Langenfeld has struck out 35 and walked nine in her 53 innings pitched. Macon (8-1) has fanned 75 batters in just over 60 innings of work. UCLA’s Donna Kerr is actually the ace of the staff with a 16-5 record this season, throwing 10 complete games, six of which were shutouts.
Having played with Langenfeld on a traveling team before high school, Bryant said she could already see the strong work ethic at a young age.
“She’s definitely one of those workhorses.” Bryant said. “She’s really focused. She’s just really dedicated to the game, and it’s just something you can respect out of her.”
White doesn’t plan on taking too many chances against Langenfeld, saying that if the situation calls for it the Ducks will “make someone else beat us.”
Looking ahead, Oregon will host Portland State in a doubleheader next Wednesday in its final non-conference match up of the year before hosting No. 3 Arizona that weekend.
After that the Ducks will have only one series left, at Stanford, before learning their
postseason fate.
“We’re in good position.” White said. “We’re in the third spot, and if we can win this series here and then actually win all three series out, I think we’ll probably end up in the top three — which would be fantastic.”
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