Well, it’s finally here. The No. 15 Oregon softball team will take on a hard-nosed Arizona State squad in its first Pacific-10 Conference home series of what is expected to be, and has been thus far, a stellar year in Duck softball.
The team is now 35 games into the season, with an impressive 29-6 record and five wins over top-20 ranked teams nationally, including an 8-0 shutout performance against No. 6 Washington last Sunday. Yet here I am (I like to think of myself as a decent beat reporter), about to take in my first Oregon softball game of the season.
In my defense, the Ducks have only been at home four times (back-to-back doubleheaders with Weber State and Utah State) during that 35-game stretch, all of which fell during spring break. And looking at the schedule — 12 of their next 18 are at home — I think it’s fair to say I’ll have plenty of time to see what this year’s team is all about.
Sure, I’ve followed along with box scores from game to game, but not until I return to the friendly confines of the Howe Field press box will I really feel back in softball mode.
But what I have already taken notice of is the way second-year head coach Mike White has his team operating with a clear purpose of reaching the College World Series.
Looking back at 2010, White established a goal of reaching the NCAA Super Regional round, one shy of the CWS, and the Ducks achieved that, though they were defeated in two games against Missouri in Columbia.
With last season now in the rearview and valuable experience gained during that postseason stretch, along with eight returning starters back in the lineup, I find myself going back to what White said in early February.
“Our goal is to win championships,” White said. “Our first goal is to win the Pac-10 championship, then it’s to win a regional championship, then it’s to win a super regional championship, and then it’s to win a national championship.”
Now two months later, Oregon is already on the verge of grasping its 30th win of the year (the team finished with 36 all of last season) and has made its case as a legitimate threat in the Conference of Champions. And while three-game series with No. 3 Arizona State, No. 5 Arizona, No. 9 California, No. 10 UCLA, and No. 14 Stanford make up the next month and a half of Oregon’s schedule, I’m eager to see where this team winds up come mid-May.
Understanding the pure talent the Ducks returned, particularly with the sophomore quartet of Allie Burger, Kaylan Howard, Jessica Moore, and Samantha Pappas, there was never a question of whether or not Oregon would be successful in 2011. With a few key additions in Courtney Ceo and Alexa Peterson, and the senior leadership of Monique Fuiava and Kaitlin Vitek, it really seems like this team has all the right pieces to reach their goal of playing for a national title.
The hitting has been sporadic at times this season, both good and bad at some points, with strong pitching and defense as the perpetual backbone. Now, by strong pitching I have understated the year Moore is having. In her second full year as Oregon’s ace, Moore has posted a 14-3 record with a staff-best 1.21 ERA in 98 2/3 innings of work. Of her 21 appearances this season, 18 have been starts, and seven of those have resulted in complete efforts. Oh, and she also pitched the 18th no-hitter in Oregon history at home against Weber State on March 19.
Moore’s also had help from Sam Skillingstad, Brittany Rumfelt, and Mikayla Endicott in posting the top team pitching marks in the conference with a team ERA of 1.66 in 224 innings. Oregon’s team strikeouts (291) bested Arizona’s second-place mark (224) by a large margin, with Moore accounting for 120 of her own.
The point I’m getting at with this stat dump: Oregon has a huge upside offensively, and it has arguably the strongest pitching staff in the most dominant softball conference in the entire country.
It sounds impressive because it is. And if the Oregon bats can maintain consistency from game to game, I truly believe this team could be in for a lengthy stay in Oklahoma City (site of the CWS) come June.
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