Coming off its first Pacific-10 Conference series win of the season against unranked Oregon State, the No. 19 Oregon softball team faces a daunting three-game set against the No. 9 Arizona Wildcats (36-11, 7-5 Pac-10) in Tucson beginning tonight at 7 p.m.
The last time the Ducks (33-11, 5-7 Pac-10) hit the road, they dropped all three games at California, and they struggled mightily against the pitching efforts of sophomore Jolene Henderson, who held the Ducks scoreless during her 17 innings pitched. Before that, Oregon dropped two of three against Washington in Seattle and Arizona State at home.
With seven losses in their last nine games leading up to the Civil War, the Ducks were practically desperate for a win in the Pac-10 after starting the year 28-4 in non-conference action.
Regardless, Oregon had a breakthrough at just the right time.
“I think we cashed in on our opportunities,” Oregon coach Mike White said. “I think that was the biggest thing. When we had runners out there, we scored them, and that’s what’s been missing the last few weeks.”
Oregon did just that against Oregon State’s pitching duo of Tina Andreana and Paige Hall, and scored at least seven runs in each of the three victories. Cashing in on the right opportunities, as White said, made a huge difference in the way the Ducks performed.
“If someone didn’t get it done, the person behind them did,” freshman Kailee Cuico said. “And I feel like that was huge.”
While solid pitching from sophomore right-hander Jessica Moore has been a constant in 2011, the offense has been struggling to keep the pace in conference play. Before the Oregon State series, Oregon was hitting just .222 in league play, a mark that bested only the Beavers at .111.
Yet with a highly productive weekend in its rear view, Oregon is batting .307 as a team to its opponent’s .197 average. Plenty of that credit can be given to Moore (15-6, 1.51 ERA), but the breakout in the middle of the batting order against Oregon State was a long time coming for a slumping group throughout the front half of the Pac-10 schedule.
Three-hole hitter Samantha Pappas, the 2010 Pac-10 freshman of the year, broke out of her slump with four hits in nine at-bats, while Monique Fuiava (batting a team-high .407 on the season) recorded four hits of her own from the clean-up position.
Senior left fielder Kaitlin Vitek made the most of her weekend as Oregon’s No. 5 hitter, sending three solo home runs over the Howe Field fence.
That trio accounted for eight runs scored, 11 RBI, and four homers on the weekend, something White hopes will continue to progress moving forward.
“(Leadoff hitter Courtney) Ceo’s got to continue to do what she’s doing — getting on base,” White said. “Then we’ll be fine as long as we get Pappas to step up like she can, (and Fuiava) continues to swing a hot bat.
“Now Vitek, if she can stay hot going into this weekend, we’ll be awfully tough.”
Pappas, who went 3 for 8 in the Cal series, said a simpler approach at the plate has made all the difference for the Ducks throughout the lineup.
“As Coach (Blake) Miller says, just keep it simple and stop thinking so much in the box, and I think that helps a lot,” Pappas said.
Both Cuico and Pappas credited last week’s practice regiment as reason for the success against the Beavers. Cuico said White challenged his players, particularly the starters, to raise their level of play or he wouldn’t hesitate to make some adjustments to the starting lineup.
“I think everyone kind of pulled it out of them,” Cuico said. “Everyone was totally in it (against Oregon State), and I think we just need to run with it.”
All the way to Tucson if they can help it, where the Wildcats have lost four of their last six at home, and may be without the services of sophomore pitcher Kenzie Fowler (21-6) who suffered a concussion two weeks ago against Washington.
“If we get things going and we get on a roll and we start picking each other up, we’ll be very tough,” White said. “And I think we’ll score some runs.
“It’s just a matter of whether we can hold them down.”
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