Oregon takes its game on the road today for the last time during the Pacific-10 Conference season.
The No. 19 Ducks face No. 2 UCLA today at 2 p.m., then fly to Seattle for games on Saturday and Sunday against No. 4 Washington.
Oregon (28-15 overall, 6-9 Pac-10) has a two-game winning streak coming into today’s game after sweeping then-No. 12 Arizona State at Howe Field, 5-2 and 3-0.
“Arizona State finished as semi-finalists in the College World Series last year,” head coach Kathy Arendsen said on Sunday. “They lost a couple players, but not enough to make a huge difference so these are huge wins for us. I love how our team really picks each other up.”
The Ducks are currently on a roll, winning 10 of their last 14 games, dating back to an April 9 sweep of a doubleheader against Portland State.
Three of those games, one win and two losses, are from a homestand against the Bruins and the Huskies. Against Washington, the Ducks lost 9-0 in five innings. Oregon bounced back the next day to take a 5-4 win against UCLA before losing the weekend’s third game 7-3 to the Bruins.
The 14 games include all of Oregon’s home games this season and a doubleheader at Portland State.
“(The month at home) really gave us a confidence boost,” senior Andrea Vidlund said. “Now we have that same confidence going back on the road.”
UCLA (40-5, 12-3) and Washington (40-10-1, 7-8) have their last home weekend of the season for Oregon’s visit.
The Bruins traveled to Seattle on Wednesday for the last game of the season between the traveling partners. After losing both games at UCLA earlier this season, the Huskies were again overwhelmed by the Bruins, 11-0. UCLA pitcher Keira Goerl threw her 13th one-hitter of the season while shortstop Natasha Watley had an offensive surge with four hits, including two home runs.
Bruin senior Tairia Mims, along with Goerl and Watley, was named to the top-10 list for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year on Thursday. The three Bruins were joined by two Arizona players as the Pac-10 dominated the list.
In Oregon’s April 12 win against UCLA, Vidlund had a two-run home run in the fifth inning and picked up the save for the Ducks.
Two innings earlier, Goerl had intentionally walked Vidlund to face senior Alyssa Laux. Laux took the opportunity to hit her second home run of the season.
Vidlund leads the Ducks in home runs this season with nine — two shy of her career high two years ago. She hit her ninth, a monster shot over the right-field scoreboard, at Howe Field on Sunday.
“You don’t see right-handed hitters go over that scoreboard,” Arendsen said. “That opposite field power just tells you what a gifted hitter she is.”
The senior is also six home runs away from breaking Oregon’s career home run record.
The Ducks’ 28 home runs as a team is one of the factors in their probable postseason appearance. Oregon hasn’t played in the NCAA Regionals since 2000.
The 64 teams invited to the regionals — the winners of 26 Division I Conferences as well as 38 at-large selections — will be divided between eight regional locations. Teams from the same conference cannot be assigned to the same region. All 64 teams and their regional destinations are announced on May 11.
Oregon returns home for the final weekend of Pac-10 play to host California on May 9 and Stanford in a May 10 doubleheader.