All season, the Ducks have talked about the NCAA Regional Tournament — when they will play, where they will play, who they will play, how they will play and why they will win.
That time has come, and as Oregon (38-19) answers some of its own questions — the Ducks’ first game is at 9:30 a.m. today in Tallahassee, Fla., against seventh-seeded Bethune-Cookman, for starters — the No. 2-seeded Ducks have to search for answers to the remaining queries.
“All year long, we’ve waited to go to regionals,” pitcher Amy Harris said. “We’re putting everything we’ve learned in one season into this one week and playing as hard as we can.”
After a successful early half of the season, including a 14-game win streak in preseason play and a 7-3 start to Pacific-10 Conference play, the Ducks finished the season with a 3-8 record in the final three weeks of conference play.
“Everything we’ve done this season, it doesn’t mean anything,” Oregon head coach Kathy Arendsen said. “Seeding for the tournament is established, we’re in. It’s 0-0 for everybody. All 64 teams have the equal opportunity to win this thing. Everything else is in the past, I’m not worried about anything that happened last week.”
Oregon, as a team, is focused on making a clean start. The team spent Tuesday traveling to Tallahassee and Wednesday was for adjusting to the weather and the park with a full practice before the tournament begins.
“All we have to worry about is playing the best that we can when we get there,” third baseman Ashley Richards. “We’re so far from home that there’s no distractions, so it’s all softball there. We’re going to be focused and we’re going to be playing to win.”
In 2003, the Ducks made a noticeably shorter trip for the regional tournament, staying in the same time zone for a trip to Fullerton, Calif., as a No. 3 seed. Many family members and friends made the trip to support Oregon.
Tallahassee is a bit farther than Fullerton, and while the Ducks could have gone closer to home, with Lincoln, Neb., Waco, Texas, or Ann Arbor, Mich., as other options. But there are positives to a trip across the country.
“We’re so far away … we’re going all that way, so we’ve got to win,” Richards said. “There’s nothing else. If you’re going to go all the way across the country, why not win?”
To get those wins, there is little room for error in regional games. In the double-elimination format that the NCAA has adopted, teams can bounce back from a loss, but they must do it quickly.
Last year, Oregon proved that an early loss isn’t the end of the world.
In Fullerton, the Ducks lost to Oklahoma State, 2-1, in the second round. The players weren’t ready for their season to end, however, as Oregon stayed alive with a win against San Diego State later that day.
The following day, the Ducks sent both host Cal State Fullerton and Oklahoma State packing, creating the title match of Oregon against the lone undefeated team, Louisiana-Lafayette.
After a 9-2 Duck victory against Louisiana, the two one-loss teams had a 30-minute break before they faced each other again — with a berth to the Women’s College World Series on the line.
Oregon lost the game, 6-4, but the players who returned from last season’s squad are determined that something similar won’t happen again.
“Our ultimate goal is the world series,” Harris said. “We have a really positive attitude about the whole thing. We’re confident that we can get there.”
The easy road through Tallahassee is four wins and no losses, while the rougher path is five wins and one loss. Either way, four more wins than losses is what a team is looking for in the bracket.
The winner of today’s game will play the winner of the South Florida-Ohio State matchup at 9:30 a.m. Friday. The losers of both first round games will play each other at 5 p.m. today.
“I think we’re about to go on a roll,” Arendsen said. “I think that we’re going to be an incredibly dangerous club coming in there.”