Oregon is being thrown right into the fire this weekend as the team begins Pacific-10 Conference play on the road against the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats and No. 5 Arizona State Sun Devils.
The No. 25 Ducks open the three-game swing against Arizona today and face Arizona State both Saturday and Sunday.
Opening the conference season on the road, against two top-five teams doesn’t seem to concern head coach Rick Gamez and his player very much. With all of the conference’s teams ranked in the top 25, Gamez knows the Ducks will face tough competition throughout the rest of the year.
“Everyone in the conference is tough,” Gamez said. “The biggest thing for us to play three good games and execute from one game to the next.”
Senior infielder/outfielder Jill Robinson agreed. As one of the team’s four seniors, she knows from experience that anything can happen in the Pac-10.
“We’re going to the Pac-10 now and it’s one of the toughest conferences in the United States,” Robinson said. “We need to just play our game, right now we can’t be our own worst enemies. We need to stay together and play as a team.”
That team concept has afforded the Ducks a record of 23-11 on the season.
Led by a group of four players batting .380 or above, Oregon has put up gaudy numbers in the preseason, scoring 214 runs in 34 games. However, the team usually relies on the big inning for most of their runs, something that both Gamez and Robinson would like to see change.
“This year we’re working on the short game, in the past we’ve been known as a home run-hitting team,” Robinson said. “To play in the Pac-10 you need the overall hitting game, you need the short game, you need the long ball, you need consistency.”
Gamez agrees his senior’s statements.
“We need to get more from the middle and the bottom of our lineup,” Gamez said. “We need to take advantage of every opportunity.”
Many of the Ducks have become consistent hitters this season. Robinson leads the team in home runs with nine and RBIs (31), while fellow senior Andrea Gustafson is batting .380 with 25 RBIs and is second on the team with seven doubles.
“Offensively we have been improving,” Gamez said. “Jill and Andrea Gustafson are hitting the ball very well.”
One of the biggest tests for the potency of the Ducks’ bats will be Sun Devils’ pitcher Kristen Voak, who boasts a record of 21-2. The sophomore is coming off a 12 strike-out performance against UNLV, giving her 181 on the year.
Oregon’s three pitchers, Connie McMurren, Danielle Haag and freshman Andrea Vidlund will all have to pitch some of their finest balls against these two high-powered offenses.
McMurren is coming off a week which saw her throw four complete games, striking 21 and allowing only one run in 30.1 innings pitched. She will need to repeat that performance this weekend to be successful.
“Connie’s experience should go a long way this weekend,” Gamez said. “Both she and Danielle will help Andrea with a tough opening weekend.”
Arizona has 362 hits on the season and a team average of .370. They have outscored their opponents 266-24 and have recorded 18 wins via the mercy rule. The big bat of the Wildcats is definitely sophomore pitcher Jennie Finch who leads the team with 14 home runs.
The Sun Devils will also be a stern test for the Ducks’ pitching staff, featuring multiple powerful bats. Arizona State has hit four grand slams this year by three different players, Erica Beach has two, while Andrea Rogers and Jamie Hlebechuk have both hit one. Freshman shortstop Kara Brun is coming off a three-game series where she hit safely in all three games, hitting .500 with a double and two runs scored.
Oregon still has two significant injuries. Sophomore lead-off hitter Tia Dumas is nursing a knee injury and is day-to-day, while freshman Alyssa Laux came back two weeks ago from a torn ligament in her foot.