With a trip to an NCAA Super Regional under its belt, the Oregon softball team expects nothing less than a trip to the College World Series next year and are working hard this summer to get there.
“I would be disappointed if we shot for anything less than the College World Series,” head coach Mike White said. “We as a coaching staff expect more out of them, and they expect more out of us.”
White said most of the Ducks are working out and taking summer classes.
Right now, the softball team lifts three days a week and runs four days a week at the Casanova Center with the volleyball and football teams. Coaches are not allowed to instruct during the summer, so the workouts are conducted by strength and conditioning coaches.
White also said the coaching staff evaluated each player after the season ended and gave individual feedback isolating her weaknesses, so every player has something to work on in the summer. Pitcher Jessica Moore said she needed to work on hitting her locations
and being a more mature pitcher in general.
White pointed out a couple of specific areas the team needed to work on, including fewer passed balls, fewer walks and wild pitches, and fewer errors. Those problems certainly haunted Oregon in its two Super Regional losses to Missouri. The Ducks gave up four unearned runs in the series, including a 1-0 loss in which the only run scored was unearned.
“We go as well as our pitching and defense goes,” White said.
The biggest offseason priority may be replacing graduating center fielder Neena Bryant. Bryant can be considered one of the best players in Oregon history, as she finished in Oregon’s all-time top ten in seven categories, including second in RBI with 144. White said Bryant was not only a presence at the plate, but she was also excellent defensively. The Ducks may find it difficult to replace her.
White said it should be a competition between Allie Burger and Samantha Pappas for Bryant’s center field position. First baseman Monique Fuiava said it would be impossible to completely replace a player of Bryant’s caliber.
“Collaboratively, we can produce what she did. It’s going to be hard; it will take all 19 of us to do it,” Fuiava said.
Summer is prime recruiting season for White and his staff. They are traveling around the country to watch recruits play for their club teams and evaluate them.
In the fall, the Ducks stay sharp with “Hell Week”, as Fuiava calls it, a five-day period before the academic term begins. The week features two practices per day with several conditioning tests. Then, throughout fall term, Oregon plays schools in close proximity, including Oregon State and Portland State. All of this is in preparation for the season, White said, and the goal is to simply improve.
“It’s just a matter of getting better,” White said. “A lot of teams focused on the weaknesses of our hitters and we didn’t adjust.”
Fall will also mark the arrival of the latest recruiting class on campus. The four-person class of junior-college-transfer Christie Nieto, Alexa Peterson, Courtney Ceo and Kailee Cuico should make an immediate impact. White is especially high on Peterson, from Salem, and Nieto because of their defensive abilities.
After all the summer work, expectations will certainly be high going into the spring season, and the Ducks aren’t shying away from them. Moore and Fuiava say a finish in the top half of the Pacific-10 Conference is reasonable, and they hope to compete for a conference championship.
“We’re going to set the bar high,” Moore said. “We are going to hold ourselves accountable to bettering what we did this year, and we know what we are capable of.”
Fuiava said the Ducks thrive upon being doubted by their opposition.
“We just see it as a challenge. Our team does a lot better when we know people are doubting us. It gives us that much motivation,” Fuiava said.
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