The path to the Women’s College World Series runs through Gainesville, Fla., for the No. 11 Oregon softball team this afternoon as they take on No. 3 Florida in the Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament. @@http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d1/usa_todaynfca_coaches@@
Oregon (42-14) enters today’s 11 a.m. contest fresh off three straight wins at the University Park Regional last weekend, but it faces arguably its most difficult opponent of the season with the Gators (50-10) on their home turf for a best-of-three set. @@http://www.goducks.com/downloads2/416705.htm?ATCLID=205153930&SPSID=4374&SPID=245&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
Yet, the Ducks, winners of seven of their last eight outings, have no reservations as to what they hope to accomplish over the next three days.
“We’ve worked all year for this,” sophomore second baseman Kaylan Howard said. “Why not just lay it on the line and just go for it all?”
Around this time last year, Oregon was headed to Columbia, Mo., for a matchup with then-No. 8 Missouri, which resulted in two quick losses and the end of a relatively impressive season. The Ducks dropped the series opener, 1-0, due to a defensive miscue that led to the Tigers’ only run, and the team never recovered.
A year later, with another season of Pacific-10 Conference competition under their belts, Oregon looks prepared to take on one of the nation’s elite offensive teams. The Ducks have seen their fair share of competition during a regular season that included seven wins over programs ranked in the top 10. But the Gators, on paper, have the deepest lineup of any team Oregon has faced.
“They’re very much like (No. 1) Arizona State as far as power numbers,” second-year head coach Mike White said. “They have over 100 home runs, but they’re a little deeper throughout the lineup. Their pitching is two-deep instead of one-deep, but they’re very comparable to Arizona State.”
In total, Florida has six players batting over .310 — Oregon has three — and eight Gators with five or more home runs to their credit. Megan Bush (20), Brittany Schutte (17), Kelsey Bruder (17), Aja Paculba (15) and Cheyenne Coyle (15) have led Florida to 107 team home runs in 2011, while each of the five have started all 60 games of the season. @@http://www.gatorzone.com/softball/stats.php@@
Senior Stephanie Brombacher and freshman Hannah Rogers have handled the load in the circle, with the latter posting a 32-6 record with 26 complete games and 197 strikeouts to just 49 walks. @@http://www.gatorzone.com/softball/bios.php@@
The Gators enter their fifth-straight Super Regional appearance as winners of 12 of their last 14 games, with the two losses coming at the hands of Auburn in the Southeastern Conference tournament, and another to defending national champion UCLA in last week’s regional. @@http://www.gatorzone.com/schedule.php?sport=softb@@
Regardless of the opponent and second cross-country trip in as many weeks, Oregon’s pitching has been superb, and the offense has found a way to push runners across when they’ve needed to.
“We’re finding ways to win,” White said. “It’s not that we’re out there beating people up and playing great softball. But we are doing what we have to do to win games, and it’s one of the things we said ‘whatever it takes,’ and we’re doing that right now.”
Historically, Oregon and Florida have only met four times, with the all-time series split at two games apiece. Most recently, the Gators topped Oregon, 2-1, in the 2007 season opener, but the Ducks also beat Florida twice in 2006. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4377&SPID=245&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205154831@@
But as White said, the Ducks have found ways to win games all year, even when they weren’t expected to. With that mindset, the Ducks want to establish early on that they won’t go down without a fight.
“We don’t want to just go out there and turn up,” White said. “We want to go out there and compete. We’ve got to go out hard, win that first game and put the pressure on them.”
“If we lose, we lose,” Howard added. “But as long as we give all our effort out there, that’s all the matters.”
Oregon softball begins Super Regional play at No. 3 Florida
Daily Emerald
May 25, 2011
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