Five games remain on the schedule for the Oregon softball team and with little hope of being selected for the NCAA Tournament, Oregon is simply looking to pick up some quality Pacific-10 Conference wins to close out its season.
Coming off a doubleheader split with Hawaii, Oregon (23-25 overall, 1-14 Pac-10) hosts No. 1 UCLA (44-6, 12-3) on Friday and No. 6 Washington (39-15, 8-7) on Saturday and Sunday at Howe Field.
The top-ranked Bruins continued their Pac-10 hot streak last week with a four-game sweep of Washington, California and Stanford. They have now won 11 consecutive conference games.
After playing on Friday in Eugene, UCLA will head up to Corvallis for two games against Oregon State. Last time UCLA played the Oregon schools, the Bruins swept the three games at Easton Stadium, defeating the Beavers 7-0 on April 19 and the Ducks 7-0 and 3-1 on April 20 and 21. Oregon has struggled against UCLA in the past holding an all-time record of 7-50, while Oregon State is 5-60 against UCLA.
Eight different Bruins have hit at least one home run, led by Stacey Nuveman who has connected for 15. Nuveman is batting .554 through UCLA’s first 50 games and is followed by Natasha Watley who is hitting .503. Claire Sua, who ranks sixth in batting on the team with a .310 average, follows Nuveman with 12 home runs.
Washington also has eight players who have hit at least one home run, while 10 Oregon hitters have gone yard. Washington is led by junior Jaime Clark, who has 15, and freshman Kristen Rivera, who belted her 16th against California on April 27.
If Oregon wants to be competitive with UCLA and Washington, it needs quality pitching out of the three hurlers who have taken the circle wearing green and yellow. Anissa Meashintubby leads the trio with an earned run average of 2.49 and a 9-5 record. Lindsey Kontra’s ERA stands at 2.93, while senior Connie McMurren’s stands at 3.42.
The games this weekend all begin at 2 p.m.