Junior pitcher Anissa Meashintubby and the Ducks will square off with Portland State in two games this afternoon.
After a disappointing weekend trip to Arizona, the No. 19 softball team heads north for a doubleheader against Portland State that begins at 4 p.m. today.
The Ducks (17-9 overall, 1-3 Pacific-10 Conference) take a break from Pac-10 play after losing 2-0 to No. 13 Arizona State on Friday and then losing 4-1 and 8-0 to No. 2 Arizona on Saturday and Sunday.
Portland State (8-14 overall) is coming off a sweep of Seattle University in a home doubleheader. The Vikings took eight innings to beat the Red Hawks 3-2 in the first game and won the second game 7-3.
The Vikings won only one game of five in each of their first two preseason tournaments, then split their four games in the Tulsa Invitational. Since then, Portland State has played four straight doubleheaders, sweeping two and being swept in the other two.
“They’re a dangerous team, well coached, talented,” head coach Kathy Arendsen said of PSU. “We’re hitting them between Pac-10 series, so there’s a very legitimate chance that we’re going to let down somehow and this is a team we can’t do that with.
“We have a win against Oregon State. If we can beat Portland State in this series then at least we’re ahead in the state championship. They’re a quality non-conference team.”
The Ducks had a tough weekend with the Arizona trip. Arizona State is the sixth-ranked team in the conference while Arizona is one of three Pac-10 teams — along with UCLA and Washington — in a close battle for first place nationally.
“Playing on the road in the Pac-10 is so difficult,” Arendsen said. “We’ll have to play better defense and we’ve got to hit the ball. If we’re only going to get eight hits in three games we’re not going to be very successful. If we can only score one run in three games, I can guarantee we won’t be successful.
“We just have to build on the experiences we had this weekend.”
Friday’s game was a pitcher’s duel through four innings before an Oregon error let Arizona State score its two runs. Freshman pitcher Amy Harris struck out seven batters in six innings pitched.
“I thought we could have won Friday night,” Arendsen said. “We put ourselves into a possibility to win Saturday and we just didn’t play well (Sunday).”
In Saturday’s game, senior Amber Hutchison hit her second home run of the season for Oregon’s only run — and only hit — in the 4-1 loss. Sunday, the Ducks were held to three hits while the Wildcats had 13 hits behind their eight runs.
“We need to build momentum,” Arendsen said. “We need to build a positive feeling going into this weekend’s series so we have to come out ready to play, intense and with a lot of respect for Portland State, and hopefully the weather will allow us and our focus will allow us to do well.”
After practicing in mild Eugene weather, the trip to Arizona warmed the team up — even if they didn’t come away with a win. A cold and windy doubleheader will be a large contrast to the weekend’s sunny trip.
“I’m not sure it can get too hot,” Arendsen said about Arizona’s weather. “It probably sets us up, if it would be cold tomorrow, to feel the cold a little bit more than we would.”
The cold may be just what the softball team needs to turn its season back to the winning pattern it had in five preseason tournaments. The Ducks won three tournament titles during the preseason, beating nationally ranked opponents in each tournament.
The Ducks and the Vikings were scheduled to play a doubleheader in Eugene on March 13, but the games were rescheduled due to weather. The teams will play each other four times in just over a week when the rescheduled doubleheader opens the Ducks’ home season April 9.
Between Portland State doubleheaders, Oregon jumps back into the Pac-10 for a weekend. The Ducks will head to California to face No. 12 Stanford on Friday before playing No. 7 California on Saturday and Sunday.
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