Everything that was exciting and disappointing about the Oregon softball team was on display last weekend in Oklahoma.
Unfortunately, the negatives resulted in consecutive scoreless losses to Oklahoma and ended Oregon’s season short of its goal of advancing out of its NCAA Regional.
It’s too bad considering Oregon would have been matched up with Arizona in a best-of-three Super Regional. Arizona, remember, lost two of three games to Oregon this season, including a game in Tucson, Ariz.
Oregon’s chances ran out with what has been a season-long problem of inconsistent performances from its offense.
But the three-day regional also illustrated a trend of placing itself behind and fighting its way back into contention.
Oregon’s postseason chances looked dim after losing 3-1 to Oregon State in Corvallis in mid-April. The loss left the Ducks with a 1-9 record in Pac-10 play and facing an uphill climb.
Relying on the experience of five seniors, Oregon picked up a surprising win over Arizona in Tucson, another win over Oregon State and wins over California and Washington.
It proved enough to earn the Ducks a berth in the NCAA Tournament, and although this season is over, it gives the team something to build on going into next season.
Oregon has a pitcher in Melissa Rice who is ready to assume the role of staff ace, and there’s also the potential return of All-American Jenn Salling, who missed the season while playing for the Canadian National Team.
The Ducks will have mainstays Neena Bryant and Sari-Jane Jenkins back and the Kivett twins – Ashley and Cortney – showed promise. Fellow freshman Monique Fuiava displayed her power potential in the regional.
“We’re very young, and the team has a lot to look forward (to),” shortstop Lovena Chaput said in a media release Sunday. “We’ll take it in stride, and an experience like this will especially help the freshmen be better prepared in the future.”
It’s true the experience will help, but pinning part of the defeat on youth is more of an excuse than a plausible explanation.
By now, the freshmen have been through a whole year of competition, including facing the nation’s top teams in the Pac-10. They are seasoned and well-aware of anything they might have faced in the regional.
Right fielder Kayleen Hudson said as much before Oregon left for Oklahoma. She had talked about helping them for their first regional, but also pointed to the season’s worth of experience.
“I’m sure we’ll fill them in, but they have a 100 something at-bats,” Hudson said. “They’re not freshman anymore. They’ve grown now and it’s not like we have any real young players.”
Figure, too, that the best team in the regional in Oklahoma had already lost to the Ducks 1-0 in a non-conference game earlier in the season.
So while Oregon fell short of its goal, it did show its resiliency in bouncing back from a 6-0 loss in the opener to Oklahoma and putting together consecutive wins over Tulsa and Arkansas to play the Sooners again on Sunday.
Oregon’s 11-0 loss on Sunday ushered away any hopes of advancing, and ended the Ducks’ season, but they can take solace in coming back and placing themselves in position to advance.
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