Oregon softball coach Kathy Arendsen told the Ducks after practice Thursday to not pay attention to the naysayers and the doubters.
That’s easier said than done, after the Ducks dropped a pair to Portland State on Wednesday and host top-ranked UCLA (40-5 overall, 12-3 Pacific-10 Conference) today at 4 p.m.
“We just beat ourselves up, and we dug ourselves in this situation, and we’re just going to have to make the best of it now and pull ourselves out,” Oregon outfielder Sari-Jane Jenkins said.
Oregon (23-22, 3-10) has to win four of its final eight games over the next nine days to reach its preseason goal of postseason play.
“It’s hard not to go in thinking about numbers,” senior pitcher Amy Harris said. “You know there’s a certain amount of games to reach .500 and we are all very aware of that. That does make it a little bit difficult. You are down to the last games and you know it has to happen otherwise you’re over, and you’re done.”
All of those games are against top 16 teams and six are versus teams ranked in the top six nationally.
So is it time for the Ducks’ four seniors to take over?
“We’ve never said it is up to any individual player, we are 18 players strong,” Arendsen said. “I know the seniors have a greater urgency – this is it. I believe that the freshmen, sophomores and juniors have every bit as much responsibility and commitment to taking care of it. I’m not going to say it’s up to four, put it on them.”
Harris knows every out and every run is so important, but pressure is not the route to take.
“Everything is on the line, especially for the seniors,” she said. “Putting pressure on ourselves is not going to work, and pressing is not going to work and getting frustrated.
“It’s just a matter of playing within yourself. Using your pitches to their weakness and hitting their weaknesses and just going up there with a positive attitude I think is the main thing.”
The bottom line is that if the Ducks want to make a fourth consecutive trip to the postseason, they have to win at least half of the remaining games on the schedule.
“We want to get to Regionals, whatever it takes us to get to Regionals,” Arendsen said. “Everyone is zero and zero. You’ve got a chance at living the dream. Unless we find a way to get above .500 the rest of the way … we can’t.”
The next opportunity begins today when the Ducks play their final game against the Bruins, who took the previous two games this season in Los Angeles.
UCLA scored six runs in the first inning to defeat Oregon 9-3 in the first game and five runs in the second inning of game two pushed the Bruins to a 5-2 victory.
“We have got to not give up big innings,” Arendsen said. “It was big. I don’t believe it is something that is something we have to pay big attention to. I think it is something we need to be aware of. And hopefully by them being aware of it, if people get on, it’s going to be a ‘Take a deep breath, OK, refocus, get ourselves ready because we need this out.’”
“I was stunned yesterday, I didn’t see it coming,” Arendsen said about the losses to Portland State. “But I also will not be stunned when we beat UCLA tomorrow. It won’t be a ‘Oh my God, we beat number one.’ We’ve beaten number one a number of times.”
Oregon closes out its home portion of the schedule with two games against No. 16 Washington (30-19, 4-11) over the weekend. Saturday’s and Sunday’s games are scheduled for a 1 p.m. start.
“I think it’s kind of cool to come out and have one of your rivals and end your career at Howe Field playing Washington,” senior shortstop Breanne Sabol said.
The Huskies shut out the Ducks in the first meeting of the season, winning 5-0. Washington pitcher Danielle Lawrie struck out 14 and allowed only two hits in the game.
Sunday’s game marks Harris, Sabol, Beth Boskovich and Dani Baird’s final home game. A special presentation is scheduled before the first pitch to honor the four seniors.
“These seniors deserve so much on this team,” Jenkins said. “They’ve been mentors for all of us underclassmen. They need to go out feeling good about this weekend and I think we owe it to them to just go out and do whatever we can to get the wins.”

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