Oregon softball 2023 season preview

**This article is via ScoopDuck softball reporter Christopher Tracy**

The Oregon Ducks begin their softball season this week, with the Puerto Vallarta Challenge. They will play five games over four days to kick things off. Last year the Ducks played the 2nd most challenging schedule in the country, and though the season ended earlier than anyone liked, I get the sense that there were several lessons learned by the returning players that portend good things coming into this season….and they will need them early and often. Any and all lessons will be very important for this years team, as they again have a grueling schedule ahead of them.

They will face 6 of the 8 WCWS teams (Florida, Northwestern, Oklahoma St, Arizona, Oregon St. & UCLA), as well as a schedule littered with post season experience during the non- conference schedule before once again facing Pac-12 conference play and the gauntlet of tough teams that entails. In all they play 29 games against teams that made the postseason. The Ducks were picked to finish 4th in the conference, behind UCLA, Washington, and Stanford. To begin the season the Ducks are ranked 22/24. The team last year played tough, but they just didn’t have the pitching to keep them in games down the stretch. They would battle and stay close then lose games late, rinse and repeat.

The glaring holes that needed to be filled were strengthening the pitching staff and finding a couple more bats to produce more consistently. In the off-season there were several transfers: Rachel Cid, Jasmine Williams, Gabby Herrera, MaKenna Kliethermes, and the most impactful Brooke Yanez, in addition to the 2 lost to graduation Hannah Galey and Jordan Dail. They left quite a few holes the staff was looking to fill, and the pitching staff, already needing help, was the biggest need.

With only 1 freshman coming in Remington Hewitt (#16 infielder ranked & #23 overall), the coaches went to the portal to find the players they needed. The result was 4 new Ducks: grad transfer Kyla Morris (outfielder from Duke), Junior Alyssa Daniel (infielder from LMU), and 2 new pitchers Senior Morgan Scott (RHP from UNC Greensboro) and Sophmore Elise Sokolsky (RHP from UCONN).

Pitching

Losing Brooke Yanez was a big blow to what this team could be, but I think the coach Lombardi did a really good job finding 2 pitchers that can fill the void. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this team has a #1 Ace that is going to shut teams down….at least not yet. Stevie Hansen is the one who I think will fill that spot, battling Elise Sokolsky, but this year the staff will be much more important than any one pitcher. I fully expect Lombardi to utilize 2 pitchers much more than we have seen in the last couple years, using the diversity of pitching to keep teams off balance.

Being frank, there have been some issues and injuries that players have battled the last couple seasons and they just didn’t have their best stuff. If this staff can stay healthy, they have tremendous potential. Stevie Hansen was forced to battle as a freshman, and she was battle hardened by a brutal schedule. She was 10th in the Pac12 in strikeouts per 7 innings (7.1) and strikeout to walk ratio (3.94) with 129 total K’s. She would go out and throw the pitches that were called, giving each pitch everything she had. From that she learned a lot about what she could do, and more importantly, what she couldn’t do.

Key growth will be her strength from an off season under coach KJ, and working from ahead in the count. This year, I’m going to look for her to perhaps be more assertive, know what is working for her and what isn’t, and be more vocal and involved about it……because when she is on, there is no stopping her! Morgan Scott was a 2 time Southern Conference pitcher of the year. She has great movement, and struck out 286 in 249 innings. She faced the Ducks last year and took them 10 innings before they got to her. She’s going to eat up innings, the key for her will be to not let mistakes linger. She’s going to need a memory like a goldfish, not an elephant. The one thing I will be looking for from her is a killer instinct, which you’ll see me talking about more and more with this team, for reasons I’ll get back to.

Elise Sokolsky was a unanimous all Big-East 1st team player, leading the conference in wins (20) and strikeouts (180). She had 5 complete games and 3 shutouts, going 20-6 in 39 appearances with a 2.55 ERA in 159 innings pitched. She’s very good, and with what we have seen coach Lombardi able to do with pitchers, she has a very very high ceiling. She got her after fall ball was done, so I’m excited to see her pitch live. At 6’ tall, she’s able to throw fast and create angles that really challenge hitters.

Allison Benning and Reagan Breedlove: Allison only pitched 3 times last year, being called upon for her bat far more than her arm. That will be sure to change this season, as she is the only lefty pitcher, and will for sure get more action, at the very least during key situational appearances. She worked very hard in the off-season and it shows in how she looks and how she is throwing. Expecting her to have a big year.

Reagan appeared in 18 games last year, but never really saw action down the stretch. She comes into this season healthy and eager. When she is on, she’s virtually untouchable, with a great spin and good speed. The problem has been consistency. She’s struggled to find her stuff at times, or gets in too deep of a hole before she does. If she is find the consistency she’s been working on, she will be a very good part of the rotation, with a mindset I think would make her excel in the closer role.

Defense

The Ducks defense was the strength of the team last year, with a school record tieing .977 fielding percentage, which led the conference and was 10th nationally. Coach Nikki Ragin and Volunteer Coach Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza have done a tremendous job of taking a strength of the team and building on it. One issue a the defense can’t do anything against home-runs, and last year the pitchers gave up far too many, especially in what seemed like opportunities lost. It has been something they have worked on, and will continue to work on all season, make your pitch and let the defense do their job. After all, they are really good at it!

The Ducks lost the defense Rachel Cid brought the last four years at third, and Jas Williams had begun to settle into in left field. They were both highly ranked out of high school for a reason, and though I wont pretend they will be easily replaced, because they brought a great deal of experience to the team, I will say this seems like one of those cases of addition by subtraction. Teya Bird and Remington Hewitt will battle for the starting spot. I think Bird, with her experience has the edge, but her offense will be key to keeping that spot. Hewitt showed tremendous potential in

the fall, but I also think she will benefit from easing into a starting role. Once she gets into the role though, I don’t think she’ll give it up, so it’s going to be a battle that can only make the team better. Paige Sinicki and Allee Bunker will continue to anchor the middle of the infield, and they are both rock solid. Allee is coming into the season with 123 consecutive starts, and Paige will be at 23 in a row & 42 overall, after missing time in the middle of last year.

KK Humphries took over the role at first last year, and appears poised to assume that role again this year. She’s coming in with 47 starts at the position. She will be battling to keep it though, with Alyssa Daniell at the top of the list of contenders. The thing that KK brings that really helps is her constant energy, she’s like a one woman hype track on the field. Katelyn Howard is also capable of covering first if needed. She is perhaps the most unsung, yet most important components on the team. Behind the scenes she’s been described as the glue that holds the team together, especially during difficult stretches. She’s been here since the Version 1 team that learned they can fight with anyone if they play well. This year I think that mindset has become the floor, and they are looking to actually win the fights and not just be in them.

The outfield has Hanna Delgado and Ariel Carlson back. Hanna has really taken to the outfield, and her speed proved to be a great asset. Ariel was new to the outfield, and though had some growing pains with missed angles and tracking, she’s poised to break out this season. The returning Luschar sisters, Kai and Kedre are also going to be battling for playing time, with their speed letting them cover a lot of area and giving coaches a chance to shift some with less potential for harm.

The new addition of Kayla Morris will be one the of the biggest impacts on defense. She was a center fielder for Duke last year, and she brings her 4 years of experience as well as speed. It will be interesting to see who is in center, during the fall Kayla spent a fair amount of time in left and right, giving the coaches a chance to see who best fit where. I think Ariel stays in RF, I put my money on her arm strength, and Hanna has proven she’s got the speed for CF too.

That leaves LF, with plenty of players battling for that remaining spot. Too much talent isn’t a problem you will hear any coach complain about, so expect to see a variety of combinations trying to get the best and hottest players in the lineup. Catching is again one of the expected strengths of the defense. Terra McGowan brings her 90 starts into the season, and she has proven to be one of the best guns behind the plate, her arm keeping the stolen base numbers at bay. Last year she was out 22 games after an injury off of a foul tip. During her absence we were able to see Vallery Wong and Karissa Ornelas step in and plug the hole with little if any drop off in defense. Vallery is actually able to play virtually any position but pitcher having player 7 different spots during her time as a Duck. Those 2 will continue to provide relief for Terra when needed, but the more Terra is playing the better the team will be given her offensive prowess.

Abby Mulvey is perhaps one of the more important spots, serving as the bullpen catcher. She was a walk on last season, just sort of showed up one day and said, “Hey, I’m going to play for the Ducks!” The coaches put her thru the paces, and she proved to be a quality addition. Though she isn’t showing up in the box scores, she has perhaps the most interaction with all the pitchers on the team at any given point, so the experience she brings into her sophomore year will help the staff overall.

Offense

One thing the Ducks come into this season with is a new mentality, and new bodies! They left the season last year and knew what they were doing just wasn’t working, they were almost there, but needed more. In the off season they worked, literally, to improve. Every team has strength and conditioning coaches, and they all have an idea of what they are doing (unless FWT hired them). The Ducks have Kaelyn Jackson leading them in that role, and what she brings that few others do is actual D-1 softball experience. So, she has established credibility right from the start because she knows what it takes to perform at this level and she creates programming that is functional and truly focuses on the different positions, and it helps each position get stronger in the areas they need it. Coach KJ helped give the players workouts to do in preparing for this season. I mentioned earlier the changes in.Benning. The swings were almost effortless in the fall, and yet the ball seemed to go further.

The women have come back this year and look completely different. You can see the physical changes they have made. Some have lost weight, some have put on weight, but they all transformed in some way. Ariel, for example, worked hard in the off season with Jordan Dail 2 years ago, and came into last year in great shape. She had lost any baby weight she had, and was lean and powerful. Well, this year, she managed to do it again. She is perhaps even leaner, but also, she is stronger, she is faster, she is more confident. And its the same with each player. The coaches have said this team set the floor at where mid season usually was, knowing they had to get better. The focus on getting better was not limited improving hitting or defensive skills or new pitches. The players worked on the mental components too. I would say, not only did they seem to work on it they appear to have made it a central focus.

Every player I’ve spoken to, from the Diamond Dinner, to the media interviews, has mentioned about how they wanted to improve on the team mentality. I would say the best way describe it is developing the killer mentality they were missing last year. KK said it best, “expecting to win.” The team was is so many close games last year, but it’s tough to beat the other team when you are beating yourself. This appears to have the potential to become a significant strength as the season goes on.

Speed kills

Coach Lombardi loves to be aggressive on the bases. The more speed she has available the better chance those moves are successful. This is the fastest team I’ve seen, top to bottom, in the last 10 years. This team is going to pressure defenses from the very first inning, turning singles into doubles, doubles into triples, stealing bases, double steals, and bunt singles. Kayla Morris was a successful slapper at Duke, and that’s something I would say we haven’t had in many years. I know Kai, Kedre, and Hanna have been working hard on that skill too.

The number of lefties available and the speed they all present opens things way up for the coaches. Hanna led the team in steals last year, and though she isn’t slow, I don’t know that she is the fastest on the team either. I expect having Kai, Kedre, and Kayla in the lineup more regularly will translate into a perceptible increase in swiped bags.

More Power

The team speed allowed the Ducks to be successful on offense last year, with 15% increase in runs and 11% increase in slugging %. They continued to excel it seemed at 2 out hitting and scoring, I’m thinking they wont have to wait until their backs are against the wall so much this year. The one area that was a real surprise to me was the HR production increase, up 26% last year over the year before. I refused to call the team a power team last year, simply due to the team speed. Turns out, 2 things can be true at the same time, and this year I am on board the train to say expect more home run production. These increases can be directly linked to the success of Coach Marder. The success she had last season was obviously pretty impressive. I expect with another year of working with players and a full season with coach KJ, this team will be ready to break out.

Paige Sinicki spoke about how coach Marder helped her find a hitting coach for the off season, and she raved about how it helped her improve coming into the season. That extra effort isn’t as common as many may believe. One of the real strengths coach Marder has is building relationships with each player, and truly caring about. Not all players are equal, not everyone can be crush home-runs like Barry Bonds. But not everyone needs to either, passing the bat is sometimes just as good if not better. Derek Jeter made a decent of career of doing that.

Being able to dissect each player has been well received by the team, they recognize the work she puts in and are that much more willing to put in the work themselves to make adjustments. I expect a very strong offensive season.

Overall Forecast

This team has worked incredibly hard to identify the weaknesses they had last year and have poured the last year into making adjustments and improvements to fix them. I know its simple to say just score more runs, or limit the other team from scoring. I mean the game is really only three things at it’s core, Offense, Defense, and Pitching. I know many of the board experts say just get better pitchers problem solved, or find a better hitter, easy enough. But if it were that easy there would be more teams doing it. Reality is it takes a special blend of all of those things for most teams to be successful.

There are hardly any lock-down Aces anymore. Its just too easy to scout and be prepared. Same with hitting, the film shows what your weaknesses are, and once found everyone exploits them. Only the best are able to make adjustments on the fly, and there isn’t a Rachel Garcia, Miranda Elish, or Paige Parker simply hanging on a tree just waiting to be picked. Stevie Hansen and Elise Sokolsky project to be dominant, the question is a matter of when. Both have far more potential than did Brook Yanez or Jordan Dail at this point in their careers with the Ducks.

This years Ducks will have a very deep staff, and I think they will be up for the challenge the schedule presents. The defense is going to be good enough to keep the team in close games. The offense is going to score runs. The biggest question is can the Ducks learn to finish games? In my head I hear the Mortal Kombat soundtrack in my head, “Finish Him!” That is exactly what this team needs to do. Something that simple and they win at least 11 more games last year, and enter the post season ranked top 5 and hosting a regional.

I expect this team to win those close games this year, just like the team does. They won’t go undefeated, in fact I predict a close third game of the season, but they probably lost to Oklahoma State right out of the gate. The change I think this year will be the team will be ready. Thy won’t think being in a close game is good enough. They know that if they control the things they can, they are good enough to beat anyone on any given day. The real meaningful games aren’t simply a win or lose, they are series, best of 3. That is what this team is building for. Those are the games that matter.

I expect a challenging season, and with a conference tournament starting this year, they could be a surprise there. I think a realistic record is around 45-10. Probably finish third in conference play and hosting a regional will be a realistic expectation.

Making the super regional is the goal. If they can do that, they the depth and mindset this team has will be up to the test, and I expect all the preparations they spent the year making will then payoff, when the pressure is on…..I hope we get a chance to see how they will do!!