Oregon softball preview: Fayettville region

Editors note: this story was written by ScoopDuck reporter Christopher Tracy

The Ducks survived the regular season, including the rough patch in April, and are in the Post season. That’s one of the goals they began the season with, and in order to continue checking those boxes they will need to win some games in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The Ducks are the #2 seed in the regional, where they are joined by Princeton, Wichita St. and #1 seed Arkansas. The Ducks begin play against Wichita St, in the double elimination format. Now that they are in the post season, they will look to harness all the lessons learned during the regular season.

The Ducks have played a really brutal schedule this year, rated as the 2nd most difficult schedule. Only 8 games were against teams outside of the top 100 RPI. They started the season strong, but once they hit the conference schedule they were hammered hard. From those games the Ducks have learned the lessons and mental toughness needed to perform strong in the postseason.

One of the areas that the Ducks have truly excelled at this year is scoring with 2 outs, roughly have of their runs have been scored with 2 down. That ability to come from behind and to score with 2 outs should be benefit for the Ducks, since they aren’t as apt to feel the pressure in the same way that most teams do, they have experience battling from behind. In the games where wins come down to the little things, having that extra confidence should give the Ducks a leg up.

Wichita State Shockers

The Cyclones finished the season 2nd in the AAC and were 33-16 on the season. They come into the regional with the 3rd best batting average in the nation. .351, one spot ahead of Arkansas. That team average is heavily reliant on the nations leader Sydney McKinney, who is hitting an insane .511. They also boast the nations home run leader Addison Barnard, who has hit an eye popping 32 bombs this year. As a team they blast 2.4 home-runs per game, so they have plenty of power.

Some of their numbers are a bit inflated though…..just to bring them into perspective. They have a 24-1 win, a 22-0 win, and a 19-0 win. In the four games against Memphis they scored 65 of their runs, which was about 1/6 of their season total. So they are potent for sure, but Memphis made everyone look like world beaters.

Much like Arkansas, the Cyclones don’t have to generate much offense and are content to wait for the home-runs to clear the bases. They only have 47 stolen bases on 57 attempts. They have not played many power 5 teams, and when they have they have been pretty soundly shut down. The key to beating them will be limiting mistakes, walks and HBP, to minimize any damage that does come from any home-runs they hit.

The team defense is decent, with a team fielding % of .971. The real weakness is their pitching. They have a team ERA of 4.00. That’s really similar to the Ducks, but the quality of the competition isn’t really even close. They are led in the circle by Sr. Caitlin Bingham and Sr. Erin McDonald. They are the workhorses of the staff, with the bullpen being all freshman and making appearances as needed.

Erin McDonald Sr ERA 4.0110-8Apps 26/ starts 16
Caitlin Bingham Sr ERA 4.2712-4Apps 25/ starts 14
Alison Cooper Fr ERA 3.368-3Apps 18/ starts 13
Jordayn Pipkin Fr ERA 4.081-1Apps 4/ starts 1
Kenzie Schopfer Fr ERA 4.422-0Apps 10/ starts 5

The key to beating the Cyclones is getting ahead early and putting extra pressure on the pitchers. Making them unsettled leads to extended innings. Coming from behind isn’t something that the Cyclones excel at. They are accustomed to being ahead and keeping pressure on the opposing batters. If the Ducks can get ahead they should be able to put Wichita St. on their heals

Princeton Tigers

Were the best team in the Ivy League with 27-15-2 record. They are led on offense by Juniors Serena Starks .356 and Adrienne Chang .368. They also have the Ivy League Freshman of the Year, in utility player Sophia Marsalo who’s hitting .324. As a team they are batting .295.

Although you have a decent core group of hitters, they don’t hit for much power with only 15 home-run’s as a team. That’s less than half of what a single Wichita St. player has.

The Tigers seem to hit the ball well, but don’t string the hits together to score runs. Another area they are lagging in is on the base paths where they only have 50 stolen bases. Getting an early lead will add a great deal of pressure since they aren’t a prolific scoring team.

The team defense is decent, but they make a fair number of mistakes, with a .965 fielding %. The pitching isn’t a strength either. They have a team ERA of 2.99. They only played 3 power 5 teams this year, and got soundly beat in each one. They are led in the circle by Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Alexis Laudenslager who is a junior.

Alexis Laudenshlager Jr ERA 1.9311-725 Apps/ 17 Starts
Ali Blanchard Jr ERA 2.6510-322 Apps/ 20 Starts
Molly Chambers So ERA 3.505-324 Apps/ 5 Starts
Meghan Harrington Fr ERA 9.371-213 Apps/ 0 Starts

The Tigers will be really excited to make an appearance in the post season, but they aren’t going to go any further.

Arkansas Razorbacks

The Razorbacks were picked to finish 3rd in the before the season started, but end up as the #4 team nationally, finishing with the best record in the SEC at 44-9, and won the SEC tournament. They boast a very potent offense, scoring around 7.3 runs per game, and averaging about 1.9 home-run’s per game. The offense in led by Danielle Gibson who is hitting .442 and the SEC Player of the Year KB Sides, who is batting .395. They have 3 other players hitting above .380. As a team they are batting .337, which ranks as 4th best nationally.

One thing they don’t do well is stealing bases. They don’t have a great deal of team speed overall, and only have 38 stolen bases on the season in 46 attempts. They only have 69 doubles, which compared to the 102 home-runs, really speaks to the pedestrian team speed. Usually it doesn’t matter though, when the bases are being cleared as often as they are. But they have had their struggles when pitchers are able to keep the ball in the yard and Arkansas is forced to generate runs. That is the Achilles heal for this strong team. If, or more likely when, they face the Ducks this will be the biggest challenge the Ducks will have.

The offense is paired with an equally impressive pitching staff. They allowed only 1 run in 21 innings during the SEC tournament. The Razorbacks a bit of a paper tiger though. They have not played the toughest of schedules, and they have lost some games against inferior opponents. That said, they finished the season really strong and are coming in the regional round with momentum. They have the SEC Pitcher of the Year (Jr) Chenice Delce and last years (Sr)Mary Huff. These two anchor the pitching staff, with only a few appearances coming from the other 3 in the bullpen.

Although those 2 have proven to be dominate, they also have been prone to mistakes when pressured. Delce has 11 wild pitches and has hit 12 batters. She throws rise balls, and those get away from the catcher at times. Stealing bases will be something to watch, how that impacts the pitchers and if it becomes a distraction that can be turned into offense.

Chenice Delce JrERA 2.1917-2Apps 33/ starts 21
Mary HaffSrERA 2.7918-4Apps 32/ starts 19
Callie Turner SoERA 2.692-2Apps 15/ starts 7
Jenna Bloom SoERA 3.817-1Apps 17/ starts 6
Lauren Howell SoERA 9.800-0Apps 5/ starts 0

The the key to beating the Razorbacks, getting ahead early and pressuring the pitchers. The pitchers are going to give up runs, with a Team ERA of 2.81. The pitchers usually just rely on the fact that their team will score more runs. They don’t have many dominating performances, though they did pitch amazing during the SEC tournament.

They are used to outscoring their opponents, but the struggles they have had come when they are feeling pressure. The team speed of the Ducks should present them with opportunities, the key to victory will be if they are able to capitalize on them!!