Oregon Softball: Recap, Mega Weekend Preview

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

Only the San Diego St. game will be broadcast, it will streamed on You-Tube.
All games will air on radio KWVA (kwva.uoregon.edu)

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The Ducks left Puerto Vallarta with a 3-2 record but also lots of optimism about the future. The hitting
showed it’s potential, the pitching showed its depth, and the defense was…..well, it was the defense we
expected coming off the conference leading fielding % last season.

Allee Bunker has been here for 5 years, and in her words “…has seen a lot” and whatever happens
“chances are it’s happened before” as a Duck. But the one thing she hasn’t seen during the season is the
confidence and energy this team has, at least not during the regular season. She said after the game, “this
is the most energized I’ve felt from a team, when it wasn’t post-season.”

It’s only the second week of the season, but the team feels like the postseason bound teams she’s been on the last couple of years. She also made a comment that really stood out about the offense while
answering questions before the team headed down to San Diego for the weekend.

In previous years for her there has been pressure to produce. Knowing she’s been a veteran and a leader,
she felt she needed to always be able to set the example and on offense that means getting hits. In a sport of failure, where 4 out 10 is really good, that’s adding a lot of extra pressure.

This year, she expressed she’s able to relax a bit more because she “doesn’t feel the weight of the world
on my shoulders,” knowing that if she doesn’t produce someone else in the lineup will. “I really have a
lot of trust in this offense and I feel, like 100% with confidence, that this lineup, 1-17…..are really really
good.“ Now you don’t have to be an expert in the sport to know that there are only 9 batters, but she said
1-17 without missing a beat.

When asked, she said it’s because this team has depth and there are so many people fighting for playing
time that not starting a game doesn’t mean too much when it comes to what the player is capable of. The
players on the bench know they will get called upon during the game, as a pinch runner, as a pinch hitter,
or in situational defense. Everyone is capable of producing and will be ready when they are called upon.
It obviously sounds very cliché, but the matter of fact way in which Allee said it really highlighted the
comment, and reinforced the mental preparation and work all the players have talked about heading into
the season. If this team is able to match their off the field confidence with on the field performance, this
truly will be an exciting team to watch.

Look at San Diego Campbell/Cartier Classic

The Ducks will face 4 teams this weekend, playing 5 games against UC Riverside (2 games), LMU, San
Diego St, and Utah Valley St.

The Ducks will open against Utah Valley St (2-3). and UC Riverside (3-3) of Friday, LMU (2-4) and San
Diego St (4-1) in a double header on Saturday, and then close the weekend with another game against UC-Riverside.

I’m not going to pretend Utah Valley St. or UC Riverside are going to be tough competition. Truth be
told, the Ducks should be run ruling both teams. Utah Valley is 2-3 and UC Riverside is 3-3. UC
Riverside has played a few quality opponents, splitting a DH with Fresno St and a loss to California
Baptist, who were with the Ducks in PV.

Obviously you can’t get the win without playing the game and anything is possible, but it’s safe to say the
Ducks should win these first 2 games. LMU is also a game the Ducks should handle rather easily.
San Diego St. is currently 4-1, and made it to the post-season last year. They are picked to finish 2nd
in the MWC, and have potential to return to the post season this year. This is a team the Ducks are going to have trouble with if they let their guard down. Now the level of competition isn’t the greatest, but they
are holding teams to a .252 avg and have a team ERA of 2.33. They are led in the circle by Dani
Martinez and Dee Dee Hernandez. Both are quality pitchers but the Ducks bats should be capable of
overcoming them.

The Aztecs offense is capable of putting runs on the board, with a team average of .338 and 31 runs in
their 5 games. They have some speed and aren’t afraid to use it on the bases, already grabbing 10 stolen
bases in 12 attempts.

The Ducks on offense will likely be missing Hanna Delgado in the lineup, after suffering an injury that
kept her out of several games in PV. She should be the only missing player though, and the Ducks should
be able to survive this weekend with her on the bench. Expect to see Terra McGowan and Tehya Bird
heat up some after coming off of cold starts.

One thing I’m really looking for this weekend is a better display of offensive power. As was discussed
last weekend, the ball in PV was just dead, and seemed to really stifle the offense at times. I expect the
venue in San Diego to be much more hitter friendly, and accordingly think we will get a better sense of
where the Ducks are at during these coming games.

I expect to see the pitchers continue to improve and clean up the mistakes they made last weekend, it was the mistakes that led to most of the runs they gave up. As long as the pitchers keep this team in games, the offense will give them their chances to win. The Ducks should come out of the weekend with 5 wins and a much better sense of what the offense is capable of.

Pitching recap from PV:

Oregon opened its season in Puerto Vallarta playing Maryland. ML started ace Stevie Hansen.
Everything set up well for the Ducks to start with a win. It didn’t work out that way as Oregon dropped
the opener 7-3. So what happened? Stevie did not have close to her best stuff and out of the first 5
batters, she hit two and walked another two. She gave up a single and a double before getting pulled as
the Ducks dug a 5-0 hole in the first inning. Not the way you want to start, particularly with your ace
pitcher in the circle.

A bright spot in the game was transfer pitcher Elise Sokolsky. Elise pitched the rest of the game,
allowing 2 runs in 5.1 solid innings. This loss may not look like that bad of a loss at the end of the
season. Maryland opened up 4-1 in Mexico, including a dominating 11-6 win over #3 Oklahoma State.
Game 2 saw transfer Morgan Scott get the start against Wisconsin. She went 2.2 solid innings, giving up
just 1 run. Sokolsky and Reagan “Reggie” Breedlove combined for 4.1 strong innings of relief allowing 1
run on just 2 hits. This game saw ML be very quick to change pitchers. Scott had two outs in the third,
but gave up 2 hits while holding a 3-1 Oregon lead and ML brought in Sokolsky to relieve her. In the 5th
with Oregon up 4-1, Sokolsky allowed a hit and a walk and ML pulled her to bring Reggie in. Breedlove
delivered three strong shutout innings to earn the W.

Game 3 was against the #3 ranked Oklahoma State Cowgirls. ML went right back to ace Stevie Hansen.
Stevie bounced back after her disappointing opener and went toe to toe with Kelly Maxwell, OK State’s
ace and pitcher of the year candidate. Stevie threw 4 impressive shutout innings and it was a 0-0 game
into the 5th. She gave up a walk and a single to start the 5th and ML brought in Breedlove in relief.

There were a couple of ABs with Reggie pitching that could have gone either way including a 13 pitch
battle with Okie State’s lead-off hitter, Rachel Becker which finally ended in a RBI walk for Becker as
OK State scratched out 3 runs. ML quickly changed pitchers again and brought in Sokolsky. Elise
threw 3 strong shutout innings to keep the Ducks in the game but the bats couldn’t get anything going off of Maxwell.

ML turned to Morgan Scott to face top 25 Ole Miss. She allowed just 1 run through 6 innings as the
Ducks built a commanding 9-1 lead. ML let Morgan go for the complete game, but she gave up 2 hits to
start the inning and ML brought Stevie in to relieve. Stevie gave up a 2 run double, but then shut the door
for a 9-3 win over the SEC foe.

In the final game, ML started Reggie Breedlove against NDSU. She ran into trouble in the 3rd
and ML relieved her with Sokolsky. Elise herself struggled with control in the 4th throwing a wild pitch and giving up a few hits. NDSU had brought in their ace Paige Vargas and ML countered by bringing in
Stevie Hansen in the 4th with the game tied 2-2 in the 4th and a runner on 3rdbase. The Bison ran a
squeeze bunt to perfection to take a 3-2 lead. Stevie dominated the rest of the way, finishing with 6 Ks,
no BBs and no earned runs in 3.2 innings of work and got a well deserved W with Tehya Bird’s dramatic
HR.

The takeaways? If you look at the season stats, you’d think Stevie Hansen is struggling to start the year
with a 5.25 ERA. But digging deeper, you see she improved dramatically after the first outing. Taking
out the Maryland debacle, Stevie threw 8.2 IP, allowed just 2 ERs (to the #3 team in the nation) and had
12 Ks while allowing just 2 BBs. Stevie is our ace and is going to have a strong season.

The other eye opening performance was Morgan Scott. She handled the second toughest opponent Ole
Miss easily. ML’s mantra for the pitchers is just give the team a chance to win and Morgan did just that in
both of her starts which led to Ws over Wisconsin and Ole Miss.

Reggie Breedlove looks significantly improved from last year. She did well as a starter and in relief.
She’s getting a lot of infield ground balls with her very effective drop ball. She led the team with a 1.31
ERA but she’ll have to improve her control to remain as effective. She allowed 4 BBs in 5.1 innings with
just 2 Ks.

Elise Sokolsky led the staff with the most innings with 10.1. She was fairly hittable allowing 11 hits with
a .306 avg against. She’ll need to lower that or the big hitting PAC teams will hurt her.

The big takeaway as far as ML goes is she was very quick to change pitchers. I think she has confidence
in all 4 arms. Last year there were times she left pitchers in for a few too many batters, but she was very
quick to switch in Mexico. We’ll see if that continues this weekend in San Diego.

Looking ahead to the San Diego tournament, SDSU is the only opponent with a winning record. Expect
the pitchers to shine and maybe we’ll get to see Allison Benning get some work.

Fielding

ML and her staff have always done a great job of having the team ready to go defensively at the start of
every season. This year was no exception. Paige Sinicki surprisingly made 2 errors which is borderline
shocking as she only made 3 all last year. Other teams’ shortstops struggled with some funky hops as
well and I expect Paige won’t make many more errors. Other than that – the fielding was sensational and
the team had a stellar .978 Fielding percentage.

Hanna Delgado robbed extra bases against Wisconsin taking away a deep fly ball where she crashed into
the fence to make the catch. Duke transfer Kyla Morris had one of the defensive gems of the tournament
with a diving catch in CF to take away a hit. Allee Bunker showed her all PAC defensive team skills with
a number of great plays. Ariel Carlson also made some nice plays in LF.

And then there’s Terra McGowan. She threw out 3 would be base stealers and picked another one off at
1B. Sooner or later you’d think teams will learn you don’t run on Terra, but watch her gun some more out
this weekend. Fielding will continue to be a strength of this team, and it will be one of the best defensive
teams in the PAC and the country.