During its current 12-game winning streak, Oregon softball has looked more like the football team.
The Ducks outscored their six opponents 62-12 over the course of last weekend’s Citrus Classic in Orlando, Fla., scoring at least 10 runs in four of the six games. Its pitchers are winning conference honors, and the tops of the conference’s stat sheets almost read like an Oregon roster. It’s been gravy for so long, one has to stretch back to almost a month ago to find a game the Ducks (19-3) lost by more than one run.
But despite the lopsided wins, No. 10 Oregon still isn’t atop the Pac-12 standings. In the sport’s toughest conference, where seven of the nine softball programs are ranked in the Top 25, sweeping cross-country tournaments means little if the Ducks can’t grind out conference wins down the stretch. Here’s who the Ducks need to beat (and beat often) to earn a second-straight berth in the Women’s College World Series.
No. 3 Arizona State — The good news for Ducks fans is the Sun Devils (21-1) finally lost. Still, despite dropping the last game of the Wilson/DeMarini Invitational to No. 22 Baylor, Arizona State remains the force to be reckoned with in the Pac-12. Junior righthander and Junior Women’s Nationals player Dallas Escobedo (11-1) led the Sun Devils to the 2011 national championship as a freshman and has already tossed a no-hitter this year against Boise State. Her teammates’ bats have been busy, too — Arizona State’s average margin of victory is 7.4 runs. Unless things dramatically change, all roads to Oklahoma City will run through Tempe once again this year.
No. 6 California — With the Sun Devils’ loss, the Golden Bears (16-2) now possess the conference’s longest active winning streak at 15 games. California will be busy playing Baylor in the Hawaii Spring Fling in Honolulu while Oregon takes a 10-day rest between its home opener against New Mexico and its conference opener against Stanford, and there’s a chance Baylor’s Bears could sneak up on Cal’s Bears like they did Arizona State and add early intrigue to the conference just before Pac-12 play begins.
No. 11 UCLA — The Bruins (18-3) started out hot, sweeping three straight national tournaments. But twice UCLA followed up those tournament wins with losses, one to Cal State Fullerton at home and one on the road to Cal State Northridge. Fortunately they won’t have to play another Cal school until an April 11 meeting with the Golden Bears. The Bruins will have plenty of games in the meantime to pad its eyebrow-raising 3-2 mark at home.