Back on April 1, the Oregon softball team suffered its worst defeat of the season, a 16-6 shellacking at the hands of Pac-12 rival UCLA. Two days later, the Bruins defeated the Ducks again at Jane Sanders Stadium by a score of 4-1, resulting in the Ducks’ first Pac-12 conference series loss in two years.
That loss sparked Oregon to win 14-consecutive games en route to its unprecedented fourth-straight Pac-12 title. The Ducks have gone 20-2 since that 4-1 loss, including three-straight wins in the Eugene Regional last weekend to set up a rematch.
Instead of having first place in the Pac-12 on the line when these two teams meet on Saturday, the Ducks and Bruins will be battling for something much more important: a spot in the Women’s College World Series.
While both teams are among the best in the nation on offense, it’s clear that Oregon is the more complete team with a better overall pitching staff and defense. Even still, all that can be thrown out the window when two rivals take the same field with so much at stake.
Oregon
Cheridan Hawkins won her third-consecutive Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year award and has proven dominant in the postseason throughout her career. She is 12-4 under the bright lights with a 1.87 ERA over 104.1 postseason innings. The Ducks can also throw freshman Megan Kleist against the Bruins. Kleist secured Oregon’s only win against UCLA during the season in a 6-5 win.
The Ducks’ offense is led by Eugene Regional co-MVP Alyssa Gillespie, who went 7-for-8 with five runs, four RBI and tw0 doubles from the No. 9 spot in the batting order. Nikki Udria, Koral Costa, Geri Ann Glasco, Gwen Svekis and Janelle Lindvall, Oregon’s 2-through-6 batters in the lineup, have combined for 65 home runs on the season. For comparison, the Bruins have 64 total home runs on the year.
The Ducks are a very balanced team across the board that can beat you with pitching, defense and hitting. Offensively, Oregon doesn’t rely on just the power ball; it has proven it can beat a team with gap-to-gap hitting, as shown in the Regional last weekend.
UCLA
The Bruins will go as far as Delauney Spaulding and Johanna Grauer take them.
Grader, the ace for the Bruins, threw her first career no-hitter in last week’s 7-0 victory over Bakersfield in the Los Angeles Regional. She went 1-0 in the Regional, giving up three runs on three hits with three walks in 8.1 innings.
Spaulding leads a potent UCLA offense with 17 home runs and 61 RBI. Alexis Bennett and Kylee Perez both boast batting averages over .400, but getting them to cross home plate will fall on the shoulders of Spaulding. If she can produce at the plate and put the pressure on Hawkins early with big-time hits, UCLA has a very good chance at advancing.
UCLA used defense and timely hitting to win when these two teams met earlier in the year. The Bruins turned five double plays in the series and three different players accounted for two home runs apiece.
Television
The first game of the best-of-three series is set for Saturday at 6:30 p.m.; it will be televised by ESPN. The two teams will meet again on Sunday at 4 p.m. (ESPNU) with a potential third game set for 7 p.m. (ESPNU).
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