No. 3 Ducks Head to Puerto Vallarta

EUGENE, Ore. - The hot hitting No. 3 ranked Oregon softball team hits the road again the weekend, heading to Mexico for the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge.

The Ducks open the event on Thursday against Houston before playing a Friday doubleheader against Rutgers and Texas. No. 3 Oregon and No. 15 Ole Miss meet on Saturday to close out the weekend.

#3 OREGON DUCKS (6-0)
Team BA: .472 | Team ERA: 2.12 | Runs Scored: 73 | Runs Allowed: 12
Notable: UO opened the season in explosive fashion last week at the Kajikawa Classic. The Ducks belted 17 homers and scored 73 runs over six games. UO ranks second in the NCAA in batting (.472), on-base (.558) and slugging (.870). Senior catcher Gwen Svekis bashed five homers last weekend, tied for the NCAA lead.

HOUSTON COUGARS (3-1)
Team BA: .294 | Team ERA: 3.00 | Runs Scored: 21 | Runs Allowed: 12
All-Time: Oregon leads, 5-2 | Last: #2 UO swept a DH at UH, 2-0 & 10-5 (2/17/15)
Notable: Houston lost a close game at No. 6 Texas A&M last weekend, 5-4. The Aggies walked off with a win in the seventh inning. Mariah Garcia is hitting .636 with seven RBIs, no other player has more than one RBI.

RUTGERS SCARLET KNIGHTS (2-3)
Team BA: .246 | Team ERA: 5.09 | Runs Scored: 25 | Runs Allowed: 27
All-Time: Oregon leads, 2-0 | Last: #14 Oregon blanked Rutgers, 6-0 (3/4/04)
Notable: Rutgers is led offensively by Rebecca Hall, who hit .438 with three doubles, a triple and a homer in five games last weekend. Pitcher Whitney Jones has a 1-1 record and a 2.33 ERA in a team-high 15.0 innings pitched.

TEXAS LONGHORNS (2-2)
Team BA: .253 | Team ERA: 3.14 | Runs Scored: 12 | Runs Allowed: 14
All-Time: Oregon leads, 5-4 | Last: #2 Oregon run-ruled #25 Texas, 9-0 (2/6/15)
Notable: Janae Jefferson is hitting .500 with 5 RBIs through UT's first four games. UO and UT met in Austin for a memorable Super Regional in 2012, with the Ducks winning the doubleheader on the second day to advance to the WCWS.

#15 OLE MISS REBELS (3-1)
Team BA: .218 | Team ERA: 1.45 | Runs Scored: 15 | Runs Allowed: 6
All-Time: Oregon leads, 1-0 | Last: #14 Oregon defeated Ole Miss, 4-1 (2/11/11)
Notable: Ole Miss pitcher Kaitlin Lee has a 0.78 ERA over three appearances thus far. The star went 23-11 last season with a 1.82 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 249.2 innings. Ole Miss' loss this season came against Lipscomb, 3-0, on Feb. 9.

BROADCAST INFO
All of the games at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge will be streamed at CollegeSportsLive.com. A subsricption to the web site is required.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
While the games in Puerto Vallarta this weekend are believed to be the Ducks' first ever regular season games outside of the United States, it is the second international trip for the team this season. The Ducks made a two-week foreign tour of New Zealand over winter break, playing eight exhibition games against the New Zealand national team. Head coach Mike White is a New Zealand native.

OREGON IN THE POLLS
Oregon started the 2018 season ranked No. 3 in both top-25 polls and remained at No. 3 this week. The Ducks were No. 4 in the NFCA poll and No. 3 in the USA Softball poll at the end of the 2017 season, after reaching the WCWS semifinals.

TOP-25 STREAK
Oregon softball has been ranked in the top-25 of the NFCA poll for 121 straight weeks (preseason and postseason polls included). The Ducks climbed to No. 23 in week 10 of the 2010 season (Mike White's first season in Eugene) and have never dipped below that mark since.

GWEN GOES OFF
Gwen Svekis started her senior season with a bang, hitting five homers in six games at the season-opening Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. The catcher went 8-of-16 at the plate with five homers, 12 RBIs, nine runs scored and drew two walks with just one strikeout. Svekis homered in four straight games to start the year - against Georgia, Fresno State, Cal State Northridge and Missouri - before missing on a homer against UTEP. Svekis then promptly belted her fifth homer in the tournament finale against New Mexico, a grand slam.

GO DJ, THAT'S MY DJ
The loss of All-American shortstop and middle-of-the-order bat Nikki Udria was expected to be the main issue facing the Ducks in 2018. The loss was filled in incredible fashion as head coach Mike White added Louisiana transfer and All-American shorstop DJ Sanders prior to the season. Sanders, a senior who played her first three seasons with the Ragin' Cajuns, led the NCAA with 29 homers, 82 RBIs and 1.013 slugging percentage last year as a junior. The senior picked up right where she left off last season, hitting .556 with three homers and nine RBIs over her first six games with the Ducks.

EXPLOSIVE OFFENSE
- Oregon ranks second in the NCAA in batting average (.472), on-base percentage (.558) and slugging percentage (.870).
- The Ducks are averaging 12.17 runs per game, also second-best in the NCAA.
- Oregon has ranked 10th (.324 in 2017), first (.353 in 2016), third (.359 in 2015), third (.342 in 2014) and seventh (.329 in 2013) in the NCAA in hitting over the last five seasons.
- Individually, Alexis Mack leads the nation with 14 hits through six games. Shannon Rhodes is ninth with 10 hits.
- Gwen Svekis is tied for the NCAA lead with five HRs.
- DJ Sanders is third in the NCAA with four HRs.
- Shannon Rhodes is seventh with three homers.

IN THE CIRCLE
- Oregon's 2.21 ERA is fourth-best in the Pac-12.
- With a 1.41 team ERA, the Ducks ranked fifth in the NCAA and first in the Pac-12 in 2017.