Ducks Enter WCWS With Eyes On The Prize

OKLAHOMA CITY — Qualifying for the Women's College World Series in three of the past four years has provided many valuable lessons for the Oregon softball team, entering its latest appearance beginning Thursday.

The most valuable lesson is probably also the most simple: Winning is everything.

In four total previous trips to OKC under head coach Mike White, the Ducks are 1-3 in their opening game. They've never won each of their first two games in the double-elimination event, earning an off day Saturday and needing only to win once more Sunday in order to reach the best-of-three championship series.

That's something White and the Ducks would very much like to change this time around, which begins Thursday when top-ranked Oregon opens the 2018 Women's College World Series at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium against No. 8 Arizona State (9 a.m., ESPN).

"You've got to get through to Sunday with two lives," White said. "That's what it's about. We've got to do that if we want to have a chance to win this thing. It's just too difficult to come through the loser's bracket, with this quality of competition."

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Oregon's only win to open the WCWS came in 2014. The Ducks lost the next day, stayed alive with a win over Oklahoma but, playing for the fourth time in four days, were eliminated by Alabama.

A year ago, the UO softball team lost its opener, to Washington. After a day off to lick their wounds, the Ducks beat both Baylor and Louisiana State to stay alive. It was a gritty display of toughness, but it also sapped the team of energy, both physical and emotional. Their season ended the next day against eventual national champion Oklahoma.

"If you don't win the first game, it is really hard to come back," UO senior Gwen Svekis said. "It doesn't matter how good your team is, how good your pitching is."

Oregon's pitching has been pretty darn good in 2018. Entering the World Series, the Ducks are third nationally in team ERA. Sophomore Miranda Elish is tied for third individually with an ERA of 0.89, after allowing one earned run in pitching the Ducks to two Super Regional victories over Kentucky last weekend. That followed a rare loss for UO junior Megan Kleist in the series opener; Kleist's ERA rose to 1.14, still good for 12th nationally.

White hasn't tipped his hand as to which will start Thursday, and which might be held back in reserve to face either Oklahoma or Washington in Oregon's second WCWS game. But he knows Kleist is champing at the bit.

"I'm sure she can't wait to get the ball in her hand and get back out there," he said.

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Were Kleist to start against the Sun Devils, she'd be one of two newly minted first-team all-Americans in the circle Thursday morning. On Wednesday, both Kleist and ASU's Giselle "G" Juarez were so honored by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

Kleist (21-6) and Juarez faced off twice earlier this season, when the Ducks and host Sun Devils met for a three-game regular-season series April 13-15. Kleist threw a three-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts to win the opener, but was pulled after allowing a run in two innings of the finale, with Juarez pitching a shutout of her own for the win. In between, Elish allowed a run on four hits and struck out 12 to clinch the series for the Ducks.

Arizona State is back in the WCWS for the first time since 2013.

"We're scrappy," ASU coach Trisha Ford said. "We don't go away. And I hope that continues. We just fight."

The Sun Devils seem more than happy to assume the underdog role, in a WCWS field that includes all eight of the top-seeded teams entering the postseason. Oregon, meanwhile, is No. 1 overall, though the vast majority of attention at a press conference Wednesday afternoon featuring White, Ford, Washington coach Heather Tarr and Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso was for the latter, coach of the two-time national champs and facing an audience of local media.

Among the questions posed to Gasso was about the ability to fend off challengers as two-time national champs. Her answer could be educational for the top-seeded Ducks.

"The key is not feeling like you're marked," Gasso said. "We don't think that way; we don't play that way. We just try to go out and give it our best every day."

The Ducks learned a tough lesson in Super Regionals about what happens when you don't do that. Kentucky jumped all over Kleist and the Ducks, putting Oregon a game away from seeing its season end.

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"We're going in with a clean slate," UO senior third baseman Jenna Lilley said. "I think at some point we're going to have to face adversity, so maybe it's a good thing it happened then, to give us a little reality check. We hadn't been playing up to our capabilities."

That changed over the next two days, as the Ducks rallied back to beat the Wildcats. They hope to take that must-win attitude into the start of WCWS play Thursday — without having to learn any more lessons the hard way.

"It didn't feel too good at the time, but that's the attitude you have to take," White said. "We fought back really well. I don't want to get into that situation, but if we do we've got to keep fighting."