Ducks Determined To Keep Battling

OKLAHOMA CITY — It's the bottom of the seventh inning for Oregon's softball season. The good news is, the Ducks have proven to be quite comfortable with their backs against the wall this postseason.

Oregon could only practice Friday at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium complex, with games in the winner's bracket scheduled. The four teams that lost Thursday all had a day off to lick their wounds, and to prepare for elimination games Saturday.

For the Ducks, that comes against Baylor (11:30 a.m. PT, ESPN), following Oregon's 3-1 loss Thursday to Washington. The next loss will be the last for the Ducks, who need to win twice Saturday and twice again Sunday if they want to reach the three-game national championship series that begins Monday.

Oregon's seniors — outfielder Danica Mercado, shortstop Nikki Udria (below) and outfielder Sammie Puentes — know there may only be 21 outs left in their collegiate careers.

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"My head is strong; I won't be sad until that final out comes," Mercado said Friday, following the Ducks' practice. "Our team, we're crazy. We can come back in the bottom of the seventh and score. Because I know that about this team, I won't give up."

The Ducks have demonstrated a steely resolve through this postseason. Two weeks ago they were in danger of losing an NCAA Regional game for the first time in head coach Mike White's tenure, before rallying in the seventh to force extra innings against Wisconsin, then winning in the eighth. Oregon advanced past Kentucky in Super Regionals by making up a three-run deficit with a four-run seventh inning, and the Ducks' only run Thursday against the Huskies came in the bottom of the seventh.

The UO women had chances to score throughout Thursday's game, but only in the seventh could they actually push a run across.

"I don't know if we get looser where other teams might tense up, but we kind of loosen up, like, 'Well, we only can do what we can do right now,'" said Mercado (below). "Being in the loser's bracket, that puts us in that situation already."

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If there's one thing the UO veterans would like to see Saturday, it's that seventh-inning mentality earlier in the game. Baylor is a formidable foe, having upset Pac-12 champion Arizona on the road in Super Regionals, but the Ducks are confident they can stay alive — if they play a full seven innings.

Finding that sense of urgency shouldn't be a problem, given the stakes Saturday.

"The last innings have been our go-to innings," Udria said. "If we could find a way to channel that energy earlier, we'd be a lot more successful. I'd like to see us come out like that."

By losing their opener, the Ducks know their dreams of an NCAA title are on thin ice. Knowing her career could end Saturday made for an emotional night after Thursday's loss, Mercado said.

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But her spirits were buoyed in part by a pre-practice pep talk Friday from UO assistant Chelsea Spencer (above), who won an NCAA title as a freshman at Cal in 2002. The following year, the Golden Bears reached the title series again despite losing their second game — and they lost the championship series to UCLA, which rallied back after losing its opening game of the tournament.

Spencer's pep talk set the stage for what Mercado called "a really good practice" for the Ducks on Friday.

"She's been in our position, and she made it back to the national championship game," Mercado said. "It's hard, but we can do it. I think we have a scrappy team, and we don't just say it, we actually live by it. And we have the pitching to back us up and get us through this.

"I'd like to just see more fight from the beginning. And I think that's going to be there."