Utecht Blossoms In Expanded Role
02/20/19 | Softball, @GoDucksMoseley
After spending three seasons providing a power bat off the bench, senior April Utecht is playing every day this spring and came through in the clutch last week vs. LSU.
April Utecht had been waiting four years for her moment. Against Louisiana State this past Friday, she seized it.
For three years, Utecht's role with the Oregon softball team was to provide a power bat off the bench. Having hit 57 home runs in high school, Utecht put eight of her 28 career hits for the Ducks over the fence from 2016-18.
As a senior this spring, Utecht is an everyday player. With regular at-bats comes the chance to play through the ups and downs of a season. Utecht had a quiet opening weekend earlier this month, but she broke out in a big way at last week's St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational, driving in the go-ahead run in Oregon's 8-5 upset of No. 8 LSU.
Then, Utecht made sure the lead would hold up, providing insurance in the form of a three-run, seventh-inning homer.
"I think that ball still has not landed," first-year UO coach Melyssa Lombardi said Tuesday. "She got all of that one."
This week the Ducks are in Cathedral City, Calif., for the Mary Nutter Classic. Oregon (7-2), now up to No. 17 in the polls, opens the tournament against New Mexico State on Thursday at 10 a.m., the first of six games over four days for the Ducks at the event.
Utecht will take a .333 batting average into the tournament, after going 5-for-10 last week. And she takes renewed confidence into the Mary Nutter Classic, after her clutch performance against LSU.
"It was a good feeling," Utecht said. "But as a team we got on base, we did our jobs, and the home run was just something special that came along. So it was nice to have that, but everyone did their job in the game."
Utecht's first at-bat this weekend will be her 28th of the season, matching her total from all of last season, when four of her nine hits were homers. Listed as an infielder, she has started six games at catcher and four as the designated player this season.
Utecht said Lombardi has been working closely with her on her catching skills. She played the position while growing up, and is working to knock the rust off. Specifically, she said, speeding up her release on throws has been a point of emphasis.
With a bat in her hands, though, Utecht has always been comfortable.
"Hitting is hitting," she said. "It's just making sure I have my head in the game, doing the job they need me to do."
With the game on the line against LSU last week, Utecht did just that.
"She's been putting in the time, and she's been waiting for her moments," Lombardi said. "The first weekend there was a couple times when she had her moments, and she wasn't able to cash in. So it was nice to see her cash in."
Utecht celebrated her home run against LSU with a fist pump between first base and second, and was greeted at home plate by her teammates.
But for a team written off by some people following a coaching change and significant roster turnover this offseason, the Ducks reacted to the win over the Tigers in a relatively composed fashion. One would hardly even suspect Oregon had pulled off a big upset – which is exactly the culture Lombardi has worked to instill.
"I don't want them to be surprised that they beat them," Oregon's first-year coach said. "I want them to expect to beat anybody that we step out on the field (against). So when we won it was nice to look and see what the reaction was. It was just them taking care of their business, and I like that. It's a good sign."
After facing three top-25 teams in four games last week, the Ducks only face one ranked team this weekend, No. 23 Texas Tech on Saturday.
Lombardi and the Ducks are approaching the weekend with the same one-game-at-a-time attitude that helped them knock off LSU and also Florida Atlantic last week. But the UO coach also hopes this week's schedule will allow No. 2 pitcher Maddie MacGrandle to iron out some kinks in the circle.
UO ace Jordan Dail enters this weekend at 5-0 with a 2.85 ERA, and 46 strikeouts against 25 walks in 39 1/3 innings. MacGrandle (2-2) has struggled to harness her repertoire of pitches, with 18 strikeouts and 22 walks in 16 1/3 innings.
When MacGrandle finds her command, Lombardi said, she'll keep batters off-balance by mixing speeds and attacking different spots around the strike zone.
"She'll get the opponents to mis-hit, which is great, because I think we have a tremendous defense," Lombardi said. "We want her to play right into our defense. She'll get there; I love Maddie, and I trust Maddie. I know she's got it. I just want her to settle in – and she will. And when she does, you'll like what you see from her."
