Softball Ready To Celebrate Seniors
05/09/19 | Softball, @GoDucksMoseley
The Oregon softball team looks to send its seniors out on a winning note in a three-game series against ASU that starts Thursday (5 p.m., Pac-12).
The first home game for Oregon softball's 2019 seniors was the first game ever held in Jane Sanders Stadium, a victory over Stanford on March 24, 2016.
Since then, fourth-year seniors Cherish Burks, April Utecht and Darya Kaboli-Nejad have been on the roster for 70 more home victories as Ducks. They, along with senior newcomer Bayley Bruner, hope to pad that total when Oregon plays its final homestand of the 2019 regular season this weekend.
The Ducks (22-27) host Arizona State in a three-game series that begins Thursday (5 p.m., Pac-12 Networks). With the postseason off the table after Oregon's injury ravaged roster dropped two of three last week at Utah, the Ducks will take the field this weekend looking to send their seniors out on a high note.
"We don't have postseason to look forward to, but we have something to look forward to, and that's (playing for) our seniors," sophomore utility player Shaye Bowden said. "Because they've given us everything they've had this year."
Used primarily off the bench earlier in their careers, Utecht and Burks stepped into full-time roles as seniors. Utecht leads Oregon with 10 homers and has 29 RBIs, while joining Burks as two of four players to appear in all 49 games so far this season.
Bruner, who wrapped up a four-year career with the Oregon softball team in the fall, answered the call to provide depth with the softball team and has made 21 appearances, all as a pinch runner. Kaboli-Nejad has been sidelined throughout this spring by a knee injury.
"I'm thankful for the senior class and what they've done; they've contributed so much to this program," first-year UO coach Melyssa Lombardi said. "It was important for them to stay and to be a part of this program. …
"To watch them become leaders, and to stand strong for this program, I'm just very proud of them. I wish I could have gotten a couple more years with them, but I'm glad and fortunate that I got one year with them."
Oregon travelled to Utah last week with a razor-thin margin for error in the chase for a postseason berth. As it turned out, the Ducks would play the entire weekend without shortstop Jasmine Sievers and center fielder Haley Cruse due to injury, then lost outfielder Hannah Galey in the series finale Sunday, when the Ducks officially were eliminated from postseason contention.
Lombardi said Tuesday the team was still awaiting word on Galey's availability for the ASU series. But Cruse and Sievers "should be good to go," she said.
That's good news for a team looking to finish its transition to the Lombardi era on a high note, and enter the offseason with positive momentum.
And, more than anything, a team looking to send off its seniors in victorious fashion.
"I want to see them go out on a great note," Lombardi said. "We have three games left that, we want to take care of business. … We have been eliminated, so we could just go into the weekend going, let's just see what happens. But that's not the heartbeat of this team. They know every time we step out on the field that we want to give it our best and get what we want. So I think you'll see that from them this weekend as well."
