Softball Meets Bethune-Cookman to Open NCAA Region Four Action
Oregon is making its second consecutive trip to the NCAA Regional tournament and will travel to Tallahassee, Fla., as the No. 2 seed. Host Florida State earned the No. 1 seed. The Ducks open the tournament vs. No. 7 seed Bethune-Cookman at 9:30 a.m. PDT Thursday. Eight teams compete at eight regional sites in the double elimination tournament with the winner of each regional advancing to the College World Series in Oklahoma City March 26-31. All of Oregon’s games will be broadcast on the radio, 1320 AM with Joe Giansante providing play-by-play.
FAMILIAR TERRITORY
This will be Oregon’s third trip to the state of Florida this season. Oregon opened the season in Miami at the Florida International tournament and traveled to Clearwater in March for the Speedline Invitational. The Ducks have faced three teams in their region already this season ? losing 3-1 to Ohio State Feb. 14 and defeating Northridge 6-1 that same day. On March 13, the Ducks defeated Long Island University 9-1. Oregon played at the Seminole Classic in Tallahassee last season and won the tournament after defeating Florida State 3-1 and Georgia 3-2 in 12 innings.
A QUICK SEASON REVIEW
The Ducks opened the season with six preseason tournaments and after a 3-1 setback to Ohio State Feb. 14, Oregon went on a 14-game win streak ? the longest in school history. During that stretch, the Ducks picked up wins against No. 11 Texas, No. 14 Fresno State and No. 23 Texas A&M. They won five of those games by shutout and outscored their opponents 79-20. The streak was capped by a 9-8 come from behind win vs. Northwestern in which the Ducks trailed by five runs before freshman Kristi Leiter’s three run home run tied the game. Coastal Carolina snapped Oregon’s win streak with a 1-0 win at the Speedline Invitational. No matter, the Ducks opened the Pac-10 season in exciting fashion, coming from behind yet again vs. Oregon State in the opener. Oregon tralied by five runs in the seventh inning and rallied to beat the Beavers, 9-8. Sophomore shortstop Breanne Sabol had two hits in the seventh inning, one to start the rally and then the final hit that drove in the winning run. The Ducks then went on the road, winning at California for the first time in four years and then split with Stanford to finish the weekend 2-1. Oregon pitcher Ani Nyhus threw a one-hitter vs. the Cardinal and won two games by shutout that weekend. Other Pac-10 highlights include Oregon defeating UCLA at Easton Stadium for the first time since 1999, Oregon taking its third straight game in Seattle after a game-winning home run by Erin Goodell and the Ducks taking down No. 1 Arizona in Eugene on a walk-off home run by Ashley Richards. Oregon opened the Pac-10 season 9-5 before finishing the season 3-6. Pitcher Ani Nyhus threw the 14th no-hitter in school history and also recorded the single-game strikeout record (16) in a win over Utah State March 27. Nyhus won all 10 of the Ducks’ conference games and threw eight shutouts this season. Oregon had a knack for winning the close ones, finishing the season 14-6 in one run games.
