No. 18 Softball Travels To Louisville Slugger Desert Classic
COMING UP
Louisville Slugger Desert Classic
The 18th-ranked University of Oregon softball team (4-1) continues its five-week road swing with a trip to Las Vegas to take part in the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic. Oregon will play five games in the tournament. Oregon is 25-16 all-time vs. four of this weekend’s opponents and will be playing UTEP for the first time in school history. The Ducks have faced Tennessee ? a 2005 WCWS participant ? only one time in school history (1998). Hawaii is the only program with a winning record (8-6) against the Ducks.
RECAPPING LAST WEEKEND - WILSON/DEMARINI INVITATIONAL
Oregon’s offense game out of the gates strong as the Ducks had 31 hits in its first three games, including 13 hits vs. No. 19 Florida. Breanne Sabol opened her senior season by hitting two home runs in the Ducks’ opener vs. Florida and Oregon won 5-4 after scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. On day two, the Duck defense matched its offense as pitcher Amy Harris threw a complete game against the Gators, striking out six and allowing just one earned run. Duck freshman Elise Orange then picked up her first collegiate victory, leading the Ducks to an 8-0 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Houston handed Oregon its first loss of the season, limiting Oregon to just one hit in a 3-0 win. Freshman Sari-Jane Jenkins accounted for the lone hit. But the Ducks finished the tourney on a high note, defeating Kansas 3-1 in eight innings Sunday to improve to 4-1 on the season. Harris gave up just three hits and had seven strikeouts.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
The Ducks were picked to finish eighth in the Pac-10 in a poll voted on by the league’s coaches. In the preseason USA Today/NFCA poll, the Ducks earned a No. 22 ranking and moved up to No. 18 this week. The Ducks were unranked in the preseason ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, but debuted at No. 24 this week.
THE OPPONENTS
UTAH STATE: The Aggies had a difficult opening weekend, going 1-5 at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. While they did pick up a 5-2 win over Fullerton, the Aggies were outscored 47-10 in six games and were shutout three times.
TENNESSEE: The Lady Vols opened the 2006 season looking as dominant as ever, going 3-0 at the Coastal Carolina Tournament. Junior pitcher Monica Abbott tossed her fourth-career perfect game in an 8-0 (five inning) win over Coastal Carolina and the Volunteers’ offense hit .321 in three games. Abbott went 2-0 and had 28 strikeouts in 13 innings pitched.
HAWAII: After winning three straight at the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii fell 6-2 to Texas Arlington on the final day to finish the weekend 4-2. Pitcher Justine Smethurst went 2-0 while Tyleen Tausaga led the way offensively, hitting .421 with two home runs and five RBI.
COLORADO STATE: The Rams won two games on Sunday, defeating Portland State and New Mexico State to finish the Hilton Las Cruces Classic 3-3.
UTEP: The UTEP softball team was swept by Louisiana-Monroe, 4-0 and 2-1, in its season-opening doubleheader. UTEP’s pitchers fanned 17 batters to ULM’s eight, but it was Monroe’s bats that lifted the Lady Indians.
FRESHMAN DEBUTS
Three of Oregon’s five freshman played in the Ducks’ opening tournament. Pitcher Elise Orange finished the weekend with eight strikeouts and picked up her first collegiate win. Melissa Rice pitched seven innings and had seven strikeouts. And the offense of freshman center fielder Sari-Jane Jenkins? who started four games ? was consistent and clutch. Jenkins broke up Houston’s no-hitter with a single in the sixth inning, which was Oregon’s lone hit of the game. Jenkins, who established herself as the Ducks’ leadoff hitter, followed that performance with another key hit in Oregon’s final game of the tournament. With Oregon and Kansas knotted at 0-0 in the seventh inning, Jenkins’ RBI put the Ducks ahead 1-0. She finished the tourney 5-for-15 (.333) with three runs scored, a double, a triple and one RBI.
DON'T COUNT 'EM OUT
Although Oregon won comfortably in two of its four wins over the weekend, the Ducks had to battle to the end to pick up its other two victories. In the opener vs. Florida, Oregon trailed 4-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Ducks’ led off the seventh with back-to-back hits and then capitalized on a Gator error to win, 5-4. In the final game of the weekend, Oregon went ahead 1-0 in the top of the seventh against Kansas, but the Jayhawks quickly tied it up in the bottom of the inning. In the first extra inning game of the season, Oregon scored two runs to go ahead 3-1 and the defense held in the bottom of the eighth to secure the victory.
IMPRESSIVE OPENERS
With another impressive opening weekend, Oregon is now 3-1 all-time in its season-openers under Coach Arendsen. In all, the Ducks have scored 35 runs in four season-opening games under Arendsen. Oregon is now 13-5 overall after the first week of play under Arendsen.
VEGAS, BABY
In three trips to Las Vegas under Coach Arendsen, the Ducks are 9-3 overall. Oregon made two trips to the Desert in 2004 and was 4-0 in its last visit.
TOP OF THE LINEUP
Sari-Jane Jenkins, Breanne Sabol, Lovena Chaput and Beth Boskovich are at the top of Oregon’s lineup, respectively. Over the weekend, the foursome combined to hit .350. They had 20 of Oregon’s 38 hits and accounted for 16 of the Ducks’ 23 runs scored. They also had half of Oregon’s doubles and 12 of the 20 RBI.
DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE
The Duck defense is picking up where it left off last season. Oregon led the Pac-10 in double plays turned in both 2004 and 2005. The 2004 team had the most double plays in school history (32) and last weekend, Oregon turned a league-leading four double plays.
THE NATION'S BEST
The Pac-10 Conference is considered the toughest softball conference in the nation. Last weekend, four Pac-10 teams went undefeated and as a whole, the Pac-10 was 37-5 in the first weekend of competition. Arizona hurler Alicia Hollowell was named NFCA national player of the week after pitching 18.0 shutout innings. In 57 batters faced, she combined to give up one hit, one walk and one hit-by-pitch. Of those 57 batters, she logged 36 strikeouts and her batters combined to hit .018 against her, with a .053 on-base percentage.
