Ducks Fill Break In Pac-12 Schedule With No. 9 Ragin' Cajuns
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
With a week off from play in the nine-team Pac-12 Conference, UO softball coach Mike White could have taken it easy on his team this weekend.
The Ducks have spent the last six weeks navigating the toughest league in the country, going 38-5 overall and 16-2 in the Pac-12 to earn a No. 2 ranking nationally. They’ve got No. 20 California and No. 19 Arizona left on the conference schedule before postseason play begins.
So how will Oregon spend its break from Pac-12 play? By hosting another top-10 team at Howe Field. No. 9 Louisiana (34-5, 17-3) is in town to face the Ducks on Friday at 4 p.m., and in a doubleheader Saturday beginning at noon.
“I guess there’s two ways to look at that,” White said. “One is, take a weekend off, get some rest. But it’s so close towards the end of the season that you don’t want to stop the momentum, get into a lull. It’s going to be great for us to see some really good pitching.”
Along with two of the best teams in the country, this weekend’s matchup will feature a handful of the very best players NCAA softball has to offer. Louisiana’s three starting pitchers – Jordan Wallace, Christina Hamilton and Alex Stewart – are a combined 32-4, and primary starter Wallace has allowed opponents to bat just .123 while posting an ERA of 1.84.
And those three aren’t any of the three national player of the year candidates playing at Howe Field on Friday and Saturday. They would be Oregon ace Cheridan Hawkins (20-3, 1.12) and UO outfielder Janie Takeda, who could shake up school record books this weekend, along with Lafayette’s Lexie Elkins.
Elkins has 25 home runs, after hitting five in two games last week to earn national player of the week honors. Overall the Ragin’ Cajuns have hit 81 home runs, and they lead the NCAA with an average of 2.08 per game.
White said most of the Lafayette lineup favors a “rotational” hitting approach – opening up their hips and dropping their back shoulders to try and pull the ball with lift. They’ll be a test for Hawkins, who has allowed eight home runs in 131 2/3 innings this season.
Hawkins said she’ll use “the same kind of aggressive approach” she usually favors. “Obviously we’re going to look at them, see what they do and go from there,” the junior left-hander said. “But I don’t think you change everything you do.”
Oregon has put on its own power display over the course of this season, hitting 61 home runs. Koral Costa leads the Ducks with 12, while Geri Ann Glasco and Hailey Decker each have hit eight. Decker had just one at-bat in Oregon’s sweep at Stanford last week due to injury, but White sounded cautiously optimistic she could return this week.
Takeda, meanwhile, is on the cusp of several school records entering the Ducks’ penultimate regular-season series at Howe Field, which will be replaced before next spring. Takeda enters Friday’s game tied for UO records in career hits (288) and stolen bases (96), is three shy of the school record for career doubles and is six runs away from yet another school record.
The Ducks close the regular season at home against Cal next week and then at Arizona a week later. But first, there’s this week’s visit by Louisiana, which the Ducks say is a welcome challenge given the proximity to postseason play.
“I think it’s important to be challenged, especially at this point in the season,” Hawkins said. “After the last two Pac-12 series, you go right into postseason. So I think it’s awesome to be able to see three College World Series type opponents before postseason.”
