Oregon's The Hunted This Week Against Hungry Wolfpack
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
The Oregon softball team is being stalked by a hungry Wolfpack this weekend.
Of the 16 teams to host NCAA Regionals last week, 14 advanced to this week’s Super Regionals. That included No. 2 Oregon, which beat North Dakota State in the regional final Saturday to earn the right to host another round of postseason play this weekend at Howe Field.
One of the two exceptions took place at James Madison, where unseeded North Carolina State emerged victorious. The Wolfpack (38-20) moved on to face the Ducks in a best-of-three series beginning Friday (6 p.m., ESPNU), and the host team will be on upset alert.
Oregon is playing in Super Regionals for the seventh straight season. “I think that’s got to play into our advantage,” UO coach Mike White said. “But the game doesn’t know that. The game’s going to come out and, whoever plays best, wins. That’s what we’ve got to focus on. Doing our homework, making sure we’ve prepared well and then, win.”
Oregon’s veterans know all too well the sting of not being fully prepared for a Super Regional. After making the Women’s College World Series in 2012, the Ducks expected to do so again the following spring – so much so that they took for granted their Super Regional matchup with Nebraska in 2013, and lost.
The Ducks redeemed themselves by making it back to Oklahoma City last spring, but the memory of 2013 lingers. “We’ve really used that as a learning tool for the last couple years,” White said. “About respecting our opponent coming in. We can’t just think we’re going to turn up and win.”
If the UO women wonder how North Carolina State might be approaching this matchup, Hailey Decker can tell them. Now Oregon’s first baseman, Decker was the second baseman for Nebraska as a freshman in 2013, and had two hits as the Cornhuskers eliminated the Ducks in the decisive third game of Super Regionals.
Decker said Nebraska was counting on being the hungrier team that weekend, and hoping the Ducks were looking past them. “At this point, you can’t take anyone lightly,” she said.
North Carolina State merits the Ducks’ full attention. Their ace is Emily Weiman, who enters Super Regionals with 31 wins and an ERA of 2.34. White said Weiman “keeps the ball down, doesn’t give up too many home runs. She’s a big reason they’re at where they’re at.”
Offensively, White expects the Wolfpack to swing for the fences. That’s the reputation of their coach, Shawn Rychick, with whom White played in international competition, as an opponent and then a teammate after White moved from his native New Zealand.
North Carolina State has won 12 of 13, and is hitting .329 with a 1.73 ERA in that span. For the season the Wolfpack is hitting .271 with a 2.48 ERA, while the Ducks come into the weekend with a .366 average and an ERA of 2.37.
“I think we’re on a really good roll right now,” UO center fielder Koral Costa said. “I honestly don’t think we’ve reached our climax, which is a good thing because we want to save that for the World Series.”
This weekend’s games also will be the last for Oregon before Howe Field is replaced by the new Jane Sanders Stadium. For the most part the Ducks look forward to the major upgrade in their facility, but there will be some nostalgia in the air this weekend.
“I think everyone’s going to miss the homey feeling,” UO left fielder Janie Takeda said. “The new stadium will be just that – a stadium – but this is a field, for the community.”
