By: Ian Sutliff
Eugene, OR-- One thing that looked concerning before the season started for the Ducks was the strength of schedule they would face in regular season tournaments and playing in arguably the best conference in softball. As Oregon recently hopped into the top-15 this week, those worries have been erased. This will be an interesting weekend as the Ducks have four games instead of the regular three in this penultimate PAC-12 series against Cal in Berkeley. They’ll play one game in Stockton against Pacific on Thursday before its three-game set.
Oregon:Things are going about as perfect as possible for Oregon at the moment, with the pitching staff and offense firing on all cylinders. One of the big story lines over the past couple weeks is the dominance of Morgan Scott. With so much talk about how Stevie Hansen would have to carry the staff once again in 2023, Scott has made an argument that she might now be the ace for this Ducks squad. Over her past seven appearances, she has owned a 0.30 ERA in 23 ⅔ innings. She has struck out 27 batters in that time and has lowered her season ERA to a 2.22, which now sits above Hansen (2.29). Raegan Breedlove is also getting regular outings and has been relied upon for a start over the previous couple weekends.
On the offensive side of the ball, the story hasn’t just been about stars Allee Bunker and Terra McGowan. Ariel Carlson looks like she has discovered her power surge that she carried through the entire 2022 campaign with three home runs in April (just two in her first 31 games). Alyssa Daniel has homered three times in the last six contests and Hanna Delgado has hit safely in eight of the last nine while going 14-30 in that span (.467). This is all while Kai Luschar is quietly having the best offensive season of any Duck. She’s only started ten games this season but she’s batting .516 in 31 at-bats and was 5-11 in the weekend series against Arizona. Karissa Ornelas has been maybe the best bench bat in the conference this month and had two huge multi-RBI hits this weekend. She’s 5-10 in April with a home run and nine RBIs in just seven games.
Pacific: It’s been a tough season for the Tigers and through 33 games, the team is just 9-24. It’s been over a month since the team’s last win and Pacific is still searching for its first win in league play. They’ve been run-ruled four times over this ten-game losing streak so Oregon will be no easy test for a Tigers team in the middle of a rut.
One of the most interesting things about this Pacific team is how many pitchers have seen regular innings at certain points this season. Vanessa Strong is the ace for this squad as she leads the team in ERA (3.11) and innings (65 ⅓) and has allowed just a .254 batting average against. Hannah Glad and Avery Croxall have seen a lot more time over the past few weekends with Scarlett Loyd struggling, and have filled in nicely. Glad carries a 3.64 ERA and while she has just nine strikeouts in over 30 innings pitched, she has done a great job limiting baserunners. Croxall has also been a solid option this season and has probably been the second best pitcher on the staff this season. The Tigers will need two of their top three pitchers to be at their best if they want to stun Oregon at home.
The Pacific pitching staff might not be the best, but the real reason for the struggles of this team are in large part because of a mediocre offense at best. The Tigers have scored just seven runs in their seven-game losing streak and haven’t scored more than seven runs in any single game this season. Delaney Scully is the only batter on this team to hit .300 or better and her average stands right at .300 going into the weekend. Carly Luchetti is also another standout on this young team with a .273 batting average and a pair of home runs this season. Luchetti also leads the team in steals with eight and only Kyla Eck has a higher slugging percentage (.390). Overall, there’s a good chance that this team fails to put up a run against a strong pitching and defensive Ducks team.
Cal:Easily one of the most underrated teams in the nation, the Golden Bears are 30-14-1 and the best unranked team in the conference. This is a team that has taken a series against Utah, and gone 2-4 against Stanford and UCLA while being squarely in three of those games. The identity of this team is its offense and the power that this Cal team has. It’s the top power hitting team in the PAC-12 with 59 home runs and that attack is balanced as well. Six players have five or more home runs and their top four hitters are right up there with some of the best teams in the nation.
Makena Smith is the star for this team and the senior catcher is having another great season in her fifth year as the starter for the Golden Bears. Through 45 games, she’s hitting .348 with 12 home runs and 40 RBIs. She has also added 12 doubles after having just 21 non-homer extra-base hits in her first four seasons in Berkley. Tatum Anzaldo leads the team in batting average at .372 and her speed plays well in front of the power hitters that occupy the middle of the lineup. She has just two home runs but has nine doubles, a triple, and eight stolen bases in ten attempts. Kacey Zobac has also been on a roll with six multi-hit games in April and has her average up to .369 with eight home runs and 34 RBIs in 2023. Elon Butler and Sophie Medelin get passed over because of their lower batting averages in comparison to the rest of the lineup, but the two have eight home runs a piece as well. Oregon will get thrown a bone on Thursday against Pacific, but Cal might be the most dangerous offensive team they’ve faced this entire season.
For all the attention around Cal’s bats, the Golden Bears have a very solid pitching staff to go along with their offense. Haylei Archer is the workhorse with 107 ⅓ innings and is 9-6 with a 2.61 ERA in 20 starts. She’s allowed just a .216 batting average against and has three shutouts and three saves. Anna Reimers is arguably just as good or better than Archer as she is 9-2 with a 2.81 ERA in 79 ⅔ innings this season. She’s struggled with walks at points this season (29) but she makes up for it with her dominant stuff on the mound (55 Ks). Her .230 batting average against is elite and the second best on the staff and she’s thrown four complete games. This is by no means an easy series for Cal, but if Archer and Reimers can limit Bunker, McGowan, and Carlson this weekend, they could very well end up with a huge series win and some top-25 consideration.
Prediction:Oregon is playing its best softball this season and will play its toughest series since going up against UCLA at the end of March. This time they’ll play on the road where they’ve gone 8-3 this season, but the stakes are high as postseason play is just around the corner. They’ll tear apart Pacific with a 10-0 win in five innings, before running into some trouble against Cal. It’ll be a close series, but the Ducks will take the series after their eleven-game win streak ends with a loss on Saturday. Carlson and Tehya Bird will homer against the Golden Bears and end the weekend tied in the PAC-12 standings with Utah going into their series with them next weekend.