Oregon is ranked No. 24 coming off of a series win versus No. 19 California, and will now head to Salt Lake City to play the Utah Utes. Both the Ducks and the Utes are 14-9 coming into this series. This will be another tough matchup for Oregon.

Oregon:

The Ducks had a 2-1 series win last weekend against the Golden Bears, who had the best record in the Pac-12 going into conference play. Oregon bounced back and won the last two games of the series after losing the first one. The Ducks are ranked again after falling out last week, breaking their 59 week streak of being in the top 25. 

The pitching from the Ducks has stayed consistently really good. On the backs of Morgan Scott, Taylour Spencer, and Stevie Hansen, Oregon is averaging a 2.58 ERA and have struck out 91 batters. The Ducks defensively have had only nine errors on over 600 defensive attempts, while they have forced 26 errors from their opponents. 

Oregon’s offense has done a great job of getting runners on with a .381 on-base percentage. They have had 189 hits and 73 free bases. Kai Luschar has been on fire with a 1.038 OPS and a .474 batting average. Luschar’s batting average is second best in the Pac-12 and 19th best in the nation. Ariel Carlson has a .369 batting average with a 1.201 OPS and a team leading six home runs. 

Utah:

Last year Utah made the Women’s College World Series, and came into this season with high expectations. Utah went 14-6 in non conference play with wins over Wisconsin, Nebraska, Notre Dame, and San Diego State. They got swept by No. 16 UCLA in the first weekend of Pac-12 play. 

The Utes have two star pitchers in Sarah Ladd and Mariah Lopez. They have a 2.61 and a 2.79 ERA, respectively. Lopez is third in the Pac-12 in total strikeouts behind Taylor Tinsley of UCLA and Nijaree Canady of Stanford. Defensively they have had 27 errors on over 630 defensive plays, but have forced 35 errors. 

The Utes have two players batting over .440 with and have a team total of 206 hits. They are not a home run team though, only having nice total home runs. Haley Denning gets on base the most at a .500 OBP with a .488 batting percentage. Kaylah Nelsen has the most RBI’s on the team with 16, also having eight doubles on 26 hits. 

Predictions:

Oregon will win the series 2-1.