What Oregon's Dominating Series Against #2 Ranked Florida State Means For The Postseason
After a 35-0 start for the Oregon Ducks softball team, another PAC-12 championship and red-hot entry into the postseason seemed certain. But The Ducks took its foot off the gas, and paid dearly for it, losing 6 of the team's next 8 games and giving up its foothold for the Pac-12 championship.
Fast-forward to this past weekend with the #2 Florida State Seminoles coming to town for a three game series, and the Ducks were faced with two options: One: continue lackluster play and accept that FSU is a tough team that will probably win, or option two: Show why this team has won four straight Pac-12 championships, buck up and punch FSU in the mouth.
Come game one of the series it was very clear which option The Ducks chose. Throughout this series Oregon showed three traits that a team needs in order to make it to the College World Series: dominance, longevity and the clutch factor. In game one The Ducks totaled 12 hits and 11 runs, run-ruling the Seminoles in 5 innings on top of a dominant pitching performance from Megan Kleist who allowed only 2 hits on the day- Dominance.
Later that day the ducks finished their double header in a game where both teams could only muster a single run through 5 innings, but The Ducks woke the bats up in the sixth pushing across two more runs and winning the game 3-1- Longevity. To cap the series off the ducks found themselves in a pitchers duel that lasted 9 innings, but key bunts and utilizing runners in scoring position helped the ducks to win in walk-off fashion in the 9th inning with a game winning sacrifice fly - The clutch factor. Throughout the series the ducks got back into their 35-0 form. Not only that, but they beat one of the best pitchers in the country Jessica Burroughs… twice, only her third and fourth losses of the season. The Oregon pitching staff this weekend was nothing short of phenomenal. The ‘Noles came into the series with a team batting average of .333 and averaging just over 7 runs a game, but the Oregon pitching staff held them to only two runs... the ENTIRE series.
In game three, Maggie Balint was called on to deal with a nasty mess, entering the game in the middle of an at-bat with runners on second and third with no outs. Balint though, stared adversity in the face and overcame the situation by striking out the batter to get the first out. Capitalizing on a botched “suicide squeeze” by the ‘Noles for the second out at the plate, and striking out the third batter to end the inning. "I love it. That's what I pitch for” Balint said about her entrance to the sticky situation, “I really like going in with runners on because I can put the team on my back,” Balint, Kleist, and Elish came together as a staff and were tougher than a ten dollar steak the entire weekend with a team ERA of .66 while only allowing 13 hits, just 5 in the first two games.
At the plate, The Ducks woke the bats up against an elite pitching staff for the ‘Noles that hadn’t lost a conference game all year, scoring 16 total runs in its 3 games. Even more impressive is HOW they were able to score the runs. The Ducks capitalized with runners in scoring position seemingly every chance they had.
Oregon saw run production from everyone in the lineup, showing that any player can come through when the team needs her. In game two of the series The Ducks found themselves in tight spots throughout the game, but were able to prevail in the end, getting clutch RBIs from Jenna Lilly and Danica Mercado. Again in game three the ducks slugged it out with the ‘Noles through 9 innings, but clutch situational softball got the ducks the win. A key one-strike bunt from Madi Bishop in the 9th inning, set the table for Gwen Svekis to hit the walk-off sacrifice fly. “She did exactly what we needed her to do,” head coach Mike white said about Svekis’ game winning fly ball, “She got the ball deep enough to score the run, she let the ball come to her, didn’t try to do to much and just understood the situation of the game,”
What The Ducks showed this weekend was its ability to deal with any situation the softball gods can throw at them. They dealt with close games as a team, and never let nerves get in the way. With the entire country watching, The Ducks played elite defense, pitched lights out in the circle, and sprayed the field with hits, all against one of the best teams in the country. Most duck fans hoped for a series win, at the very least satisfied if they could steal a game. But only the most diehard of duck fan could have been confident in a sweep of the #2 team in the country.
These three wins were impressive, but the fashion with which they won, even more so. The Ducks are one of the hottest teams in the country going into next week’s series against Stanford and eventually regionals. This team may not have won the Pac-12 but in this series they’ve certainly showed the world what a championship team looks like.
