College Softball News

FPN Series of the Week: No. 1 Oregon Ducks at No. 7 UCLA Bruins

It’s time for a Fastpitch News road trip to the West Coast. There’s a 35-game winning streak on the line this weekend and it is arriving in Westwood, California, Friday night at full-speed.

The top-ranked Oregon Ducks are coming off a sweep of Arizona State and face, what could be their toughest test, the No. 7 UCLA Bruins. UCLA won its series against Washington last weekend.

The Bruins were the last team to beat the Ducks back on May 29 in Eugene at the NCAA Super Regionals. The win eliminated the Ducks and sent the Bruins to Oklahoma City. UCLA leads the all-time series with Oregon 80-24, including a 33-11 home record.

Friday night’s game is at 7 p.m. on Pac-12 Network National, Saturday’s is at 7 p.m. on Pac-12 Networks National and Los Angeles and Sunday’s is at 2 p.m. on ESPN2. (All times Pacific.)

At the Plate

Kylee Perez is a hitting machine, she is batting .443 and 15 of her 51 hits are for extra bases. She has multiple hits in four of her last six games. Delaney Spaulding has hits in 28 of 35 games and is UCLA Top 10 in 10 categories. She his batting .380 and her 30 runs scored leads the team this season. Madeline Jelenicki and Brianna Tautalafua are the RBI collectors with 36 and 28. As a team, the Bruins are aggressive at the plate and come out swinging. They have 95 free bases compared to 125 strikeouts.

The Oregon Ducks have three players, who have played in 35 games, hitting above .400. Alexis Mack leads the team with a .462 average followed by Danica Mercado (.435) and Nikki Udria (.427). Those three have also scored 40 percent of the team’s runs (102/252), and 42 percent of the team’s hits (134/316). Udria leads the team in RBI with 34 with Gwen Svekis (27) and Mia Camuso (26) following. The Ducks put runners on and have the hitters to bring them in. They are patient at the plate and have more walks as a team than strikeouts.

In the Circle

Both teams bring an interesting pitching situation. The Bruins use four pitchers while the Ducks use three.

Rachel Garcia picked up two wins against Washington last weekend for UCLA. She is the team leader in ERA at 1.81. Garcia is 10-4 with 93 innings pitched. Johanna Grauer follows her with a 2.34 ERA and a 9-4 record. She has pitched 83.2 innings and given up 28 earned runs. Selina Ta’amilo is 7-0 despite her 3.05 ERA. She isn’t used as much as the other two, as she has thrown 43.2 innings. Paige McDuffee rounds out the staff and is used out of the bullpen when necessary. She has only thrown 15.2 innings this season.

The Ducks use Maggie Balint, Megan Kleist and Miranda Elish evenly, for the most part. Balint leads in innings pitched with 81.2 but Kleist has thrown 78.1 and Elish is at 62. Balint and Kleist both have ERAs under 1.00 and opponents are held to batting averages under .200. As a staff, the Ducks have an ERA of 1.04. They keep runs at a minimum; only 44 runs have scored against them all year. In fact, they have walked more than runs scored (54).

Analysis & Prediction

After taking the Washington series on the road, UCLA should be fired up enough to take at least one game and break the streak for the Ducks. The fact that Oregon matched the 1999 Bruins NCAA record for consecutive wins (35) should be added fuel to the fire.  The Bruins will have to find ways to get on base and score. The Ducks pitching is too good to wait for something to happen.

Pick: Oregon

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