This week we head out west for a battle in the Pac-12 between two top 10 teams in No. 6 Oregon (20-4) and No. 8 Washington (19-3). They will play three games this weekend in Seattle, WA. Game one will be Saturday at 3:30 p.m., game two Sunday at 7:00 p.m. and game three on Monday at 7:00 p.m. Games will be on the Pac-12 Network for those with access to it.
Oregon enters the series having won 12 games in a row. Their only other series against a top 10 team was a few weeks back against No. 5 Louisiana-Lafayette and the Ducks went 1-3 in that series. In those 12 wins Oregon has outscored the opposition 112-20. They are generating a lot of offense heading into this key series. Washington has won 10 straight. During their streak they did record a win over No. 2 Michigan. Their offense has been nearly as impressive as they have outscored their opponents 100-21 during their 10 game run.
Oregon’s offense is loaded with hitters, but three have really stood out. The first is Koral Costa whose slash line (BA/OBP/SLG) is .522/.605/.925. That is impressive and she also has six home runs and leads the team in RBI (26). Next up is Nikki Udria whose line is .458/.550/.924 and is not far off from Koral’s numbers. Finally there is Alyssa Gillespie with a .456/.476/.608 line. These three also make up the top of the Ducks order with Gillespie sitting in lead-off, Udria in the two hole and Koral hitting third. The top half of this order is tough and can give pitchers fits.
Pitching has been good despite Duck Ace Cheridan Hawkins (7-2) getting off to a slow start, for her at least. Hawkins comes into the series with a 3.12 ERA over 58.1 innings. Her strikeouts are still impressive as she already has 107 on the season. She has also held opposing hitters to just a .164 batting average. Freshman Megan Kleist (8-2) has been outstanding thus far posting a 1.78 ERA over 51 innings. Hawkins will be fine and with the early success Kleist has found the combo should become one of the more formidable tandems.
Washington is having a great season and has climbed the rankings. They have a very balanced line-up and have received solid performances from their pitching staff. At the plate they have six players batting .400 or better. Ali Aguilar has been one of their leaders with a .408/.506/.972 line. She also leads the team with 11 home runs and 42 RBI. Kimberlee Souza is putting solid numbers up as well .404/.508/.769 and 24 RBI. As already stated, we could go on with the Huskie offense with how well they have been hitting as a team with a .378 combined average. Their pitching staff is not putting up eye popping numbers, but they are putting up wins. Madi Schreyer (7-0) comes into the weekend with a 2.20 ERA over 60.1 innings. In those seven wins she has earned five shutouts.The other pitcher is Taran Alvelo (10-2) who has posted a 3.00 ERA over 63 innings of work. Neither are what you would consider strikeout pitchers combined they come in with just five more than Hawkins with 112.
This series will come down to pitching and fielding as do most series. One thing that is somewhat funny is that when we say it comes down to “pitching” we could pretty much say it comes down to “hitting” as well. Oregon holds a slightly better fielding percentage .981 versus Washington’s .970. We do not see either team earning a sweep in this series, both offenses are just too good to be held down for three straight games.
