Oregon softball to make home debut with the inaugural Jane Sanders Classic

EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon (9-7) returns home for the first time this weekend with the Ducks set to host the inaugural Jane Sanders Classic. The Ducks will play five games in three days with three coming against Mount St. Mary's and two with the Maryland Terrapins. 

The No. 12 Florida State Seminoles were originally scheduled to participate in the event with but withdrew on Tuesday due to weather concerns.

Pac-12 rival Washington, ranked 4th nationally, will also take part this weekend, but won’t play the Ducks. The teams' first meeting is set for April 5-7 when the Huskies come back to Eugene.

The Ducks started this season ranked 13th nationally but have gotten out to a slow start, dropping in the rankings every week before exiting entirely after last weekend.

High expectations existed entering the season after a Super Regional appearance last year. They have played three teams currently ranked in the top 25: No. 9 Clemson, No. 17 Baylor, and No. 18 Texas A&M, and have gone winless in four games against them.

The Ducks have dominated their weaker opponents, but have struggled when playing teams that should be on their level. Through their early out-of-conference schedule, the Ducks are 6-1 against teams from non-major conferences with a plus-40 run differential, but against Power Five opponents are just 3-6 with a minus-6 run differential.

Oregon will play the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers (2-6) three times this weekend, with a doubleheader starting at 12:30 PM on Thursday and a 10:30 AM first pitch on Friday. The second half of Friday’s doubleheader will come against the Maryland Terrapins (5-9), who the Ducks will also play at 12:30 PM on Saturday.

Last weekend, the Mountaineers played in the Carolina Classic, losing two games to North Carolina and one to Lipscomb, while beating George Washington for their second win of the season. Mount St. Mary’s pitching staff has been lit up this season with a .367 opposing batting average with 11 homers allowed. Their best offensive threat has been utility player Elizabeth King, who is one of three Mountaineers to homer this year and has posted a .565 on-base percentage.

Like Oregon, Maryland also split a pair of games against Loyola Marymount, with the Terrapins losing 4-3 in extra innings in the first game and winning 8-1 in the second. The Terrapins are coming off of the Stetson Invitational, where they went 2-2, beating Green Bay twice and losing to Long Island and Stetson. They had another game against Stetson that was postponed due to weather in the fifth inning when the Terps were leading. Maryland’s strength comes from their pitching staff, who have managed a 2.97 ERA this season while holding opponents to a .205 batting average and a .580 OPS. Their staff is led by the one-two punch of Bri Godfrey and Courtney Whyche. Godfrey has posted a 1.38 ERA and a 0.75 WHIP in her 25.1 innings, with opponents hitting just .134 off of her. Whyche, meanwhile, has a record of only 1-3 but has been much better than that, striking out 36 batters over her 29.1 innings while registering a 2.63 ERA and 0.99 WHIP. Their best offensive player has been first baseman, Diamond Williams, who leads the team with four home runs and a 1.056 OPS.

Last weekend, the Ducks went 3-2 at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California, easily handling teams like UCF, Notre Dame, and Long Beach State, but losing to both of the teams who were easily their best competition.

Oregon’s 3-2 loss to Baylor was close, like many of their games have been this season, but their bats let them down when they needed them most, leaving the tying run stranded on third base to end the game. That game is excusable, especially against a ranked opponent, but the 6-0 loss to Nebraska is just embarrassing. 

Nebraska has been on a similar trajectory to the Ducks this season, starting the season ranked No. 18, before slowly dropping out of the rankings thanks to middling results, with the Cornhuskers’ record currently sitting at 8-6. This was a game the Ducks absolutely needed to win to prove they belong as a team that should be playing postseason softball, but once again their offense let them down. The Oregon bats totaled only five hits, with three of them coming from Kai Luschar. While they walked four times, their inability to hit with runners on base bit them again as they stranded 10 and went just 2-for-13 at the plate with runners on.

This has been a consistent issue for the Ducks. Overall, Oregon has hit .311 as a team, but that has dropped to .295 with runners on base and .299 with runners in scoring position. This discrepancy has shown up even more when comparing their wins and losses. In their nine wins this season, the Ducks have hit .426 with runners on and .443 with runners in scoring position, but numbers have dropped to a horrendous .133 and .071 in the seven games they’ve lost.

The highlight for this team has been the pitching staff, who have excelled with a 2.22 ERA this season. Their biggest strength has been their ability to limit walks, as their 17 free passes are the least in the Pac-12.

The breakout star of this group has been freshman, Taylour Spencer. She leads the Ducks’ qualified pitchers with a 1.38 ERA in her 30.1 innings this season, a mark that ranks sixth in the Pac-12. While she hasn’t been blowing past hitters with top-tier strikeout stuff, only striking out eight batters, she has excelled at limiting hard contact, holding opponents to a .236 batting average.

Oregon’s offense has been extremely top-loaded this season, with their top five players, Luschar, Vallery Wong, Ariel Carlson, Hanna Delgado, and Alyssa Daniell, combining for a 1.080 OPS. Meanwhile, the rest of the lineup, Paige Sinicki, Tehya Bird, KK Humphreys, and Emma Kauf, have posted an OPS of just .570, a considerable dropoff. The biggest difference has been in extra-base hits as that second group has slugged just .268, with six doubles as their only hits to go for extra bases.

Sinicki doesn’t provide much in terms of power, but is one of the best fielders in the Pac-12 at shortstop and has upped her batting average to .310 after hitting .250 across her first two seasons. The others have all played much better in the past, giving hope to their opportunity for improvement this season. Bird slugged .512 last season with eight homers and six doubles, but has only hit one double this season, which has led to her .250 slugging percentage. Humphreys had an .879 OPS over her first two seasons with the Ducks, but that number has dropped to .496 while she has transitioned to second base after previously playing primarily at first. Kauf was a two-time All-ACC selection during her time at Georgia Tech and posted a 1.025 OPS across her four seasons with the Yellow Jackets.

This team is due for regression to the mean across the board. Luschar won’t hit .500 all season and Kauf will slug better than .222 throughout the year. If the positive trends prove to be more true than the negative ones, this team can come together to be one of the best offensive units in the Pac-12 from top to bottom.

The Jane Sanders Classic will be the end of Oregon’s out-of-conference schedule, as next weekend they will host the No. 24 Cal Golden Bears for a three-game series to start Pac-12 play.