Oregon Ducks Softball: Kentucky Brings Experience Into Eugene Super Regional
A hungry Kentucky Wildcats team comes to Eugene to take on the Oregon Ducks in the Super Regional Round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Oregon Ducks have gained experience from the postseason before. Last season they dropped the Super Regional series to the UCLA Bruins. Oregon is coming off a weekend where they swept Wisconsin and won three straight games to take the Eugene Regional.
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This series is different than last year. If the series goes three games, the third game will be the following day, unlike last year when it was 20 minutes following Game 2. Don’t expect the experience that the Ducks have gained this season to go to waste this weekend. Mike White has watched his team win thirteen straight games after a lull early in the month that saw Oregon lose six of nine.
Nikki Udria has been the constant all season for Oregon, but Shannon Rhodes has become the postseason hero and showed it last weekend against Wisconsin. She had three hits and 3 RBI’s keying a 6-5 comeback in the opener last weekend. While the Oregon Offense has rediscovered how to hit, the Pitching Staff has not skipped much of a beat all season.
The Kentucky Wildcats are led by Katie Reed, one of four players hitting over .300 this season. As a team the Wildcats are solid on Defense with a .970 Fielding Percentage. Meagan Prince has been solid in the circle and will likely see the ball on Friday night.
Prince is 21-7 with 13 complete games on the year and a 1.82 Eared Run Average. The matchup of #3 vs #14 is the way this series is drawn up on paper, but Oregon almost learned the hard way last weekend with Wisconsin in town, that you have to play hard and want it more on the field.
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The Oregon Ducks and Kentucky Wildcats meet in the Eugene Super Regional starting Friday at 4pm Pacific time on ESPNU. Game 2 is slated for Saturday at 4pm(ESPN2) and Game 3, if necessary will be played Sunday at Noon. All three games can be heard locally in Eugene/Springfield on 88.1 FM KWVA.