NCAA Softball Super-Regional - Game 1

Oregon @ Oklahoma State

Thursday, May 25, 2023, 6:00 pm

TV: ESPN2 - Radio: KWVA 88.1 FM

Oregon (38-15) travels to Stillwater, Oklahoma this week to take on #6 Seed Oklahoma State (44-14) with a berth in the College Softball World Series on the line. The Super-Regional best-of-three series begins this evening, and the Ducks face another challenging opponent on the road. Fresh off their undefeated performance in the Fayetteville Arkansas Regional, where they bested host #11 Seed Arkansas twice by an aggregate score of 24 - 8, Oregon appears to be surging at just the right time.

Oklahoma State will present an even sterner test. The Cowgirls bested the Ducks 3 - 0 in an early-season matchup in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in which Oregon generated only 2 hits. Oregon’s Achilles heel - if it can be said to have one this season - has been games in which its bats go inexplicably quiet. The Ducks feature very good but sometimes inconsistent pitching, and given Oklahoma State’s bats, generating offense in this series will be the key for Oregon. The Ducks allowed 4 runs in each of their Regional games.

The Cowgirls are going to hit the ball - Oklahoma State features six players hitting .311 or higher and has averaged 6 runs per game - but they hit for average not power. Graduate Student infielder Rachel Becker leads the team with a .453 average and has a .653 slugging percentage. Fellow Graduate Student infielder Kiley Naomi has 10 home runs and Redshirt Freshman infielder Micaela Wark has 10. Becker and Naomi have half of the team’s successful steal attempts.

In the circle, the Ducks are likely to face Redshirt Senior Kelly Maxwell (15-5) and Senior Lexi Kilfoyl (14-5) who have started 38 games this season between them. They have almost identical ERAs at 1.87 and 1.86 respectively. Maxwell has struck out 215 batters in just 131 innings - almost half the batters she’s faced. Freshman Kyra Aycock (9-2) has 13 starts and a 2.30 ERA.

Despite good pitching and hitting, OSU went just 10 - 8 in the Big 12 and lost their first game in the Big 12 Tournament to Kansas.

A free ATQ Premium membership will be awarded to the first poster noting a Cowgirl fan holding up a “Duck Hunting” sign.

Oregon Baseball Vs. Stanford, Pac-12 Tournament

When: Tuesday, 5/25/23, 7:05 pm PT

Where: Scottsdale Stadium, Arizona

Watch: Pac-12 Network

After rallying on Tuesday to defeat Cal, Oregon baseball next takes on the #1 seed Stanford Cardinal. The Ducks picked up the regular season series win against the Cardinal in the middle of April in Eugene, riding the complete-game pitching of Jace Stoffal and Logan Mercado.

Oregon will need to defeat Stanford in order to advance in the Pac-12 tournament. This game could be the same kind of nail biter that we saw against the Bears.

As of this writing, the Ducks have not yet announced a starting pitcher.