Now comes the hard part.
The Oregon Ducks softball team completed a four-game road sweep at California Saturday afternoon with a 3-1 victory over the Bears. With the win, Oregon ended the regular season with a 37-15 overall record and 14-10 in Pac-12 play.
It was announced earlier that Jane Sanders Stadium would be one of 16 possible sites to host a softball regional and it’s now a near certainty with the Ducks’ success this season. The NCAA Softball Selection Show will be televised on ESPN tonight at 6 PST and Oregon will find out who the other three teams will be in the Eugene Regional.
Oregon hasn’t been in the tournament since 2017. That year they advanced all the way to the Women’s College World Series and finished 57-10 overall. It should be noted that the Ducks have never lost a Regional game at home.
Whether or not the Ducks would host a Super Regional is still in question as Oregon is on the bubble in that regard. The Top 8 teams host the Super and currently, the Ducks’ RPI is at 14. So barring a few upsets, Oregon would most likely have to win on the road in order to advance to Oklahoma City.
But the Ducks wouldn’t have been in such a good position to host a Regional if they had not defeated the teams they should beat, such as Cal this weekend.
Brooke Yanez got the weekend off with a good start with the 2-0 victory where she went the distance to earn her 19th win on the season.
Oregon continued its winning ways on Friday by sweeping an afternoon doubleheader with a 4-1 in the opener and a 9-4 win in Game 2. In that 4-1 win, Yanez got the win in relief. It was her last decision and she finished the season with a 20-5 record.
Rachel Cid blew that second game of the doubleheader wide open with a 3-run homer in the sixth inning to give the Ducks an 8-3 lead. Raegan Breedlove came into the circle in relief and threw four scoreless frames to earn the win.
In the series and regular-season finale, all the scoring was over with after the first two innings. Both teams scored one run in the first and Oregon plated two more in the second and that was enough as the Ducks hung on for the 3-1 win.
Samaria Diaz threw three innings of one-hit ball to earn the win and Breedlove pitched a scoreless seventh inning to get her third save on the season.