Charles Fischer Administrator No. 1 Share Posted February 11, 2021 The coaches don't think much of Oregon's improvement or roster this year as they have selected Oregon to finish in fifth place in the conference; the article below details the others projected ahead of the Ducks. Where do you see the Women ending up in the conference? Oregon Softball Picked 5th in Preseason Pac-12 Coaches Poll by OregonLive Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 2 Share Posted February 11, 2021 No, 10 in the country, but 5th place in the conference, right under No. 15 ASU in the country doesn't make a lot of sense. Except, it does show how, like basketball, Pac-12 softball is very deep and competitive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDucksFan No. 3 Share Posted February 11, 2021 36 minutes ago, 30Duck said: No, 10 in the country, but 5th place in the conference, right under No. 15 ASU in the country doesn't make a lot of sense. Except, it does show how, like basketball, Pac-12 softball is very deep and competitive. Interesting Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpokaneDuck No. 4 Share Posted February 11, 2021 One thing that I think is interesting in collegiate softball is that a freshman can come in and make an immediate impact on the team. Oregon has some great freshmen coming in. Let's see where the team places at the end of the year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jack Reacher No. 5 Share Posted February 12, 2021 Oregon is stacked with returning starters at every position (except SS) and an exceptional pitching staff with 5 studs. UCLA with Garcia and Faraimo might be the only better staff, but they are not as deep behind their 2 aces. I think if we had Jas Sievers back at SS Oregon would have been rated a bit higher. She's a really big loss. Probably the 2nd best defensive SS in the conference behind Sis Bates of the mutts who is the best in the country. There is a lot of buzz about Alyssa Brito playing SS. Haley Cruse identified her as someone who can become a team leader even as a true frosh. IF she can play well at SS, not having Sievers won't hurt as badly. It should be a very interesting season. In my opinion, Oregon is a lot closer to the the "Big 3" of UCLA, UW and U of A (the top 3 teams in the country) than it is to #15 ASU. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDucksFan No. 6 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Not much depth in the pitching game for the Ducks. The No. 1 and No. 2 look good but it ends there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Author Administrator No. 7 Share Posted February 14, 2021 8 hours ago, BigDucksFan said: Not much depth in the pitching game for the Ducks. The No. 1 and No. 2 look good but it ends there. I am going to disagree; Jordan Dail started and won her first game as the No. 3 pitcher, and allowed no runs. Raegan Breedlove came in twice as the closer and finished out all the batters and did not allow a run. As of this moment, Breedlove is the starting pitcher and has not allowed a run in the final game of the weekend. (Makenna Kliethermes took over after three innings and had one unearned run in a 9-1 Oregon victory this morning) An all-freshman pitching victory! That's the facts... Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jack Reacher No. 8 Share Posted February 14, 2021 8 hours ago, BigDucksFan said: Not much depth in the pitching game for the Ducks. The No. 1 and No. 2 look good but it ends there. Wait what? Is this a serious post? If it is serious, I don't believe it will age well . . . If you consider Yanez and Diaz No. 1 and No. 2, you are seriously underestimating Jordan Dail. She's an excellent pitcher and has beaten teams like LSU and No. 1 UCLA with lesser talent surrounding her. Makenna Kliethermes was a top 10 pitching recruit in her class. Equivalent of a 5* in football. Her club team DeMarini Aces won the prestigious Independence Day Tournament and also did well at PGF Nationals. She has staff ace potential upside. So far in her career as a Duck she hasn't surrendered a single run. (an unearned run today) Pretty similar story for Raegan Breedlove. Another top 10 caliber pitcher. She throws 68 mph and low in the zone. Megan Langenfeld who knows a thing or two about pitchers raves about her. She, too, had big time club ball experience with Universal Fastpitch and she made a mockery of her HS competition in northern CA (a microscopic ERA of 0.39 with 878 strikeouts and just 77 walks). If you took out Yanez and Diaz, a staff of Dail, Breedlove and Kliethermes would be formidable and be one of the best staffs in the PAC (looking like the best conference in the country this season) outside of UCLA, UW and U of A. I believe this is the best staff in the conference, if not the country. To be clear, other schools may have better individual pitchers such as Rachel Garcia or Megan Faraimo at UCLA, but I don't know of a school that is 5 deep with arms as good as Oregon has. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Author Administrator No. 9 Share Posted February 14, 2021 24 minutes ago, Jack Reacher said: Wait what? Is this a serious post? If it is serious, I don't believe it will age well . . . Jack....I was really hoping you would show up and offer the facts. You really know your stuff, and we would welcome you to post much more often! We have a number of softball fans in this community... When you consider that four of the five pitchers were recruited by Coach Lombardi--the concerns about whether she could recruit were just answered! BTW...any comments about what you saw/read of this opening weekend for the team? Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 10 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Ducks go to 5-0 with another run-rule win, 9-1 over Montana. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jack Reacher No. 11 Share Posted February 15, 2021 9 hours ago, Charles Fischer said: Jack....I was really hoping you would show up and offer the facts. You really know your stuff, and we would welcome you to post much more often! We have a number of softball fans in this community... When you consider that four of the five pitchers were recruited by Coach Lombardi--the concerns about whether she could recruit were just answered! BTW...any comments about what you saw/read of this opening weekend for the team? Probably the most important thing is it looks like we have a SS. Alyssa Brito did a great job. Handled all 11 chances with no errors. And she contributed offensively. Mind you, she's not on the exceptional defensive level that Jas Sievers is, but very few are. Brito looks quite capable. The other very pleasant surprise is Lexi Wagner. I expected Deijah Pangalinan would get most of the action in LF (which is how it went last year once Deijah was healthy). But LexiWags worked her butt off in the offseason/fall and it's paying off. ML started her in LF game 1 and she got the majority of the action there even though Pangalinan is better defensively. Lexi did not disappoint - hitting .571 with a HR, 2 doubles and 5 RBI. When your #8 hitter hits like this, it's a very good sign for your offense. Bunker, Cruse, Cid, McGowan and Felder all hit well, but we expect them to as proven hitters. It'll be interesting to see if Wagner keeps hitting well, but clearly ML has seen something in her and expects her to hit. Breedlove was as good as advertised. 4.1 scoreless innings and combined with Samaria Diaz on a perfect game in the win vs. Montana. The depth and talent of the staff was on full display. All 5 pitchers had 4 or more innings and 4 different pitchers got Ws. The team ERA was 0.50 and the pitchers combined for an impressive 32 Ks in 28 innings with just 4 walks. It's true that these were non-conference foes and PAC teams will be much tougher, but we're still talking about Division I hitters and our staff flat out dominated them. The most disappointing thing was the fielding. ML's previous teams have been very strong defensively. Last year's team went 8 straight games without an error to start the season. Incredibly they made just 8 errors in 24 games for a ridiculous .986 fielding percentage. Although all starters other than Sievers return (and Brito did not make any errors at SS), Oregon made 7 errors in these 5 games. It might seem like nitpicking after a weekend when Oregon dominated opponents on the scoreboard 39-4 in 5 games, but I am certain ML is not happy at all about the number of errors. Oregon won't be able to afford to make many, if any, errors against the big dog PAC foes. I'm sure that will be a focus at practice this week. One other player who did not have a great weekend was Ariel Carlson. ML had her batting 5th in game 1, but she didn't hit well all weekend and was out of the lineup today. She's a proven hitter and she got off to a slow start last year. I'm sure she'll get it going before long. It shows how deep this team is when a hitter as good as Ariel can't crack the lineup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Author Administrator No. 12 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Jack....effectively you provided water for the very thirsty, and I am very grateful. Can't wait for when they are on TV, and delighted to read of the pleasant surprises and what the team needs to work on. My thanks again! Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDucksFan No. 13 Share Posted February 15, 2021 17 hours ago, Jack Reacher said: Wait what? Is this a serious post? If it is serious, I don't believe it will age well . . . If you consider Yanez and Diaz No. 1 and No. 2, you are seriously underestimating Jordan Dail. She's an excellent pitcher and has beaten teams like LSU and No. 1 UCLA with lesser talent surrounding her. Makenna Kliethermes was a top 10 pitching recruit in her class. Equivalent of a 5* in football. Her club team DeMarini Aces won the prestigious Independence Day Tournament and also did well at PGF Nationals. She has staff ace potential upside. So far in her career as a Duck she hasn't surrendered a single run. (an unearned run today) Pretty similar story for Raegan Breedlove. Another top 10 caliber pitcher. She throws 68 mph and low in the zone. Megan Langenfeld who knows a thing or two about pitchers raves about her. She, too, had big time club ball experience with Universal Fastpitch and she made a mockery of her HS competition in northern CA (a microscopic ERA of 0.39 with 878 strikeouts and just 77 walks). If you took out Yanez and Diaz, a staff of Dail, Breedlove and Kliethermes would be formidable and be one of the best staffs in the PAC (looking like the best conference in the country this season) outside of UCLA, UW and U of A. I believe this is the best staff in the conference, if not the country. To be clear, other schools may have better individual pitchers such as Rachel Garcia or Megan Faraimo at UCLA, but I don't know of a school that is 5 deep with arms as good as Oregon has. Yes, Jordan Dail is good, but Yanez, not so much. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jack Reacher No. 14 Share Posted February 15, 2021 5 hours ago, BigDucksFan said: Yes, Jordan Dail is good, but Yanez, not so much. Yanez is a two time second team All American. She is on the top 50 watch list for USA Softball Player of the Year this season. She was 9-1 with a 1.56 ERA last year. Allowed just 37 hits and racked up 94 Ks in 62 innings. She also is an exceptional fielder who is the Ducks' best at fielding bunts. The facts are she is widely recognized as one of the best pitchers in the country and her stats certainly back that up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 15 Share Posted February 15, 2021 12 hours ago, Jack Reacher said: Alyssa Brito did a great job. Handled all 11 chances with no errors. There was one play against Grand Canyon that Brito really showed her skill in the field, a sharp grounder, directly at her took a high hop. She reached up, caught the ball, brought it down, secured her grip on the ball, and then threw the runner out, and it wasn't even close. She's not Jas or Nikki Udria, but she's right in line with great Duck shortstops. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
