Softball CWS: Oregon is out of tournament

[MFRDuckFan]

UCLA loses to Auburn. That loss is on the coach. He should have pulled his pitcher three innings ago when she walked 3 batters. That's on him.

[greenyellow]

UCLA loses to Auburn. That loss is on the coach. He should have pulled his pitcher three innings ago when she walked 3 batters. That's on him.

It sometimes looks like coaches don't want to change too quickly because they want to believe it's a one inning hiccup or don't want pitchers to lose confidence if they're pulled early.

[pudgejeff]

Pick me up

[nogerO]

coach is recruiting very well and our "stud" pitcher Hawkins will be a junior I believe next year. She needs some more experience and maturity IMHO.

[MFRDuckFan]

UCLA loses to Auburn. That loss is on the coach. He should have pulled his pitcher three innings ago when she walked 3 batters. That's on him.

It sometimes looks like coaches don't want to change too quickly because they want to believe it's a one inning hiccup or don't want pitchers to lose confidence if they're pulled early.

I completely understand him wanting to keep her in there and it was at a tipping point during the game, but he knows one inning later would be too late & should have made the choice. Having played myself, we girls tend to fall off the confidence ledge quicker than men and don't compartmentalize like men can do. We "blend" emotion with performance unfortunately. Too bad because Auburn was vulnerable at that point.

[oregontrack]

coach is recruiting very well and our "stud" pitcher Hawkins will be a junior I believe next year. She needs some more experience and maturity IMHO.

hawkins will be a senior next year.

[nogerO]

coach is recruiting very well and our "stud" pitcher Hawkins will be a junior I believe next year. She needs some more experience and maturity IMHO.

hawkins will be a senior next year.

Oh ok. thanks

[thomas time]

experience? She won pitcher of the year in pac 12 two straight years, had 3 losses going into CWS, and was one of 3 finalists for National player of the year. I'm not sure what more experience she needs, only runs she gave up yesterday were on a soft hit ball that fell in between second basemen and right fielder.

[gogreen55]

Hawkins is certainly not the problem. The Ducks simply can't put enough runs up when World Series time rolls around. Their anemic offensive output the last two years in the World Series is perplexingly pathetic.

[oregontrack]

pathetic maybe, but it's really not that perplexing. the pitching in the wcws is lightyears ahead of what we see in the pac-12, which has not been a strong pitching conference the last few seasons. ally carda had mixed results against us in the regular season, one really strong game and one awful game, but pitched well enough on thursday -- and they scouted us to perfection, picking off many well-hit balls -- to get it done. alexis osorio, alabama's pitcher? better than anyone in the pac-12. no surprise there. look what florida did to us (twice) OOC earlier this year.

our offensive stats are a bit inflated playing in the pac-12. oregon and ucla are the only schools (maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe arizona) that make the playoffs in the sec.

[OregonFan4Life]

pathetic maybe, but it's really not that perplexing. the pitching in the wcws is lightyears ahead of what we see in the pac-12, which has not been a strong pitching conference the last few seasons. ally carda had mixed results against us in the regular season, one really strong game and one awful game, but pitched well enough on thursday -- and they scouted us to perfection, picking off many well-hit balls -- to get it done. alexis osorio, alabama's pitcher? better than anyone in the pac-12. no surprise there. look what florida did to us (twice) OOC earlier this year.

our offensive stats are a bit inflated playing in the pac-12. oregon and ucla are the only schools (maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe arizona) that make the playoffs in the sec.

So then in terms of CWS terms are you saying that Oregon is below average on hitting? The last thing I want to see is SEC power being something the ducks can't handle in more than one sport.

[oregontrack]

i'd say our offensive numbers are highly inflated by playing in a conference with such mediocre pitching. some teams had young aces so I'm hoping it gets better next season and provides more of challenge for us, but ucla losing carda won't help.

[Bud Lee]

I guess I have to pull for Florida now. Bummed that our girls didn't make it though.

[gogreen55]

pathetic maybe, but it's really not that perplexing. the pitching in the wcws is lightyears ahead of what we see in the pac-12, which has not been a strong pitching conference the last few seasons.

All the teams in the WCWS are facing the same improved pitching that one would expect in the WCWS. Despite this obvious phenomena, teams still manage to score some runs at the WCWS. The four winning teams in the first round of the WCWS scored a combined 25 runs (6.25 runs/game). The following day in the winner's bracket, the two victorious teams scored a combined 14 runs (7 runs/game). The following day, the four victorious teams scored a combined 22 runs (5.5 runs/game). The Ducks have played 6 games the past two years at the WCWS. Despite entering the tournament both years as one of the highest seeds, they have averaged an incredibly meager 1.5 runs/game, which is a fraction of the run output these other teams have somehow managed to produce against the same caliber of pitching.

There is also no basis for this notion that Pac-12 pitching isn't good enough to prepare teams for tournament play. For example, UCLA played in three WCWS games and scored a combined 21 runs. The caliber of play in the Pac-12 is universally considered to be higher than in the Big-10, yet Michigan enters the WCWS and scores a combined 21 runs in their first three games. A person has to reach for excuses in an attempt to explain the Ducks' lack of offensive output in the WCWS because there just aren't any valid ones.

alexis osorio, alabama's pitcher? better than anyone in the pac-12. no surprise there.

That is ridiculous. At this stage of her career, absolutely nobody considers Alexis Osorio to be a better pitcher than Cheridan Hawkins. The majority of pitchers the Ducks have faced in the WCWS have shut them down....there is no need to overreact to yet another girl doing so. Osorio is the same girl that gave up 5 runs in the game prior to facing the Ducks. I don't mention that in an attempt to make Osorio look like a bad pitcher. I simply include that as yet another example of other teams somehow managing to score runs against the same pitchers the Ducks are facing.

This is clearly a case where the facts speak for themselves. Characterizing the Ducks' offense in the WCWS the past two years as both perplexing and pathetic is an understatement, and nobody is more perplexed by it than Mike White.

[oregontrack]

All the teams in the WCWS are facing the same improved pitching that one would expect in the WCWS. Despite this obvious phenomena, teams still manage to score some runs at the WCWS. The four winning teams in the first round of the WCWS scored a combined 25 runs (6.25 runs/game). The following day in the winner's bracket, the two victorious teams scored a combined 14 runs (7 runs/game). The following day, the four victorious teams scored a combined 22 runs (5.5 runs/game). The Ducks have played 6 games the past two years at the WCWS. Despite entering the tournament both years as one of the highest seeds, they have averaged an incredibly meager 1.5 runs/game, which is a fraction of the run output these other teams have somehow managed to produce against the same caliber of pitching.

of course, that logic would imply all eight teams are created equal, which they most certainly are not. i think the five sec teams all benefit greatly from playing in the nation's strongest conference. they aren't seeing anything new in OKC. i think michigan is flat-out more talented than we are, which goes hand in hand with better offensive numbers. ucla may seem like an outlier, but they roughed up cheridan earlier this season so our opening game with them shouldn't have surprised anyone. we all knew it was a possibility, it had already happened once (or twice? too long ago). that 11-10 auburn/ucla game came after both teams had exhausted their pitching in the opening two games. i dare say we could have scored some runs in a similar situation, if we got there.

There is also no basis for this notion that Pac-12 pitching isn't good enough to prepare teams for tournament play. For example, UCLA played in three WCWS games and scored a combined 21 runs. The caliber of play in the Pac-12 is universally considered to be higher than in the Big-10, yet Michigan enters the WCWS and scores a combined 21 runs in their first three games. A person has to reach for excuses in an attempt to explain the Ducks' lack of offensive output in the WCWS because there just aren't any valid ones.

i basically already covered this above, but michigan is better than we are. ucla's offensive output is easily explained. neither instance fits into oregon's category.

That is ridiculous. At this stage of her career, absolutely nobody considers Alexis Osorio to be a better pitcher than Cheridan Hawkins. The majority of pitchers the Ducks have faced in the WCWS have shut them down....there is no need to overreact to yet another girl doing so. Osorio is the same girl that gave up 5 runs in the game prior to facing the Ducks. I don't mention that in an attempt to make Osorio look like a bad pitcher. I simply include that as yet another example of other teams somehow managing to score runs against the same pitchers the Ducks are facing.

by referencing our games against ucla and bama, i thought it was clear i was talking about players we would (or could) be facing in OKC. since cheridan is on our team, obviously she doesn't count. if i didn't make that clear, my apologies. for the record, i agree with you, at this stage i'd take cheridan over osorio, too. that might change as quickly as next year, but not yet.

This is clearly a case where the facts speak for themselves. Characterizing the Ducks' offense in the WCWS the past two years as both perplexing and pathetic is an understatement, and nobody is more perplexed by it than Mike White.

i just don't agree. pathetic, sure. perplexing implies that one expected oregon to go to OKC and perform well, which i certainly did not expect for the reasons already given. so no, i don't find their performance perplexing. they more or less did exactly what i thought would happen.

i think we would have done EXACTLY what ucla did, if we could have beaten the bruins. we would have gotten rocked by michigan, then gotten into a shootout with a depleted auburn team in an elimination. i mentioned this a few pages ago in this thread, but our game against ucla was the ultimate crapshoot. oregon had been shut down by carda once this season, but we also handed her her worst outing of the year. hawkins shut down the bruins once, but they also gave HER her worst outing of the year. you could tell by the 2nd inning that carda was going to have herself a great night, and the bruins were seeing the ball off hawkins very well.