How did Oregon Ducks reach NCAA softball super regional? Meet Oklahoma State Cowgirls' foe

STILLWATER — When the bracket for the NCAA Softball Tournament dropped a week ago, the looming possibility of a super-regional between neighboring rivals Oklahoma State and Arkansas offered some intrigue.

But the Oregon Ducks were unimpressed.

The unseeded Ducks, who finished the season No. 20 in the RPI, went to the Fayetteville Regional unfazed by their underdog status and rolled through unbeaten, twice taking down the host Hogs along the way — the second of which was a run-rule victory in which Oregon scored nine runs in the fifth inning to end it early.

Sixth-seeded Oklahoma State will host Oregon in the best-of-three Stillwater Super Regional with the winner advancing to the Women's College World Series. The first game of the series is set for 8 p.m. Thursday at Cowgirl Stadium, followed by a 5 p.m. meeting on Friday. The time of Saturday’s final game, if needed, is yet to be determined.

Here are five things to know about the Oregon Ducks.

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Melyssa Lombardi to face an old rival

Oregon coach Melyssa Lombardi is no stranger to Cowgirl Stadium.

She played there in her two-year stint as a catcher at Oklahoma in 1995-96, and she returned several times over her 21-year stint as an OU assistant coach, overseeing pitchers and catchers on Patty Gasso’s staff.

Lombardi left OU in 2018 to become Oregon’s head coach, replacing Mike White when he was hired by Texas.

After going 22-30 in her first season in 2019, Oregon has been back in the national conversation since. Her 2020 team was 22-2 when the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of the season. Lombardi now has a 155-83 overall record with three straight NCAA Regional appearances.

This, however, will be Oregon’s first super-regional appearance under Lombardi.

Lombardi and OSU coach Kenny Gajewski were at OU together as well, when Gajewski was the OU softball team’s groundskeeper from 1997-2006.

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The Pac-12 gauntlet

At the top, the Pac-12 Conference was as deep as any in the country, with five teams in the top 20 of the RPI prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament.

The Ducks finished tied for fourth in the regular season with a 14-10 conference record, thanks to a final-weekend sweep at the hands of Utah when the Ducks could’ve finished as high as second.

The Utah sweep was the only series in which Oregon failed to win at least one game. The Ducks took one game each from top-10 programs UCLA, Stanford and Washington during the regular season.

Aside from playing each other nearly four months ago — OSU won 3-0 on Feb. 10 — the Cowgirls and Ducks played four common opponents, but the results won’t tell you much.

Both teams lost to Maryland and beat Ole Miss at the Puerto Vallarta Challenge in Mexico.

Both teams beat Arizona State, though Oregon did it with a sweep of a three-game series while OSU only faced the Sun Devils once. And both teams beat Missouri in a single meeting.

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Contact and lots of it

Super-senior second baseman Allee Bunker is third on Oregon’s all-time hits list with 284 over her five years.

Perhaps more impressive, she has a .391 batting average and 10 home runs with just seven strikeouts this season. And to take it one more level, she has at least 10 home runs and seven or fewer strikeouts with at least 174 at-bats in each of the last three seasons.

Bunker also leads the team with a .654 slugging percentage, 54 runs batted in and 23 extra-base hits.

As a team, the Ducks are batting .321 and averaging 6.0 runs per game. They have four regular starters batting .327 or better and six with at least eight home runs.

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Pitching to bats

Oregon’s pitching staff doesn’t have a high strikeout rate, with just 237 strikeouts over 350 ⅓ innings pitched. That total would be next-to-last in the Big 12, behind only Kansas.

But the Ducks don’t give a lot of free passes either, with a top-20 strikeout-to-walk ratio of almost exactly 3-to-1.

So opponents are putting the ball in play a lot, posting a batting average of .247 against the Ducks. OSU is hitting .325 as a team and batted over .350 in the regional last weekend.

Oregon has balanced out its innings, with Stevie Hansen (142) and Morgan Scott (123 ⅓) getting the most. Hansen has a 2.51 ERA and Scott is just behind at 2.61. Together, they've combined to allow 35 home runs.

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Series history

OSU and Oregon have met 25 times in all, between 1986 and this season.

The Cowgirls hold a 15-10 advantage, having won the last five meetings, including sweeping a three-game series in Eugene in 2019.

OSU won the only game in the series that it hosted, a 5-4 victory in 10 innings at the OSU/Tulsa Invitational in February 2020.

This will be the most meaningful matchup of the two teams — but barely.

They split two games in the 2003 NCAA Regional, an eight-team bracket hosted by Cal State Fullerton. OSU won 2-1 in a winners’ bracket game, but Oregon returned the favor with a 7-6 victory in extra innings in an elimination game.

OSU vs. Oregon

Best-of-three series at Cowgirl Stadium in Stillwater:

Game 1: 8 p.m. Thursday, ESPN2

Game 2: 5 p.m. Friday, TBD

Game 3: TBD Saturday (if nec.)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OSU softball vs Oregon: NCAA Super Regional preview for Cowgirls-Ducks