Softball Begins NCAA Regionals with #5 Oregon on Friday Night

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Eugene, Ore. – The Fordham softball team continues its season with this weekend's NCAA Regionals, the fifth time the Rams have participated in the event. Fordham is in Eugene, home of the #5 Ducks (44-8, 20-4 Pac-12), and will play Oregon in the second game of the weekend, at 11:30 p.m. EST at the new Jane Sanders Stadium, and will be featured on ESPN2. In the first game, #17 Baylor and Long Beach State will do battle.
 
Regionals are a double elimination style tournament. The winners of Friday night's contests will play in Saturday's first game, while the losers will face off in game two. The loser of the latter will be eliminated, while the winner will face the loser of the first game of the day. See below for more information on the schedule.
 
Last Time Out
At last weekend's A-10 Championships, hosted by George Washington in Washington, D.C., the Rams entered as the #1 overall seed after winning their fourth regular season championship, but lost their first game against eventual runners-up Saint Joseph's, 1-0, on Friday, a day late due to weather. As a result, Fordham needed four straight victories to clinch its fifth A-10 title and that's exactly what they did, defeating Dayton in an epic 12-inning pitchers' duel with a walk-off Sydney Canessa RBI single, then played and won three straight contests on Sunday, again due to rain, including two straight against the Hawks.
 
To read more about Fordham's weekend in D.C., click here.
 
Last Time Out against Oregon
The Rams have faced the Ducks three times in their history, all on neutral ground, including once in regional action – at the 2011 Penn State regional – with the last time coming two seasons ago at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California. Six members of both the current Fordham and Oregon teams featured in that contest – Canessa, Amy Van Hoven, Rachel Gillen, Cailin Winokur, and Lauren Quense for the Rams, plus now-assistant coach Gabby Luety.
 
The then-sixth ranked Ducks eventually took the win, 3-2, despite a spirited Rams upset bid. Fordham jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning via a Paige Otriz home run but Oregon answered with three runs in the bottom of the frame, the only runs Gillen would allow over her seven innings, on a wild pitch, a RBI bunt single, and a deflected infield single. Fordham nearly equalized in the fifth when Elise Fortier's RBI single scored Brianna Ciuffi but Canessa was thrown out at home plate. Again the Rams nearly tied things up when Winokur, pinch running for Luety, attempted to score from first on a deep drive to center but she, too, was nabbed at the plate.
 
Current Ducks #1 starter Cheridan Hawkins came in for the save in the seventh and locked the Rams down despite a Canessa two-out single.
 
Scouting the Ducks
The Ducks also clinched their fourth straight conference title with a win over Utah this past
weekend to secure the Pac-12. Oregon has hosted a NCAA regional the last six years, never losing a game during that span with a 18-0 record, and are hoping to make a third consecutive Women's College World Series. The Ducks won eight of nine conference series this year and enjoyed a 13-3 record at the new $17 million Jane Sanders Stadium.
 
Oregon has three of the Pac-12's top batting averages up the middle of the field in center fielder
Koral Costa's .415 average, shortstop Nikki Udria's .414, and second baseman Lauren Lindvall's .408. The
Ducks have combined to hit 92 home runs on the season and are batting .354 as a group. Udria leads the
way with 16 home runs and 49 RBIs, plus 63 total hits while being the only player to start in all 52 contests. In total, there are five players with double digit long balls and all but one of the typical starters bat over .300.
 
The Rams will likely see program career shutout and strikeout leader Hawkins (21-3,
2.02 ERA) on Friday night. Despite having the fewest victories since her freshman year, Hawkins' .175 batting average against ranked atop the conference leaderboard. Hawkins has struck out 235 over 148 innings over 33 appearances.
 
Up Next
As indicated in the schedule below, the next step for the Rams is fluid. With three straight wins or a loss and four wins, not unlike last weekend, Fordham will advance to a best two-out-of-three match-up with the winner of the UCLA regional the following weekend.
 
GAME SCHEDULE * (all times Pacific)
 
Friday
Game 1 - Baylor vs. Long Beach State – 6 PM (ESPN2)
Game 2 - Oregon vs. Fordham – 8:30 PM (ESPN2)
Saturday
Game 3 - Winners of game 1 and game 2 – 2 PM
Game 4 - Losers of game 1 and game 2 – 4:30 PM
Game 5 - Winner of game 4 and loser of game 3 – 7 PM
Sunday
Game 6 - Winner of game 3 and winner of game 5 – 4 PM
Game 7 – Repeat of game 6 (if needed) – 6:30 PM