Softball: Oregon Liberty Preview – Addicted To Quack

What You Need to Know: How we got here

I will be the first to admit it. I was wrong. Flat-out. On last weeks episode of It Never Rains On This Podcast when fellow writer Kevin Fipps suggested that Oregon might get lucky and have #1 overall seed Texas A&M do something stupid my direct response was “you never know, that is why they say, you play the games on a diamond and not on paper. Anything is possible, I would be shocked if that happened, but you play the games for a reason right”

Well here we are and I’m shocked. For those who aren’t aware Oregon was slated to play against Texas A&M in the super regional in college station if chalk were to hold this past weekend in the regionals.

Like Oregon, Texas A&M surprisingly lost its Saturday regional Semi-Final matchup. This marked only the 2nd time since 2005 that a number one overall seed failed to start it’s regional 2-0. Meaning A&M would need to win 3 straight games to survive the weekend. Again, like Oregon, Texas A&M easily handled it’s first elimination game to set-up a must win double header on Sunday against the team that beat them in the Semi-finals. And like Oregon again A&M won the first of those two games to force a winner take all final game for the regional.

However this is where the Ducks and Aggies paths would differ. A&M took a 3 run lead into the 5th inning of the Regional final. But then the Aggies completely imploded allowing 6 runs across the 5th and 6th innings. A 6th inning rally of their own to make it a one run game wasn’t enough and it was Liberty who shockingly took the College Station regional and will be Oregon’s opponent in the super-regional.

Meanwhile shortly after all of this went down Oregon had it’s own instant classic to partake in. Before that on Saturday it was full panic mode when the Ducks got run ruled by their former Pac-12 rival Stanford 14-1 and were now one loss away from being eliminated from their own regional. Oregon would quickly bounce back Saturday night by beating Weber State for the 2nd time in as many days to force a must win double header against Stanford. The first game of the double header the Ducks handled easily to avenge their embarrassing run rule loss the day before by winning via run rule over Stanford themselves 15-5.

All of this to set the table for a instant classic late Sunday night. After Stanford built an early 4-0 lead and then took a 7-3 lead into the 3rd the Ducks needed to mount a comeback to keep their season alive. And comeback the Ducks would by getting runs in the 3rd, 5th, and 6th innings to tie the game headed to the 7th. Also thanks to Staci Chambers holding Stanford off the board for over 4 innings. This all set the table for Dez Patmon with runners on the corner to absolutely obliterate a walk-off home run and advance the Ducks into the super regionals.

What you Need to Know: Logistics

Where: The upset also means that the lights at Jane Sanders Stadium get to stay on one more weekend as the Liberty Flames will travel to Eugene for the best of 3 weekend super regional series for the right to go to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

When/Watch:

Here is the schedule for the 3 game series at the Jane

Game 1 – Friday May 23rd 7:00 PM PDT TV: ESPNU

Game 2 – Saturday May 24th 4:00 PM PDT TV: TBD

Game 3 – Sunday May 25th Time TBD TV: TBD

This will be the first time that Eugene will be hosting a super regional since 2018 so make you get out and pack the Jane to show the College Softball world Oregon has the best fans in all of the land.

What you need to know: Opponent

Oregon will be taking on Liberty as mentioned above. In addition to pulling off one of the greatest upsets in College softball history here is what you need to know about the Flames:

• The Flames cruised to 1st place in Conference USA finishing 8 games ahead of second place Western Kentucky
• Liberty had a scare of their own in their conference tournament losing in the regional semi-final and having to win 2 straight games to survive and punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament
• Liberty played 12 games against Power opponents during the regular season going .500 in those 12 games with a -8 run differential
• Liberty and Oregon have 2 common opponents from this season. Rutgers and Missouri. Liberty’s record in 3 games was 2-1 with a +5 run differential. Oregon’s record in 3 games was 3-0 with a +46 run differential

What you Need to Know Pitching:

Liberty had two pitchers start 42 of their 63 games. Elena Escobar and Kaylan Yoder. Paige Bachman was their super reliver appearing in 34 games this season and pitching 112.2 innings. Here are the stats on 3 from the season:

Escobar – 2.43 ERA 1.11 WHIP 175 SO 167.1 IP

Yoder – 2.51 ERA 1.45 WHIP 79 SO 83.2 IP

Bachman – 2.73 ERA 1.41 WHIP 91 SO 112.2 IP

Here is how the 3 of them did cumulatively against Texas A&M last weekend:

Escobar – 8.44 ERA 1.875 WHIP 7 SO 16 IP

Yoder – 0.00 ERA 1.80 WHIP 1 SO 1.2 IP

Bachman – 6.24 ERA 2.31 WHIP 0 SO 4.1 IP

What you Need to Know Batting:

The Flames have 4 batters with an OPS greater than .850

• Rachel Roupe 1.364 OPS
• Savannah Woodard .984 OPS
• Brynn McManus .979 OPS
• KK Madrey .974 OPS
• Paige Doerr .858 OPS

Here is how they performed against A&M

• Roupe 7/13 0 BB 9 RBI 3 HR
• Woodard 3/10 3 BB 1 RBI 1 HR
• McManus 3/11 2 BB 1 RBI 0 HR
• Madrey 5/8 3 BB 3 RBI 1 HR
• Doerr 3/13 0 BB 3 RBI 1 HR

I think the biggest reason the Flames were able to pull off the upset over the Aggies was due to their hitting, specifically Roupe who had an incredible weekend in the Regional. Oregon will need to have a plan for her every time she is up to the plate and may need to consider pitching around her to keep the ball in the yard.

While it is great the Ducks get one more weekend at home and don’t need to play the titan that is Texas A&M, Liberty pulled off this upset for a reason it wasn’t just handed to them on a silver platter. Oregon will need to bring it’s best this weekend if they have any plans on keep there season alive and advancing to the College World Series.

Stay tuned to Addicted to Quack for updates, discussion, and recaps on the series. As always go Ducks!