The No. 2 Arizona softball team heads to Oregon to try and accomplish something that has eluded it so far this season in Pacific 10 Conference play - a road sweep.
It won't be easy for the Wildcats, however, as they play a two-game set against Pac-10 leader Oregon State tomorrow and Sunday at 1 p.m.
"It would be huge, especially to get two (wins) against Oregon State, which would put us near the top," said Arizona assistant coach Larry Ray.
Before they take on the Beavers, the Wildcats (33-6, 7-4 Pac-10) must deal with Oregon (27-18, 3-9) today at 4 p.m.
Oregon, which is only above ASU in the conference standings, has not won a Pac-10 game since defeating the Sun Devils 1-0 April 8, a span of seven games.
Although the Ducks have just three wins in the Pac-10, the most difficult softball conference in the country, two of those three wins came against defending national champion No. 10 UCLA in the first weekend of the season.
"Oregon is very capable of beating anyone, not only in our conference but in the country," Ray said.
Last time against Oregon, the Wildcats won 8-1 April 9, and the next day they beat them by the same score.
Ray said junior Alicia Hollowell will likely get the start against Oregon today, and she will probably pitch at least one of the OSU games as well.
Oregon State (35-8, 10-2) has waltzed through the Pac-10 Conference with just two blemishes so far: a 3-0 loss to No. 5 Stanford on April 15 and a 2-1 loss to No. 3 California three days later. The two Bay Area schools are the teams closest to the Beavers in the conference standings, with seven wins each.
As solid as the Beavers have been this season, there is no one who really stands out, Ray said.
Hardly any OSU player can be found in the top 10 in most statistical categories in the conference. No Beaver is in the top 10 for batting average, on-base percentage or runs batted in.
Even their star pitcher, sophomore Brianne McGowan (29-4), is seventh in the conference in earned-run average (1.65).
"They don't have anyone that is extremely outstanding except for Brianne McGowan," Ray said.
Yet, he said, "they play very well together. They're all just very good. They can hurt you at any time. They are very solid defensively."
When the Beavers came to Tucson April 8, Hollowell narrowly lost a pitcher's duel with McGowan, 1-0.
The game was scoreless until the sixth inning, when a Hollowell wild pitch scored the only run of the game.
Other than the three wild pitches Hollowell threw that night, she gave up just four hits, one walk and struck out 11 in seven innings.
Ray said at that point in the season the Wildcats were in a slump offensively, but that he thinks they are coming out of it.
After scoring 13 runs in two games against ASU last weekend, Arizona is hoping their latest offensive production becomes the rule, not the exception.