Ducks Look To Udria To Lead Them Through Pac-12 Gantlet
04/20/17 | Softball, @GoDucksMoseley
A four-year contributor with her bat and glove, senior shortstop Nikki Udria is becoming a more vocal leader for the young UO softball team.
For three years, Nikki Udria has let her glove and bat do the talking.
Since her freshman season in 2014, Udria has been a fixture at shortstop for the Oregon softball team. Primarily a singles hitter back then, Udria has remade herself into a power bat in the middle of the order, leading the Ducks with 17 home runs last spring, and again with nine so far this season.
"Watching her game grow, it's been a lot of fun," UO coach Mike White said.
As Udria's career enters the homestretch, White is asking even more of his returning second-team all-American.
The Ducks got off to a 35-0 start, tying the NCAA record for most wins to open the season. They've since dropped two of three to both UCLA and Washington, and go on the road to face No. 2 Arizona (43-3, 13-2 Pac-12) beginning Friday. The three-game series may very well determine whether Oregon (37-4, 10-4) can stay in the hunt for its fifth straight Pac-12 title.
With three underclassmen comprising the pitching staff, and several more contributing in the field, White is looking to veterans like Udria to navigate the Ducks through their recent struggles. White said he was encouraged by comments Udria made to media following Saturday's loss to Washington, regarding the Ducks' need to keep battling and make better in-game adjustments — he just wished Udria hadn't waited until after the series was over.
"I said, 'Well, maybe during the weekend or even before would be a good thing,'" White said. "I think she's starting to realize that she has a lot of good things to say. She's picked a lot of stuff up in our program the last three years, and we need her to say more."
Udria, who said she's tended to be "more the lead-by-example type," has been getting the message, slowly but surely.
A day before her post-loss comments, Udria made her voice heard during a critical moment in the Ducks' 4-1 victory Friday over the Huskies. UW had a run in and the bases loaded with one out in the first inning; Udria and the other infielders huddled in the circle with pitcher Megan Kleist, and the UO shortstop did the talking.
Her message: Don't step outside yourself. Make your pitch, get a groundball and let your defense get you out of the jam.
On the first pitch to the next batter, Kleist induced an inning-ending double play.
"Sometimes we let the moment get bigger than ourselves," Udria recounted this week. "Don't try to get too many swings and misses; if you're the type of pitcher that gets groundballs and makes your defense work, be that. Don't try to do too much.
"Throw your best pitch, give it all you got. Sometimes their minds are racing. I can go up there and say, hey, this is how simple it is. Let's get it done."
That wisdom has been hard-won, Udria said. She hasn't always been so comfortable herself in tight spots. But that, like the rest of her game, has grown over the last three years.
Later in Friday's game, Udria had a two-run, go-ahead single that put the Ducks up for good in their 4-1 victory. That after scoring a run in Thursday's 4-2 loss, and before finishing the weekend with a two-run homer and an RBI single Saturday. The run-scoring hit in the sixth Saturday gave Oregon a 3-1 lead, which would be squandered in an extra innings defeat.
Overall, of the Ducks' 13 hits in the series against the Huskies, Udria had five. She did so by being more aggressive early in counts, attacking good pitches rather than waiting for perfect pitches.
That was on Udria's mind Wednesday afternoon before practice, when she opened a fortune cookie that came with a teammate's lunch. "Your first choice is always wisest to follow," it read.
"That's the adjustment she made over the weekend," White said, going a bit wide-eyed at the coincidence.
"Yep — attack early," Udria said.
That's the type of in-game adjustment Udria was talking about in her postgame comments Saturday. As the Ducks try to grind through the most trying stretch of their schedule this season, their senior shortstop is setting the tone, vocally and through her own play.
"As I've gotten older and more familiar with the game, now I'm confident in myself," Udria said. "I know I'm not going to give up; they're going to have to get me out. And I'm going to be one hell of a fighter out there."
