Huskies head to Oregon desperate for wins

There is little doubt that an increased level of urgency will travel with the No. 24 Washington softball team to Corvallis and Eugene, Ore. this weekend.

Four straight losses will do that to a team, especially with postseason hopes hanging in the air. This will be the Huskies’ final four games of the season — one at Oregon State today, and three against Oregon to close out the weekend — that will ultimately decide whether UW will make its 17th straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

“I’m excited to see how we respond this weekend,” coach Heather Tarr said. “I think how the Pac-10 season has developed, we haven’t proven wins-wise what we’re capable of doing.”

That statement is especially fitting following a weekend in which the Huskies failed to score a run, falling 3-0 to Arizona State and 3-0 twice more to Arizona. Their performance against the Arizona schools sums up their worst offensive performance of the year in a no-hit outing by UA pitcher Taryne Mowatt.

Dropping its best hitter, freshman Jace Williams, to sixth in the batting order proved only to be a temporary fix during the UW’s trip to the Bay Area two weeks ago, but tweaks to the lineup have been ineffective since. Washington (26-21-1, 5-12 Pac-10) has scored just one run in its last 30 innings of play and has dropped seven of its last eight contests after defeating No. 2 Arizona State April 13.

Still, even as its overall record falls closer and closer to .500 and it sits in sixth place at 5-12 in the Pac-10 standings, Washington remains ranked in both the National Fastpitch Coaching Association and USA Softball top-25 polls — something that shows how much respect the nation has for the Pac-10 conference.

Last season, all eight Pac-10 teams were invited to the NCAA Tournament (Washington was seeded sixth overall despite finishing third in the Pac-10), meaning that conventional wisdom would suggest that the Huskies would probably have to lose all four of their games this weekend to not be considered for the postseason this year.

Tarr would prefer not to take any chances.

“We just have to get a few wins,” Tarr said. “I want us to obviously be playing well going into the tournament, assuming we get a bid. You don’t want to just get a courtesy bid into the tournament. I want to prepare to play well there, too.”

And for a team desperate for wins of any kind, this weekend couldn’t come at a better time. The Ducks (32-24, 4-14 Pac-10) and the Beavers round out the bottom of the conference standings and are the only two teams in the Pac-10 not ranked in either of the national polls.

OSU (26-30, 4-14 Pac-10) is riding an eight-game losing streak and has scored only six runs in its last six games, meaning that today’s contest is going to go to whoever figures out their offensive woes the fastest. The Huskies split two games with the Beavers earlier this season in Seattle.

“Offensively, we’re trying to find our game,” Tarr said, adding that she plans on having UW All-American and current Team Canada pitcher Danielle Lawrie throw her team batting practice this week. “We’re just going to give ourselves lots of live opportunities. It’s only a matter of time before our offense is going to be able to put some things together.”

The Huskies would prefer for that time to be now.