Bears Head to the Pacific Northwest in Search of Big Sky Title

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado softball travels to Portland State for a weekend trio with the Big Sky title on the line before closing their regular season with a single tilt at Oregon. UNC and Portland State will play a doubleheader on Friday starting at 5 p.m. and close the three-game set Saturday at 3 p.m. All three games will broadcast live on ESPN+ . First pitch for Sunday's game at #23 Oregon is noon. The contest will broadcast on the PAC12 Live.

BIG SKY TITLE ON THE LINE
The Bears and Vikings enter the series atop the Big Sky with identical 7-4 conference records. Due to weather cancelations throughout the conference season, the number of league games played by each team ranges from 8 to 12. Thus, the winning percentage determines the regular season champion. The title scenario is convoluted but includes:

If either UNC or PSU sweeps or wins 2-of-3 and Weber State wins at least one game in their series finale against Idaho State, the Bears or Vikings are Big Sky regular season champions.
If UNC, or Portland State, sweep the three-game series and Idaho State sweeps Weber State, the Bengals will take home the hardware.

UNS VS PSU
The matchup features the league's best road team, UNC (6-4 on the road), and its best home team Portland State (10-2 at home). Historically, the matchup pits the last two years' Big Sky champions with UNC taking the title in 2023 and Portland State in 2022. UNC is 11-28 all-time against the Vikings but riding a four-game winning streak as the Bears swept the regular season series in Greeley and then blanked them in the Big Sky Championships 5-0 in 2023.

UNC VS OREGON
The single game against the Ducks in Eugene will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

BY THE NUMBERS

Amailee Morales, leads the league in slugging percentage (.752), On Base + Slugging percentage (1.193) RBIS (49), doubles (22), HRs (11) and walks (23).
Alyssa Wenzel leads the Big Sky in triples (6).
Erin Caviness, who recently won the 2023-24 UNC Female Athlete of the Year award, continues to make a strong case for Big Sky Pitcher of the Year by leading the league in opposing batting average (.201), innings pitched (126.2), strikeouts (144), wins (15) and saves (3). Her 144 strikeouts rank her 31^st nationally and her 6.04 strikeouts-to-walk ratio is 13th.