In its search for clutch hitting throughout the lineup, Oregon has gotten more consistent results from Vallery Wong.
The fourth-year junior utility player is hitting .286 with four home runs and 13 RBIs this season, with a .369 on-base percentage and .958 OPS. Half way through Pac-12 play, Wong is batting .241 with two home runs and eight RBIs a .313 on-base percentage and .796 OPS for the No. 18 Ducks (25-11, 5-7 Pac-12) entering this weekend’s series at Arizona State.
Nearly every one of Wong’s offensive statistics is a career best or on pace for it, but her situational hitting has made the biggest jump.
With runners in scoring position, Wong is hitting .333 with three home runs and 12 RBIs, including .375 with two homers and six RBIs with two outs. Among UO players with at least 20 at-bats with RISP, that’s behind only Allee Bunker and Terra McGowan.
“She’s older, mature, more experienced,” Oregon coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “I think as these guys get older they handle things better. They handle their success better. They handle when things don’t go their way better. They just go about it different because they’re older. I think you’re seeing a more older, mature Val that has had a lot of at-bats and has been in a lot of big moments and maybe early on her career would put a little more pressure on herself where now she’s not. She’s pretty free when she’s at the plate.”
The numbers reveal how much better Wong is producing in those key moments. Last season she hit .216 with three home runs and 20 RBIs with runners in scoring position, including just .105 with a homer and four RBIs with two outs.
“I think my main goal this whole year has been pass the bat,” Wong said. “I think that with my team I trust that someone behind me is going to get it done so I don’t have as much pressure. I think that playing with less pressure this year has allowed me to do good things in good moments. I think the team has felt a lot less pressure because we all lean on each other side to side. I think that’s why we get it done in certain situations and hard situations we don’t stress as much as we have in the past.”
Since March, Wong has been hitting exclusively Nos. 5-7 in the lineup and been the primary starter in right field.
If Oregon is going to climb up the Pac-12 standings and put itself in consideration for a top 16 seed and opportunity to host an NCAA Regional, it will need Wong to keep swinging a hot bat in critical moments.