Both the Softball and Baseball teams came into Sunday with there respective weekend series victories already secured. Sunday represented an opportunity for each to pick up the Sweep of their opponents, but given the quality of the opponents and with each team being on the road both teams had already ensured a successful weekend
Softball
After losing the first two games of the series the Bruins were hungry early to pick up a win on the weekend and their offence got started early with a 2 run home run in the bottom
of the first and then a second 2 run shot in the bottom of the 2nd to make it 4-0 Bruins Early.
After the 2nd UCLA home run coach Lombardi went to the bullpen to relieve Elise Sokolsky with Taylour Spencer. Spencer had a hard time getting outs as she allowed 4 of the first 5 batters she faced to reach. That combined with an error from Taryn Ho resulted in an additional 4 runs to score and it was quickly 8-0 UCLA.
In the top of the 3rd the Ducks offence would fight back thanks to an Amari Harper single
Followed by a Stefini Ma’ake sac-fly
and then a Rylee McCoy single to cut the lead to 5
In the 4th though UCLA would re-gain there 8 run lead, that would inevitably be enough for UCLA to win via a run rule, thanks two more long Bombs. With the offence unable to score in the Top of the 5th that closed out the game early.
This was the final regular season series of the season for the Softball team. Thanks to the series win Oregon secured on Saturday the team finished 2nd in the B1G standings. The team will now turn there attention to the B1G tournament.
Baseball
After each team scored some quick runs early, the Sunday Game against the Huskies in Seattle appeared to be turning into quite a pitchers duel as the Huskies were hanging on to a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 6th. After being tamed for the majority of the series Washington’s bats woke up in a big way in the 6th to open a massive 9-1 lead.
With only 6 outs left and 8 runs to score the Ducks did attempt to mount a rally as the first 4 runners in the 8th inning all reached base to score Oregon’s 2nd run of the game and load the bases with no one out. Washington would commit an error and the Ducks were able to get 2 more runs in to make it a 9-4 game headed to the 9th.
Down to their final out and with 2 runners on Brayden Jaksa singled through the left side to score another Ducks run and make it 9-5 but that would be all the offence the Ducks could muster in this one as they fell short on Sunday.
As I mentioned though the Ducks did secure the series victory by winning the first two games of the series which, thanks to Nebraska being swept on the weekend, puts Oregon into 2nd place in the B1G ahead of the Cornhuskers whom they have the tiebreaker over.
Up next for Baseball is a massive series against undefeated UCLA in LA. UCLA has already secured the B1G regular season title but a series victory over the Bruins could do a lot for Oregon’s NCAA tournament resume as selection Sunday draws near.
