Both Baseball and Softball were in conference action on Sunday to close out weekend series at home. For Softball it was the rubber match against Ohio State with the teams 15 straight B1G series win streak on the line. For baseball it was the opportunity to pick up a much needed sweep to continue moving up the B1G standings.
Softball
After dropping Game 1 to the Buckeyes and getting off to a slow start on Saturday before rallying in a big way the Sunday game for the Softball team was the comfortable
victory the team needed on the weekend.
Amari Harper got things started early for the Ducks with a solo home run in the bottom of the first to give the Ducks an early 1-0 lead after Grein pitched a 3 up 3 down inning in the top 1/2
In the 2nd inning Kaylynn Jones would extend the Ducks lead with a monster home run off the scoreboard
The Ducks would add some more runs thanks to a Katie Flannery double and the Ohio State pitcher losing some control and then Elon Butler using a productive out to score her. After 2 the Ducks had a comfortable 4-0 lead.
In the 3rd Emma Cox’s bat remained red hot with home run of her own.
In the fourth the Ducks offence continued to pile on thanks to some small ball. Kaylynn Jones, Katie Flannery, Elon Butler, Amari Harper, Emma Cox would all single in the inning to score 3 Oregon runs and make it 8-0.
Taylour Spencer would then keep the Buckeyes off the scoreboard in the 5th and seal the victory for Oregon Via run rule. It capped off an excellent outing for Spencer as her final line ended up being 4 IP, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 Hit, while striking out 6. If this is the start of some strong play from Spencer it could be the much needed shot in the arm the Ducks pitching staff needs down the stretch of this season.
The series win brings the Ducks B1G record to 18-3, good enough for 3rd place in the B1G and guaranteeing the Ducks one of the top 3 spots in the B1G for the season.
Up next the Ducks will play 2nd place UCLA in the final series of the regular season.
Here is Lombardi Post-Game
Baseball
At the same time Baseball was playing game 3 of there series against Penn State looking to pick up the sweep after two hard fought wins in games 1 and 2.
Miles Gosztola got the start for the Ducks and after giving up two singles to start the game he locked in and was dealing for the rest of the day partly thanks to some help from his catcher he gunned down a Penn State Base Runner in the 2nd
The Ducks offence wasn’t able to get going early but in the 4th they started humming in a big way. First off thanks to a Drew Smith solo home run
Followed by a Burke-Lee Mabeus double that would score Angel Laya, and then a Junior Lauaki sac-fly to score Maddox Molony.
In the 5th Angel Laya would pick up an RBI scoring Drew Smith from second on the single. After 5 the Ducks were up 4-0.
After taking care of business at the plate the Ducks took care of business on defense with this double play in top of the 6th
Then in the bottom half the Ducks offence would continue to chip away, this time with a Burke Lee Mabeus solo home run.
That would be more than enough Offence needed for the day as between Gosztola and the bullpen Oregon;s pitching staff pitched a shut-out. Gosztola’s final line was a very impressive:
6 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, while striking out 7
The bullpen then combined for 2 2/3 IP of shut out ball collectively, only allowing 3 base runners while striking out out 4.
The win and the sweep pushes Oregon’s B1G record to 15-6, good for 3rd place in the B1G, with 3 more series to go all against fellow west coast teams.
Next up is 11th place Washington in Seattle next weekend but not before the Ducks take on Gonzaga in a mid week game on Tuesday.
Here is Wasikowski post-game
