The No. 22 Oregon Ducks (23-14, 9-6 Pac-12) fell to the No. 21 Arizona Wildcats (27-12-1, 8-8 Pac-12) 7-5 in the first game of the weekend’s series. The Oregon pitching staff could not keep up with the offense from Arizona, as all three pitchers for the Ducks allowed at least one run.

Oregon struggled to get going on offense out of the gate. The Ducks did not record a hit in the first three innings of play, and earned only one walk during that span. The Wildcats’ Brooke Mannon started the game in the circle, and was dominant in the early stages.

That impressive pitching start allowed Arizona to be the first to strike, even though it took the Wildcats until the third inning to find the scoreboard. Arizona’s Dakota Kennedy got on base with a double, then Carlie Scupin followed with a two-run homer. However, the Wildcats were not done with their scoring. After Oregon’s Stevie Hansen walked a batter, she was replaced in the circle by Taylour Spencer. Spencer then allowed Arizona’s Olivia DiNardo to hit another two-run homer to make the score 4-0 after three.

The Ducks were able to respond to the runs with some scoring of their own. Hanna Delgado got on base with a double before Ariel Carlson hit a homer to left-center to get Oregon on the board. However, it was all the damage the Ducks were able to do to the lead in the inning, leaving them trailing 4-2 after the top of the fourth.

The Wildcats did not allow Oregon to celebrate its runs for long. Arizona’s Tayler Biehl got on first due to a fielding error, before advancing to second on a sac-bunt and third on a passed ball. That allowed her to score on a Regan Shockey single into left field. Shockey then got home herself on another single — this time from Allie Skaggs — to bring the Wildcats’ lead back up to four runs.

Arizona tacked on one more to the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Biehl tripled deep into the outfield, allowing her to easily score on a groundout later in the inning.

The Ducks made one final push in the sixth inning. Emma Kauf and Katie Flannery both got on base with singles before Tehya Bird brought them home with her first home run of the season. The homer made the score 7-5 with one inning still to play, but a quick seventh inning put the finishing touches on the Wildcats’ impressive defensive outing.

Oregon finished the game with seven hits, but only Delgado was able to record more than one in the game. The Arizona offense proved to be too much for the Ducks to overcome, and they fell short to start the series with a loss.

Oregon will take on the Wildcats for game two of the series at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, Apr. 13.