Oregon softball featured in its first Super Regional game in five years on Thursday in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Its opponent, Oklahoma State, looked like the team on the verge of its fourth consecutive Women’s College World Series appearance in the Cowgirls’ 8-1 victory. Eight unanswered runs allowed put the Ducks on the brink of elimination.
Oregon and Oklahoma State met earlier in the season at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge in Mexico. Oklahoma State won that matchup 3-0, partially due to 15 strikeouts from its pitcher Kelly Maxwell. Much to the surprise of both Oregon and Oklahoma fans, Lexi Kilfoyl started on the mound over Maxwell in Thursday’s win. Kilfoyl only recorded three strikeouts but did well to limit Oregon to only one run.
“She throws hard and low. It’s just trying to get our pitch,” Allee Bunker said of Kilfoyl. “Haven’t seen her this year, so I think it was good to be able to see her and take it one at-bat at a time and make adjustments.”
The Ducks had an opportunity early with a runner on second. Ariel Carlson fired the ball to the left field wall, but the Cowgirls made the running catch to retire the Ducks.
Oregon took the lead in the second inning. KK Humphreys singled to shortstop and later advanced to second on a groundout. An Alyssa Daniell single through the right side drove in Humphreys.
“We were proud of ourselves to score first and get on top,” Daniell said. “We had a lot of energy and we were ready for the coming innings and we just had a lot of belief.”
The Cowgirls shifted the momentum in the fourth. Kiley Naomi opened the scoring for Oklahoma State with a solo homer to left field.
Later in the fourth, the Cowgirls had two runners in scoring position. The batter hit it to Oregon pitcher Morgan Scott, who couldn’t throw to home plate in a timely manner. The costly error not only allowed another run, but the batter reached first on the fielder’s choice, and a runner advanced to third.
“I really love the way that Morgan threw. I thought she had good command, good speed,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “We needed to be able to stop that inning. We didn’t do enough that inning.”
A single to left field scored a third Oklahoma State run in the fourth inning. Despite pitching three strong innings, a disastrous fourth warranted a pitching change. Raegan Breedlove entered the game with the bases loaded but ended the inning without additional damage.
The fifth wasn’t any better for Oregon. Oklahoma State scored four more runs, including a three-run homer to left field.
The Ducks never got on base again in the game after the RBI by Daniell in the second. The Cowgirls scored an eighth and final run in the sixth.
“This is best two out of three,” Lombardi said. “We wanted to get the first one; we didn’t, but we still have two more games to go. What I love about this team is that any time that something hasn’t gone our way, we’ve learned from it, grown from it and it’s made us better. I know some things that happened to us in this game will take us into our next game.”
Oregon has an opportunity to equal the series on Friday. It will face Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. on ESPN2.
