Of all the shutouts, demolitions, strikeouts, two-hitters and other embarrassments that the Oregon softball team has faced in this forgettable season, the most devastating has to be getting swept in a doubleheader by in-state rival Portland State on April 3.
Heading into their final five games of the season, however, the Ducks (27-36 overall, 1-17 Pacific-10 Conference) — who swept the Vikings last year — can at least salvage a series split with the Vikings with a doubleheader sweep today, beginning at 2 p.m. at Howe Field.
“It’s been a long season and I don’t want to go out on a bad note,” sophomore pitcher/outfielder Andrea Vidlund said. “There’s not much we can do at this point. We just want to have fun and get through this as a team.”
Flashback to early April. On the first of the month, the Ducks split a doubleheader with Arizona State to open Pac-10 play with a motivating 1-2 start (after also losing to then-No. 2 Arizona) and went into the non-conference matchup in Portland with a shot of confidence.
The rigors of competition in the Pac-10 have seemingly always bruised the Ducks — and many other teams in the league — but head coach Rick Gamez’s squad has typically found ways of winning outside the conference.

And in both games against Portland State, the Ducks went into the bottom of the seventh with at least a tie and appeared, at least in the nightcap, to have a victory in hand. In both games, though, Oregon lost in the final at-bat.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” Gamez said after the losses. “You figure that if you’re up by three runs that that would be plenty, but…”
Enter Kiauna Anderson.
The 5-foot-5 left fielder is just one-ninth of the Vikings’ starting squad, but proved to be anything but one-dimensional against the Ducks.
After winning the first game with a walk-off, two-run home run — just the second of her career — Anderson stole a homer on a leaping catch at the wall in left, hit another bomb and scored the game-winning run in the second contest.
In defeat, Triawn Custer and Vidlund each hit two home runs on the day.
The sweep was Portland State’s first against Oregon in 10 years. The Vikings have not won a season series over the Ducks since 1985.
Since the April 3 meeting with the Vikings, the Ducks are 4-15, with all four wins coming against non-conference opponents.
“If we get a couple wins [today] we should be better off this weekend for Cal and Stanford,” Vidlund said. “You always try to play as hard as you can and when you play outside of the Pac-10, it gets you ready for the Pac-10 games, which count the most.”
Oregon hosts No. 5 California Friday and No. 3 Stanford Saturday to end the regular season.