The Ducks won 2-1 in the first of a four-game series against Arizona on Friday. 

Only allowing two hits, Brooke Yanez led the way for the Ducks and Terra McGowan’s two run walk-off homer clinched the victory. 

It was a defensive battle throughout the game, starting in the first inning with both Yanez and Arizona’s Hannah Bowen pitching perfect innings. 

The Bobcats were able to get a runner on second in the top of the second with a walk and a sacrifice bunt, but Yanez’s strong pitching prevented them from advancing any further. 

Both sides pitched a perfect third inning as the game remained scoreless.

Dejah Mulipola of the Bobcats singled in the top of the fourth. Mulipola then tried stealing second, but got caught in the middle of a rundown and was tagged out.

The same theme continued in the fifth inning with no base runners on either side. 
In the top of the sixth inning, Arizona’s Hannah Martinez broke the scoreless game by hitting a homer on a pitch straight down the middle. The Bobcats’ bench erupted as runs were extremely hard to come by.

Oregon head coach Melyssa Lombardi met with Yanez at the pitcher’s mound to talk, but Yanez stayed in the game and finished strong.

“I didn’t have a message for her after the home-run. I just told her to keep fighting and that we are gonna get runs for her,” Lombardi said.

No more hits were allowed by Yanez.

“Even if it was a 0-0 ball game throughout one through seven I knew they were going to come in clutch at some point,” Yanez said.

With the game on the line in the bottom of the seventh, Haley Cruse started the inning off right by spoiling Bowen’s perfect game and hitting a single on a full count. 

“I loved Haley’s at bat, I just loved how she willed it. She got two strikes on her and just battled and battled and battled until she got what she wanted and got a base hit for us,” Lombardi said.

Allee Bunker followed the single with a sacrifice bunt that gave Cruse enough time to slide into second. 

Terra McGowan then stepped up to the plate and hit a two-run walk-off homer down the left side to win the game for the Ducks. The Oregon bench cleared as they celebrated a huge win to start their series off right. 

“I think the whole year we’ve really been talking about transferring energy from defense to offense and Brooke gave us that opportunity the entire game,” McGowan said, “and I think Haley starting off with that single and Allee laying down the bunt kind of just transferred the energy to me and I finally got that inside pitch and I just turned on it.”

Yanez finished the game with just one run allowed and eight strikeouts. 

“Staying ahead in counts, that benefits any pitcher just staying ahead and trusting each pitch and knowing that my defense has my back throughout anything,” she said. “Staying ahead is just really important.” 

The Ducks jump to 32-13 with the win and will play a doubleheader against Arizona on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. in Eugene.