After dropping two straight competitive games and an exhibition against Japan, No. 5 Oregon softball defeated No. 7 LSU on Sunday and added another win against San Jose State in the afternoon to conclude the Mary Nutter Classic.
The Ducks shut out LSU 4-0 with Miranda Elish in the circle. She pitched the full seven innings, allowing just two hits while striking out 10 to collect her fifth win of the season as she goes 5-0 with a .180 ERA.
DJ Sanders hit her seventh home run of the season in the top of the second to give Oregon a 2-0 lead. That lead was added to in the third when Gwen Svekis hit a two-RBI single.
The Ducks and Tigers went scoreless for the remaining four innings as Oregon held on for its first top-10 win of the season.
In the second game of the day, Oregon beat San Jose State 1-0, but the Ducks scored six runs in the seventh inning that did not count due to a pregame agreement to call the game at the two-hour mark, which came with one out in the bottom of the seventh while the score read 7-0.
The Ducks sole official run came in the second inning when Shaye Bowden scored Svekis on a single to left field.
Junior pitcher Megan Kleist got the start in the circle, recording her fourth win of the season — she’s now 4-2 on the year. Kleist pitched 5.1 innings in which she allowed three hits while walking one and striking out four. Elish replaced her for 0.2 innings and struck out one without allowing a walk or hit.
Oregon is now 12-3 on the season as the Ducks head to Tampa, Florida, for a two-game series against South Florida on March 1 before a trip to Tallahassee for the Unconquered Invitational.
Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow