It was another successful weekend for the No. 13 Oregon women’s softball team, who picked up four wins at the ESPN Rise Tournament in Orlando, Fla., against some of the nation’s best competition.
The Ducks started the weekend with a split on Friday afternoon, beating North Carolina in a 1-0 thriller on a suicide squeeze bunt in the eighth inning to score pinch runner Ashley Kivett from third base.
Oregon saw its five-game winning streak come to an end the following game, when ACC opponent Virginia topped the Ducks 3-2 on a throwing error in the seventh inning.
On the second day of action, Oregon defeated No. 17 Louisiana-Lafayette in a 5-2 comeback win on Saturday. The Ducks poured on four runs in the top of the seventh inning to rally past a 2-1 deficit. Freshman Alexa Peterson recorded her first game-winning RBI of the season, when she knocked in junior Kelsey Chambers with a single to left.
Sophomore Jessica Moore pitched her fifth complete game of the season, striking out six and walking one to improve to 9-1 on the year.
In the following game, top-ranked Alabama made quick work of the Ducks, cruising to a 10-0 victory in five innings. The Crimson Tide scored three runs in the first, second and third innings before adding on the decisive 10th run in the fourth. The day before, Alabama lost 1-0 to Louisiana-Lafayette before waking up the bats against Oregon.
A pair of wins on Sunday against Illinois (2-1) and Illinois State (6-0) rounded out the weekend action for the Ducks, who will get the next two weeks off before facing Weber State and Utah State in a pair of home doubleheaders on March 19-20.
For the weekend, senior Monique Fuiava led the team with a .545 batting average, while scoring a team-high four runs. Freshman Courtney Ceo led the team with eight hits, and sophomore Allie Burger paced Oregon with three RBI.
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