The No. 11 Oregon softball team saw its season come to an abrupt end with a pair of lopsided losses against No. 3 Florida in the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament this weekend in Gainesville, Fla.
The Ducks capped a 42-16 season with their second straight trip to the Super Regional round, but couldn’t put runs on the board against the Gators’ superb pitching staff, while sophomore Jessica Moore was beaten up in the circle in back-to-back games for the first time all year.
Florida (52-10) advanced to its fourth consecutive Women’s College World Series, while Oregon returned to Eugene empty-handed.
“Florida sure played like champions out there (Saturday),” Oregon coach Mike White said. “No errors in two games. Great pitching. Great hitting.”
After a 9-1 loss in five innings in the best-of-three series opener, Oregon was shut out 7-0 on Saturday, with just four hits to show offensively. Moore struck out four, walked six and six of the seven runs she allowed were earned.
With two full seasons under her belt, Moore ranks in the top 10 in the Oregon history books for strikeouts (third, 462), shutouts (t-seventh, 11), ERA (eighth, 1.88), wins (ninth, 40) and appearances (10th, 82).
Her 24 wins in 2011 was the third best single-season mark in program history.
For seniors Monique Fuiava, Kaitlin Vitek and Brittany Rumfelt, Saturday’s loss proved to be their final game in Oregon uniforms. Fuiava went 0-for-3 from the plate, Vitek 0-for-2 and Rumfelt struck out three in her 1 1/3 innings of work.