Late-inning heroics from the 21st-ranked Oregon softball team allowed it to salvage another 2-2 weekend as the Ducks beat Drake 4-3 Saturday at the UNLV
Rebel Classic.
Junior Dani Baird’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh inning snapped Oregon’s two-game losing skid and improved the team’s record to 10-8 on the season.
Oregon started off the inning with a single to right by sophomore Suzie Barnes that was followed by Ashley Richards reaching first on an error by Drake third baseman Katie Wappler. Barnes moved to third on the play.
Beth Boskovich — who was 2 for 2 with a home run, a double and two RBIs — was then intentionally walked for the second time in the game to load the bases.
Baird stepped up next and drilled a single up the middle to score the winning run.
Freshman pitcher Alicia Cook picked up the victory for Oregon. She went the full seven innings, giving up seven hits, a lone earned run and four strikeouts for her fifth victory on the season.
Oregon fell behind in the top of the fourth when the Ducks committed two errors, leading to a two-run inning for Drake.
The Ducks struck back in the bottom half of the inning when Drake second baseman Shanna Cook committed an error on a ball hit by Richards. Boskovich followed with a home run to tie the game at 2-2.
Oregon added another run in the inning when hot-hitting freshman T.J. Eadus smacked an
RBI single through the left side of the infield, scoring an already-on-base Baird and giving the Ducks a 3-2 lead. The Tucson, Ariz., native leads the team in hitting this
season with a .464 average.
But Drake struck back when Lindsay Larry led off the top of the fifth inning with a single. She stole second base and scored on a Cook single down the left-field line to tie the score 3-3.
The score remained even until Baird’s game-winning single, dropping Drake’s record to 8-2.
Oregon’s fortunes were much different on Friday as the Ducks were shut out by No. 25 Long Beach State, 4-0.
The Ducks struggled from the plate, as they were limited to four hits by Long Beach State’s Kourtnee Gervasi. She struck out eight in seven innings of work to pick up her sixth win of the season.
Long Beach State scored an unearned run in the top of the third to take a 1-0 lead. The 49ers’ Lauren Johnson laid down a bunt on a squeeze play and Gervasi, who had singled to begin the inning and advanced on an error and a stolen base, scampered home for the score.
The Ducks’ trouble on defense continued as another unearned run from an error scored in the top of the seventh on a Marcel Torres two-RBI double.
“Defensively, I know we are a better team,” Oregon head coach Kathy Arendsen said.
Oregon pitcher Amy Harris took the brunt of the Duck defensive woes as she pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up two earned runs on six hits and striking out eight.
The Ducks’ 2004 First-Team All-Pacific-10 Conference pitcher Ani Nyhus pitched to the last two hitters and struck them both out to end the seventh. Nyhus is still recovering from an arm injury that occurred over the summer.
Next up for the Ducks is Portland State at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Howe Field. Oregon split a pair of games to the Vikings when the teams met earlier this season.

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