The Oregon softball team is still in search of its first Pacific-10 Conference win after losing three straight games this weekend.
The Ducks (18-15 overall, 0-6 Pac-10) began the weekend with a 4-3 loss on Friday to No. 3 Stanford (31-5, 2-2), then lost 3-2 Saturday and 7-0 Sunday to No. 6 California (37-12, 4-2).
Sunday’s game pitted the Oregon offense against California’s senior hurler Jocelyn Forest (17-7), who was a first team All-Pac-10 and second team All-American last season with an ERA of 0.82. The Bears’ ace blanked Oregon and allowed only three hits and one walk while striking out six.
Forest “kept us off-balance all day,” Oregon head coach Brent Rincon said. “They have great pitching and play just awesome defense, and you can’t give teams like that breaks.”
The biggest Oregon threat came halfway through the first inning when, after shortstop Lynsey Haij reached on a single up the middle, Andrea Vidlund was hit by a pitch. Second would be as far as any Duck runner advanced, as cleanup-hitter Jenn Poore lined out to third baseman Candace Harper, and Lakeesha Eversley flied out to Harper for the third out.
In the circle for Oregon, freshman Lindsay Kontra pitched six innings, allowing five hits and three runs along with five walks. California touched up Anissa Meashintubby for four more runs in the seventh, one of which was unearned, until Connie McMurren came for the final two outs to close the door on the Bear offensive onslaught.
“I’m disappointed today just with how we executed in all three phases — pitching, defense and offensively,” Rincon said.
The loss dipped Kontra’s record to 5-7, but Rincon said that her pitching showed improvement from her loss at the hands of Stanford on Friday.
Shortstop Lynsey Haij is congratulated by head coach Brent Rincon after her sixth-inning home run Friday against Stanford.
“Lindsey had good command of the pitches; however, (California) did a good job of laying off some of the pitches that we’d like to see them enticed, too,” he said. “She’s going to be better in the second half of the Pac-10 season than she is right now.”
Leading the game 3-0 after six innings, California capitalized on a costly Oregon error to tally their four in the seventh. With one out and a runner on first from a Meashintubby walk, the Bears’ first baseman Veronica Nelson hit a hard groundball to Alyssa Laux at second, which could have been an inning ending double play, but Haij dropped Laux’s toss. The next four California hitters reached on a walk and three consecutive hits.
The Bears’ No. 9 hitter Kristen Bayless finished the game 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored. She led off the third inning with a drive that bounced off the top of the left field fence, narrowly missing a home run. The next batter, Kaleo Eldredge, drove her in with a single to right.
Sunday’s seven-run differential was the first time in all of the Ducks’ six Pac-10 losses that they lost by more than two runs. It was also the fifth time (third in the Pac-10) that an opposing pitcher has shut them out.
“As a unit, we need to regroup,” Rincon said. “It is going to be an uphill struggle. It doesn’t get any easier with every team, but I’m still impressed with the girls’ attitude and their desire to compete. Today just happened to be one of those days when we gave Cal a couple of breaks, and they capitalized on us big time.”
In the Friday contest against Stanford, four costly errors plagued Oregon and the offense, although effective, was not enough to catch the Cardinal. In the game, Haij hit 3-for-4 with a home run that tied the game in the fifth. Stanford scored two in the sixth to pull ahead. Laux, who finished 2-for-4, drove in Erin Goodell in the seventh, but that lone run was all the Ducks could muster.
Saturday’s contest featured a home run by Laux, her first of the season, but the Bears’ two runs in the first and one in the sixth were enough for the win.
The last time Oregon won a game in their conference was on April 1, 2001, against Arizona State.
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