The Oregon softball team is back on the winning track.
In a Wednesday afternoon doubleheader against Portland State, the Ducks won the first game 7-1, before edging the Vikings 4-2 in the second. Oregon’s record improves to 20-22 overall (0-12 Pacific-10 Conference), while Portland State falls to 17-26 overall (6-8 Western Athletic Conference).
“It was nice to see the Ducks battle today and come out on top,” head coach Brent Rincon said.
With the game tied 2-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Oregon’s Kristi Hall hit a deep fly ball to right field that Portland State’s Monica Martell dropped, allowing Hall to reach second. After Ashley Richards struck out for the Ducks’ second out, right fielder Rachel Tommasini ripped a line drive for the game winning RBI. Center fielder Amber Hutchison added an insurance run for Oregon as she followed with an RBI triple that scored Tommasini.
Portland State made a bid at a two-out seventh-inning rally with two consecutive infield hits, but Oregon escaped the scare when Tommasini made a diving snag of a ball off the bat of Portland State pinch hitter Rose Rutledge that was twisting down the right field line.
Although Connie McMurren gave up 10 hits to the Vikings, she managed to escape a few dangerous situations, including bases loaded jams in the second and fifth innings. McMurren threw all seven innings, allowing one walk to go along with five strike outs.
Offensively in Game 2, Oregon received an outstanding output from the bottom of its line up. Hutchison was 3-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored, and Tommasini hit 2-for-2 with an RBI and two runs scored.
Freshman Mari Lyn Petrick may have had the best offensive showing in the two games combined for Oregon. Her 2-for-3 effort in Game 2 followed a perfect first game output of 3-for-3 with four RBIs and a run scored. In her third at-bat in Game 2, Petrick hit a deep drive that was tracked down by Portland State’s center fielder Whitney Olson. The flyout broke Petrick’s streak of five consecutive hits.
“It felt good,” Petrick said. “I guess it was just one of those days when you are seeing the ball well.”
“We got a big boost from (Petrick),” Rincon said. “She’s a kid that we are beginning to count on more and more.”
As they had done on Monday in the first game of a doubleheader at Portland State — which the two teams ended up splitting — the Ducks came out hot offensively against the Vikings’ star pitcher Morgan Seibert in Game 1.
Oregon tallied one run in the first inning, two in the third and four in the fifth. Seibert lasted through four and one-thirds innings allowing six runs off eight hits. She struck out two and walked none. Megan Herscher relieved Seibert in the fifth and gave up three hits and one unearned run.
Oregon’s combined pitching attack of Anissa Meashintubby and Lindsey Kontra allowed four hits, two walks and one run while striking out seven.
“We got good pitching again today,” Rincon said. “It was nice to get all the pitchers some work going into a big Pac-10 series at Arizona and Arizona State. These games today were a nice tune-up (for the trip to Arizona) and were really competitive. We showed some composure and to come from behind in (Game 2).”
After losing 12 straight, Oregon has now won three of its last four games. The Ducks, heading into a three-game weekend in Arizona against No. 2 Arizona and No. 5 Arizona State, are looking for their first Pac-10 win in more than a year. The Ducks’ last conference victory was against Arizona State on April 1, 2001.
“We’re excited,” Petrick said. “We battled and came up with two good wins.”