Oregon’s pitching was exceptional, as the Ducks continued their undefeated start to the fall season with a commanding 13-3 win over Western Oregon.
Taylour Spencer and Stevie Hansen were both dominant on the mound for the Ducks. As a freshman, Spencer has performed especially well, throwing 10.1 scoreless innings thus far. “I think this was her best, her velo was up,” Lombardi said of Spencer. “I thought she threw well today.”
Hansen’s start to her junior season has been nothing short of sensational. In 15.2 innings this fall, Hansen is yet to allow an earned run. Hansen threw four scoreless innings Wednesday for the Ducks.
“I think Stevie’s been pretty solid,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said of Hansen. “I liked the way she threw her change-up today, she threw that a ton.”
Offensively, Oregon started sluggishly by leaving several runners on base. Lombardi –often a tough critic of her team– was displeased with her team’s performance early on.
“At the start we took too many pitches,” Lombardi said. “We had really really good counts to hit in, I don’t think we did a good job at executing in those counts.”
“I just think we had some really good opportunities in the first half of the game,” Lombardi said. “We had good pitches to hit hard and we didn’t, we took them.”
After a 15-minute break between five-inning segments, the Ducks’ offense exploded. Kai Luschar’s fourth inning single opened the offensive floodgates for Oregon, which finished the game with 20 hits total.
“The hitter that stands out the most is Kai,” Lombardi said. “She’s done a great job really reading the defense and understanding how she wants to attack.”
Luschar finished the game 4-4 with an RBI, her speed has been an unabating weapon for the Ducks who, once again, ran all over the field.
“This is probably the fastest team I’ve ever had,” Lombardi said. “They can just make something out of nothing, which I really like. I love how aggressive everybody is on the basepaths.”
The eye test backs up Lombardi’s statement. Oregon sure can fly, and stole seven bags Wednesday night.
The rest of the offense followed; KK Humphrey’s finished the game 2-2 with two doubles, Luschar’s sister, Kedre, collected two hits of her own.
“I think you’re gonna see KK have a really really good year,” Lombardi said “I really like what KK is doing right now.”
Once again, Oregon was dominant and will look to continue its impressive fall this Sunday against Southern Oregon and Mt. Hood Community College.
