After the second post-game team meeting in as many days, Oregon softball players emerged speaking about the need to return to basics.
Oregon dropped all three games over the weekend, to No. 4 Washington 2-0 Friday, and 9-2 and 6-0 decisions to No. 3 UCLA on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The reasons for losing were simple: The youthful Oregon squad couldn’t hit, had difficulty fielding and the pitching, unable to hold off the opposition completely without offensive support, broke down under duress.
For the entire weekend, Oregon put 11 runners on base, with six hits.
The frustrated faces of the players and coaches showed as they walked back to the dugout after the game; finding solutions won’t be so straightforward.
“We’re not a real mature group,” head coach Kathy Arendsen said. “Sometimes mistakes can be contagious, too.”
Gone with the series went the sense that Oregon was taking strides forward throughout Pacific-10 Conference play, as Arendsen said. With 10 of its 17 players either freshmen or sophomores, Arendsen stressed looking at the bigger picture of the future with the group.
In the present, however, the team must assess how to find its rhythm again after an unequivocal step back for the program that leaves it 13-26 overall, and 2-10 in Pac-10 play.
“We have to own up to the things about this weekend,” senior outfielder Sari-Jane Jenkins said. “We need to make the game simple. A lot of this is experience.”
While UCLA used two home runs and an RBI single to get to a 3-0 lead Sunday, Oregon could barely get started. The Ducks’ best chance came in the bottom of the third inning, when two walks gave Oregon runners at second and third base with two outs. The next batter, center fielder Neena Bryant, grounded out to first base.
Sari-Jane Jenkins’ catch over the wall in left field robbed UCLA’s Julie Burney of a home run in the top of the fourth, and the Ducks turned a double-play on the next pitch to give the season-high crowd of 429 something to cheer about.
A three-run home run by UCLA’s Kaila Shull to deep center field knocked Oregon starter Samantha Skillingstad out of the game, bringing Melissa Rice in for 1.2 innings of relief. Skillingstad (10-10) allowed six runs in 5.1 innings.
Bryant finally got Oregon into the hit column in the sixth inning with a single up the middle, the second time over the weekend the Ducks broke up a no-hitter in the sixth.
UCLA pitcher Megan Langenfeld was terrific hitting and pitching again Sunday, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and pitching 3.1 innings of scoreless relief for Donna Kerr, who allowed zero hits over 3.1 innings.
“We’re picking it up in Pac-10 play,” Langenfeld said. “I think we did our research during the week for what Oregon and OSU would do.”
While it came in a loss, Bryant moved up the record books with her 24th stolen base of the season, which puts her in tie for sixth in a single season, while also putting her into sole possession of fourth all-time at UO with 61 career stolen bases.
Saturday: No. 3 UCLA 9, Oregon 2
UCLA racked up 14 hits in its win, with Julie Burney going 2-for-3 with 4 RBI, including a three-run home run in the fourth inning that gave UCLA a lead that it never gave back.
Two of the Ducks’ three hits were home runs. Neena Bryant put Oregon ahead 1-0 in the first inning with her full-count blast. Substitute Kaitlin Vitek hit a solo home run in her first at-bat of the day in the bottom of the fifth inning.
UCLA scored in each of the last four innings, including putting up three runs in the fourth and seventh to put the game away.
Friday: No. 4 Washington 2, Oregon 0
Huskies Ashley Charters and Danielle Lawrie hit solo home runs off Skillingstad in the fifth inning to break a scoreless tie and provide the final score for No. 4 Washington.
“I missed two pitches and they found them,” Skillingstad said.
On the mound, Lawrie walked the first hitter she saw before retiring the next 14 hitters. Oregon’s Cortney Kivett ended the sixth inning with a ground-out to first base that left runners stranded at third and second base.
Lawrie moved to 24-3 on the season with the win.
“You gotta give Lawrie a lot of credit. She’s one of the best pitchers in the country,” Oregon head coach Kathy Arendsen said. “We thought our pitchers did well. This could have been ugly, but we held in.”
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