The Ducks defeated the Oregon State Beavers 2-0 on Thursday evening in Corvallis to extend their winning streak to 15.
Before the limited number of fans could even get settled into the Oregon State Softball Complex, Haley Cruse launched a first-pitch home run over the left-field fence off of OSU ace Mariah Mazon.
In Mazon’s previous start against the Ducks in early March, she only recorded one out as the Beavers fell 14-6. After just a single pitch in Thursday’s game, it looked like the game could go the same way for Mazon.
Instead, she sent down the next three Ducks in order and settled in nicely, pitching a scoreless second and third inning.
For the Ducks, Brooke Yanez got the rock, coming into the game with a 10-0 record and a 1.42 ERA. Her dominance continued through her first three scoreless innings in which she struck out five and only gave up one hit.
Oregon began the fourth with a walk, a hit by pitch, and a perfectly placed bunt to load the bases with no outs. Mazon was able to send down the next two Oregon hitters, Ariel Carlson and Vallery Wong, without surrendering a run.
With two outs, head coach Melyssa Lombardi turned to senior Maddie Hopper in hopes that she could clutch up with the bases loaded. Hopper was able to work the count full, but Mazon got the last laugh striking out Hopper and ending the Oregon rally.
The bottom of the fourth for the Beavers looked the same. A single, a walk and an error loaded the bases for the Beavers with two outs. Freshman Madison Simon was due up next for OSU but instead, like Oregon, OSU head coach Laura Berg turned to senior Fallon Molnar to pinch-hit.
Yanez got Folnar to strike out looking with the bases loaded to kill the Beaver two-out rally and maintain the 1-0 edge.
Mazon and Yanez traded scoreless frames in the fifth and sixth inning, surrendering no hits in the process and growing their strikeout totals to seven and 13 respectively.
Oregon was able to add an insurance run in the seventh. After a Cruse one-out walk, Terra McGowan and Mya Felder each singled up the middle to grow the lead to 2-0. Mazon finished the day on the mound with seven innings, five hits, two runs and nine strikeouts, taming the red-hot Oregon offense.
Yanez gave up a leadoff single to Grace Messmer in the seventh. The hit marked the first and only on the day by the Beavers by someone not named Mariah Mazon. Even with the leadoff single, Yanez sent down the next three OSU batters to finish off the complete game shutout in which she struck out 15 Beavers.
With the 2-0 victory, Oregon improves to 24-1 on the season. They’ll look to continue their early-season dominance against the Beavers on Friday at 2 p.m.
