Collegiate softball is a game of pitching.
While the rest of the sport obviously comes into play, if a team has a dominant pitcher — like Arizona’s 32-1 Alicia Hollowell — she can run an entire season.
In 2003, Amy Harris, the freshman pitcher who was a standout at North Eugene High School, ran Oregon’s show from the circle. She started 35 of Oregon’s 56 games during the season and pitched 188 total innings. Oregon’s No. 2 pitcher, Anissa Meashintubby, threw just 99 innings in 2003.
After an injury to her pitching hand kept Harris out of fall practices and delayed her return in
preseason tournaments, junior transfer Ani Nyhus stepped into the role of Oregon ace with early-season dominance.
Now Nyhus has been the Ducks’ (34-12 overall, 8-4 Pacific-10 Conference) go-to pitcher, with 141.2 innings pitched, and Harris and Meashintubby are behind her with 72.2 and 80 innings pitched, respectively.
Sunday’s 1-0 victory against No. 1 Arizona was Harris’ day to shine, however. The sophomore returned to her freshman form, pitching 5.2 scoreless innings against a team that is No. 2 in the nation for runs per game. Harris struck out five batters and allowed three hits.
“It felt great (to be pitching),” Harris said Sunday. “Especially today, to have this many people here and to have my family and friends watching. Just to come out, no nerves, and beat the No. 1 team in the nation. You can’t ask for anything else.”
After Harris allowed two runners on base in the sixth, Nyhus entered the game in relief.
“It was more of a situational change that they made than that Amy came out,” Nyhus said Sunday. “That girl could have gone 14 innings, she was throwing so well. Amy pitched incredible for us today.”
That opinion was the consensus among teammates and coaches, who were happy to see Harris return to form.
“I thought Amy Harris was spectacular,” Oregon head coach Kathy Arendsen said Sunday. “Maybe her best game as a Duck. She threw 97 pitches.
“I would have loved Amy to get that win,” Arendsen continued. “She deserved it.”

Rare victory
The biggest thing that Oregon showed the Pac-10 with its 1-0 victory against No. 1 Arizona is that no school in the nation’s top conference is unbeatable.
“This is huge,” Nyhus said. “We’ve beat every team in the Pac-10 now, and I think — along with coming out of (the Pac-10 season) ready to go to regionals and the world series — that was one of the goals for everyone.”
Against the Wildcats, Oregon is now 9-64 all-time, including the split Saturday and Sunday.

Winning again
Arendsen and the Ducks are three victories shy of matching last season’s total of 37. With two more Pac-10 wins, Oregon will match last season’s 10-win conference record and earn double-digit Pac-10 victories for the seventh time in conference history.
Oregon’s top Pac-10 record is its 13-7 campaign in 1989. The Ducks finished 54-18 that season, the only year that Oregon has participated in the Women’s College World Series.

Small step from a big win
After a 2-1 weekend that included a victory against No. 1 Arizona, the Ducks moved from No. 12 to No. 11 in the NFCA/USA Softball poll released Tuesday.
Around the Pac-10, most schools either kept their ranking from the previous week or shifted only one or two spots in the poll.
Arizona stayed at No. 1 with all 20 first-place votes. No. 4 UCLA and No. 5 California kept their rankings, while No. 7 Stanford moved up one spot and No. 8 Washington fell two places. The Ducks are not far behind Washington, with 40 points separating the country’s No. 8 and No. 11 programs.
Oregon State stayed at No. 16 and Arizona State, the only Pac-10 program not ranked in the top 25, did not receive any votes.