Amid the emotions of Senior Day and the expectation of Sunday’s announcement of Oregon’s NCAA Regional Tournament destination, the No. 12 Ducks closed their regular season at home with a 1-2 weekend to stumble their way into an NCAA Regional No. 2 seed.
Oregon (38-19 overall, 10-11 Pacific-10 Conference) opened its weekend on a high note Friday with a 1-0 win against No. 7 Stanford before dropping Saturday’s doubleheader, 3-1 and 5-2, to No. 3 California at Howe Field. It is the 15th consecutive season that Oregon has failed to achieve a better-than-.500 conference record.
Friday’s win was typical of a Pac-10 game — a pitchers’ duel decided by few hits and fewer runs. In the second inning, both the Cardinal and the Ducks stranded two runners on base. Stanford saw just two more baserunners the entire game.
Oregon catcher Jenn Poore stopped the first sparks of a Cardinal rally in the fifth inning. After Stanford second baseman Meghan Sickler hit a double with two outs, Poore caught Sickler off base and fired to Oregon shortstop Breanne
Sabol to end the inning. First baseman Beth Boskovich helped out Poore in the sixth,
backing her up on a foul popup. The ball bounced off Poore’s glove and right into Boskovich’s waiting mitt.
“Our defense was extraordinary, maybe
the key to the game,” Oregon head coach
Kathy Arendsen said. “That’s what we do best — we’re a team. We played like that today
and it showed.”
The Ducks scored their only run in the bottom of the sixth inning. With two outs, center fielder Suzie Barnes dropped a single right in front of Stanford left fielder Jackie Rinehart. Barnes scored when Poore lined a double off the right-field wall. It bounced back into shallow right field, past Stanford’s outfielders.
Junior Ani Nyhus won the battle of the hurlers, giving up three hits and striking out four for her ninth shutout of the season.
“It feels a lot better than it did last weekend,” Nyhus said. “We were excited to get one run across the board and my (team’s) defense today was impeccable.”
The win against Stanford gave the Ducks their third and final series win against a Pac-10 opponent. Oregon also won a series against No. 8 Washington and No. 18 Oregon State.
Saturday’s losses to California dropped
Oregon to 10-11 in Pac-10 play. Oregon was held to one hit in the 3-1 loss in the first game before getting five hits in a 5-2 loss.
“We didn’t play up to our level and that’s just frustrating in itself, no matter if it’s our last weekend or not,” Poore said. “We didn’t get our bats going.”
All four Oregon pitchers — Nyhus, sophomore Amy Harris, senior Anissa Meashintubby and junior Lindsey Kontra — saw action on the same day for the first time during the Pac-10 season.
Meashintubby started the first game, allowing one run on five hits before Harris relieved her to start the fifth. Harris allowed two runs on three hits before she left the game after California right fielder Kristen Bayless lined a base-hit off of the pitcher’s leg.
Kontra came in and allowed the bases to load before third baseman Ashley Richards dove to catch a foul popup to end the top of the seventh.
Oregon’s lone run in the first game came on a squeeze play with the bases loaded and one out. Sabol laid down a bunt toward first base to score Boskovich. The Ducks didn’t get their only hit until Richards cracked a double in the sixth.
In the second game, Nyhus gave up four runs and eight hits in 2 2/3 innings before Kontra relieved her. Kontra, who had pitched just three innings in conference play this season, threw 4 1/3 innings and allowed just one run on six hits.
The Ducks scored both their runs in the third. Boskovich, back at designated player to end the weekend, hit a lead-off home run for the first run. Second baseman Erin Goodell followed with a double and scored on a double to left-center field by right fielder Dani Baird.
It was the final weekend at Howe for four Oregon players — seniors Julie Jaime, Meashintubby, Poore and junior Heather Munson.