Not quite the performance that head coach Rick Gamez wanted from his Oregon softball team (23-11) Sunday afternoon.
Not with the Ducks’ first Pacific-10 Conference opponent, No. 2 Arizona, lurking at the end of the week. Not in front of 223 fans in its first home game of the season at Howe Field.
And certainly not against Simon Frazier, a scrappy but overmatched NAIA team.
“The performance was a little lackluster,” Gamez said. “We didn’t play to our capabilities.”
The Ducks — who were playing their 11th game in 10 days — came out flat. And they stayed that way — until nearly the last moment, eventually winning 4-1.
Oregon’s usually explosive offense disappeared for the first five innings, and the Ducks found themselves down one as they went to bat in the bottom of the sixth after Clan pitcher, Kathy Iggulden, hit a solo shot in the fourth.
“When the sixth inning comes around and you’re losing by one, it’s scary,” said senior center fielder Jill Robinson, who came through with a bloop single that drove in the go-ahead run. “Thank God we pulled it out and came up with some clutch hitting — although my hit wasn’t very clutch.”
Actually, it was very clutch, if not pretty.
Amber Hutchinson led off the sixth with a double into left. Then Andrea Gustafson reached safely and Hutchinson advanced to third when second baseman Lindsay Brooks couldn’t handle a hard grounder.
Missy Coe struck out and Robinson stepped up and knuckled a two-strike pitch into shallow left, driving in Hutchinson and Gustafson. And the Ducks suddenly looked like themselves.
Triawn Custer made sure of it, clocking a home run over the right field wall, putting Oregon securely in front.