With Maddie MacGrandle pitching and Oregon down 10-2 in the fifth inning, Washington added insult to injury when Kaija Gibson hit a grand slam to right center field. It was the fifth homer of the day for the Huskies and the 14th hit of the game.
Though Washington ranks last in the Pac-12 in slugging percentage, you wouldn’t know it from the win against Oregon. The Huskies (24-6, 2-3 Pac-12) hit five home runs to beat Oregon (11-15, 0-5 Pac-12) 14-2, run ruled the Ducks and extended their losing streak to eleven games. Morganne Flores finished with two homers for four RBIs.
Even though the power hitting was a key factor in the win for the Huskies, their greatest asset might just be the starting rotation. Gabbie Plain (10-1) threw two consecutive no-hitters earlier this season, the only Husky ever to do so. She is second in the nation with her 1.13 ERA, while teammate Tara Alvelo leads the Pac-12 with 132 strikeouts. She was solid today, only surrendering three hits and one walk to go along with seven strikeouts through five innings.
Oregon’s pitching is in a tough spot. Neither MacGrandle nor Kailey Krueger look comfortable, and Jordan Dail cannot pitch deep every game. The defense behind is young but has been solid, which is fortunate because of the lack of pitching depth. The Ducks lead the conference in fielding percentage at .979, and they don’t commit many errors, with 10 through the first 21 games.
Even with the solid defense, Oregon is still letting up a lot of runs. The Ducks have allowed 119 runs, while Washington has allowed 60. Utecht made a critical mistake in the third inning to set up Washington’s two runs.
She made a great effort to field the ball on the first base side on a bunt from Taryn Atlee, but didn’t recover fast enough to throw out Sami Reynolds, who scored from third base. Before Utecht could throw to first instead, Atlee had already crossed the plate. Gibson promptly doubled to right center, bringing home Atlee to make take a 2-0 lead.
The following inning Washington sent back-to-back homers into right field. Morganne Flores launched a two-run shot, then Reynolds hit a solo homer close to the right field foul line, but it gave the Huskies a 6-0 lead.
When Krueger replaced MacGrandle after the homers, she immediately hit Noelle Hee with a pitch. Krueger gave up two more consecutive home runs in the fifth inning. With one out, Amirah Milloy hit a two-run shot to right field, then Flores hit her second homer into the center field bleachers to extend the lead 10-2.
Oregon got some offense going in the bottom of the fourth when Allee Bunker singled to lead off, then Shaye Bowden tripled to left field to bring in Oregon’s first run of the day. Rachel Cid hit a sacrifice fly into right field, and Bowden slid under Flores’s the tag attempt to make it a 6-2 game.
The Ducks will try to get out of this slump in the series finale tomorrow at 6:00 p.m.
Follow August Howell on Twitter @howell_august
