It had been six years to the day since the No. 12 Oregon softball team defeated national powerhouse UCLA, but the Ducks overcame a 15-game losing streak against the Bruins to claim the first game of the series, 6-5, Thursday night at Howe Field.

With the win, Oregon improved to 38-13 on the year and secured its 10^th Pacific-10 Conference win of the season for the first time since 2005. With one more victory in either tonight’s 6 p.m. matchup or Saturday afternoon’s game, the Ducks will have a chance to seal their fourth-consecutive Pac-10 series win. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4377&SPID=245&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205150181&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
Oregon sophomore Kaylan Howard provided the game’s biggest highlight in the bottom of the second when she connected on the second grand slam of her career, and fourth home run of the season, down the left field line.
Alexa Peterson, Kailee Cuico, and Courtney Ceo each singled to load the bases, and after Kelsey Chambers struck out for the second out of the inning, Howard jumped all over the first pitch she saw to break the game open 6-0.
“Very good way to start off the weekend,” Howard said. “Especially after last year, which was my first year playing them, and just not having a great run and getting swept. We were all extremely excited to play them.”
A scary moment followed in the top of the fourth when junior Dani Yudin was hit in the head with fastball to open the inning. Yudin instantly went down grasping the back of her head, and laid motionless as the Eugene Fire Department arrived several minutes later. Yudin was conscious and stabilized, then carted off the field in an ambulance and taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend. The status of her injury was unknown at the time of this publication.
“Hopefully Dani Yudin is OK, (and) there’s nothing serious there,” Oregon coach Mike White said. “Our prayers and our thoughts go out to her and her family. So hopefully everything is good there.”
Moore (21-8) quickly ran into trouble after the delay, with a wild pitch that scored Yudin’s pinch runner Katie Schroeder and a two-out, three-run home run off the bat of B.B. Bates, which scored Jessica Hall and GiOnna DiSalvatore to bring the score to 6-5. @@Name is written correctly. Yes, it is really odd@@
The Sutter, Calif., native settled down in the fifth, where she struck out the side for the second time in the game, and finished with a Pac-10 season high 11 strikeouts on the night. Moore also walked four, gave up eight hits, and all five UCLA runs were earned.
“I’ve been out there in the middle and you know (it’s) certainly not something she wanted to do and it got away from her,” White said of Moore’s fifth-inning return. “You can do nothing but feel some sort of regret or something inside. Either you let down a little bit and you lose your edge a little bit, and that’s what we’re concerned about, and I think that did happen in that inning when they scored the runs.”
Oregon wasted no time getting on the board early, however, when Ceo led off with an infield single that bounced over the head DiSalvatore at third, and then stole second base on the ensuing pitch. Junior Kelsey Chambers laid down a sacrifice bunt on the next at-bat, but DiSalvatore made an errant throw to first base that scored Ceo.
DiSalvatore continued her rough inning moments later with a fielding error, which scored Howard, who singled earlier in the inning. Pinch runner Allie Burger was caught in a pickle to end the Oregon surge.
Moore retired the side in order in the top of the seventh, with Schroeder grounding out to end the game.
Despite the six early runs, UCLA starter Donna Kerr (12-8 ) had a strong night in the circle, where she struck out eight, walked none, and allowed five earned runs.
The Ducks and Bruins will return to action for game two tonight at 6 p.m. @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=245&SPSID=4374@@