The Oregon softball team closed its season on a good note Saturday with a 4-0 win over No. 8 Stanford.
Before their final game victory in the second game of a doubleheader that improved their record to 24-30 overall and 2-19 in the Pacific-10 Conference, the Ducks dropped Game 1, 10-1, to Stanford (43-18 overall, 7-14 Pac-10) and a 3-2 contest to No. 5 California (48-19, 12-9 Pac-10) on the road Friday.
“This is an amazing testament to this team,” Oregon head coach Brent Rincon said. “They truly never gave up and were always ready to come out and win. They just were not going to be denied in the second game.”
In her final collegiate pitching performance, senior Connie McMurren threw a gem against the Cardinal. Allowing just four hits while striking out two, McMurren threw her 12th career shutout — placing her fourth all-time at Oregon. McMurren finished her career with 439 strikeouts.
Oregon scored its first run in the second when Rachel Tommasini drove in Lakeesha Eversley with a sacrifice fly. Eversley knocked in the Ducks’ second run in the fifth with a single that scored Lynsey Haij.
In the seventh, Mari Lyn Petrick smacked a two-run double to center, putting Oregon ahead 4-0.
Oregon’s lone run in Game 1 of the twin bill was a solo home run from Andrea Vidlund in the fourth inning.
In Friday’s game at California’s Levine-Fricke Field, Oregon charged out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning but could not tally another run in the last six frames. Alyssa Laux led off the game with a double to left-center and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Vidlund followed with a successful squeeze bunt to score Laux. After Cal freshman pitcher Kelly Anderson walked the next two batters, Ashley Richards lofted a single to left that scored Vidlund. Anderson struck out Janell Bergstrom and got Erin Goodell to ground out, ending the Oregon threat.
“This is a game that we should have won,” Rincon said. “It wasn’t a matter of them taking it away from us, it was a matter of us getting a little flat after we had the lead.”
In the home-half of the fourth, California’s Candace Harper led off with a homer to right center off of McMurren. With one out, freshman Jessica Pamanian blasted a two-run homer to left that gave the Bears the 3-2 lead. Anissa Meashintubby relieved McMurren for the final two and two thirds innings and shut down the California offense striking out four.
The Bears’ relief was also outstanding as Cassie Bobrow pitched the final four and a third innings to record the win.