Campus Roundup: Mariasu defeats Twifo in spring game, baseball gets back in win column

Baseball

The Ducks rebounded from a rough weekend in Corvallis, starting with a 6-1 win over Arizona on Friday night. Oregon catcher Shaun Chase led the way with two home runs on the night. His first home run in the fifth inning broke a scoreless tie to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead. Chase then sent another one over the fence in the bottom of the eighth, the first multi-homer game for Oregon since Ryon Healy hit a pair of round-trippers last season as the Ducks would go on to win the series opener 6-1.

Oregon came from behind on Saturday, putting together a four-run rally in the seventh to force the game into extra innings. The rally came courtesy of a two-run triple from Kyle Garlick and a two-run home run from Steven Packard. The spark of offense stretched the game to extras, where Austin Grebeck delivered a game-winning single to lift Oregon to a 7-6 win over the Wildcats.

Oregon goes for the sweep against Arizona today at PK Park, with first pitch slated for 4:00 pm. Brando Tessar (3-0, 2.61) gets the start for the Ducks while Tyger Talley (1-1, 4.15) will start for the Wildcats.

Football

The Ducks held their annual spring game on Saturday as Team Mariasu came away with a 27-7 win over Team Twifo. As expected, Marcus Mariota saw limited action, exiting after three drives. During his brief time on the field, Mariota threw two touchdown passes, including a 45-yarder to Devon Allen, who would later haul in a 49-yard touchdown pass as time expired. Allen, a sprinter and hurdler on the Oregon track team, has been making a lot of noise in spring practices for the Ducks, and that carried over to the field on Saturday.

Many eyes were on the backup quarterback's as Oregon has never really established a true backup to Mariota. Jake Rodrigues completed 7 of 18 passes for 66 yards with one interception while Jeff Lockie completed 7 of 12 passes for 121 yards and one touchdown.

For more insight on the spring game and some takeaways, check out Jake Tabor's recap.

Lacrosse

Oregon opened the MPSF Tournament on Thursday with a clutch 7-6 win over USC. Carly O'Connell delivered a hat trick for the Ducks while senior goaltender Caroline Federighi provided a season-high 12 saves for Oregon, shutting out the Trojans in the final 12:09 of the game. Nikki Puszcz provided the game-winning goal for the Ducks with just 1:52 to go as Oregon improved to 6-3 all-time in their opening MPSF Tournament matches.

Unfortunately, the Ducks season would come to an end on Saturday as Oregon fell to No. 1 seed Denver in a 19-8 loss. Sami Kiser led Oregon with her fifth-career hat trick, but Denver's offense was simply too much for the Ducks to compete with. The Pioneers opened the game with eight unanswered goals, holding the Ducks scoreless for the first 20 minutes until Nikki Puszcz broke the shutout with Oregon's first goal of the game. Oregon would never come within any closer than six goals while Denver closed out the game with a 4-1 scoring run. Denver will now advance to the MPSF Championship today against Stanford.

Softball

Oregon saw their 12-game winning streak come to an end on Friday in a 4-2 loss to No. 3 Arizona State. The Ducks committed three errors in the sixth inning, and the Sun Devils capitalized with three runs to become the first team to beat Oregon since UCLA did so back on April 6. Oregon starter Cherridan Hawkins did all she could to keep her team in the game, striking out 10 batters in 6 2/3 innings. Hawkins' 10 strikeouts also broke Oregon's single season record of 256, previously set by Jessica Moore. Hawkins now has 261 strikeouts in 188 innings pitched this year.

The Ducks rebounded on Saturday with a 12-2 run rule win over Arizona State. The win was the third time Oregon has run-ruled a top 5 opponent this season with earlier wins over Washington and UCLA. The Sun Devils had not been run-ruled since 2010. Karissa Hovinga improved to 15-1 on the year, giving up just two unearned runs on three hits in six innings. Oregon quickly took total control, scoring nine runs on eight hits in the second inning to cruise to the win.

The rubber match of the series is today at Howe Field with first pitch at 2:00 pm. The game will be Oregon's final home game of the regular season before they head to the desert against Arizona for the final series before NCAA regionals begin on May 15.

Track & Field

After a cross-country trip to the Penn Relays, Oregon's meet this weekend was a little closer to home at the OSU High Performance Meet in Corvallis. Laura Bobek delivered a personal record throw of 177-10 (54.20m), moving up to third on Oregon's all-time list. Brittany Mann won the shot put with a throw of 51-1.75 (15.59m). In other field events, Chauncey Summers won the high jump (5-8.75/1.75m) while Sammie Clark came away with the win in the pole vault (13-3.50/4.05m). Brett Johnson delivered a season-best time of 3:44.73 to win the 1500 while Alec Smith led the collegiate field in the 800 with a personal-best time of 1:49.73. Ben Thiel came away with the win in the 400m hurdles with a time of 53.86 seconds while Cole Walsh picked up another win for the Ducks with a jump of 16-2.75 (4.95m) in the pole vault.

Oregon will also have a group of runners at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford today, a meet heavy with professional talent across the board.