Softball: Ducks steal rubber match with Baylor, win series

After losing the first of a double-header against the Baylor Bears 0-3 on Friday, Oregon softball claimed the second game that day by a score of 8-4 as their batting found its rhythm.

On Saturday the Ducks won the series two games-to-one by running past Baylor 10-4 with a red-hot seven runs scored in the seventh inning.

Oregon took the lead early with a 1-0 score in the first inning off of a single by Alle Bunker, then added two more runs in the third inning as Paige Sinicki got home off of a bad throw by the shortstop and a double by KK Humphreys drove Bunker in for a 3-0 lead.

Baylor added a run of their own in the bottom of the third and scored twice more in the sixth to knot the game at 3-3.

But in the seventh, the Ducks went off.

Sinicki and Rachel Sid were both hit by pitches to help put players on base. Singles by Humphreys, Hanna Delgado and Vallery Wong all drove in scores, and Cid scored off a wild pitch. Baylor used three different pitchers in the inning to try and stymie Oregon’s momentum, but it made no difference as the Ducks broke the game wide open.

Jordan Dail was brought in for relief pitching for Oregon, and she closed the game out to improve her personal record to 4-0.

The win put the Ducks at 8-1 for the season, with the series-opening loss to the Bears being the only loss on Oregon’s resume so far.

This week, Oregon will head to Cathedral City, CA for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, in which they will face a whole new slew of nonconference opponents, beginning with a double-header on Friday against Northwestern and Missouri.