Softball is unexpectedly blasted by Cal

Kicking off a series with the California Golden Bears at Jane Sanders Stadium on a clear Friday night, Oregon softball started strong but wilted as the game progressed in losing 11-2.

The Ducks scored first to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning off of a steal by Hannah Delgado. Oregon had a golden opportunity to extend the lead in the second but left the bases loaded.

Then suddenly, in the fifth and sixth innings, Cal exploded.

The Bears compiled five runs in the fifth and six in the sixth to take a commanding 11-1 lead. Oregon added one more run in the bottom of the sixth but that was it for their offensive output.

The lopsided loss comes as a surprise for a team that had won 14 of their last 15 games coming in and hadn’t lost a game by any more than three runs all season. Fortunately, the Ducks will quickly get a chance to rebound as they host the second game of the series on Saturday afternoon, then conclude with a matane on Sunday.

After dropping the first game in their conference-opening series with Utah, Oregon stormed back to take the remaining two and win the series. Hopefully, they can produce a similar result this weekend.

Next week the Ducks will be heading down to Los Angeles for a series with the No.3 UCLA Bruins, and could use all the momentum they can get.

On the positive side of things, Allee Bunker singled in the second inning to extend her personal hitting streak to 17 games, marking the longest stretch since Courtney Ceo compiled a 19-game streak with at least one hit back in 2015.