Diamond Ducks: Baseball and Softball prevail

The PNW, or the whole West Coast for that matter, may not be providing the most ideal conditions for baseball and softball season to get into swing, but there was no dampening of the Ducks on Friday as both baseball and softball pulled out conference-opening wins on Friday.

First, baseball handled 13th ranked UCLA 6-2 to boost their overall record to 9-3 on the season.

It took five different Oregon pitchers but the Ducks were able to hold the Bruins to only four hits and two runs in a game that saw them jump out to a 3-0 lead after Owen Diodati sliced a two run homer in the second inning, scoring Colby Shade as well.

A pair of solo home runs by UCLA in the third and fourth whittled the lead down to one, but Oregon responded with a two-run homer by Jacob Walsh, also scoring Rikuu Nishida, to give them a comfortable cushion they would ride to victory.

In softball, the Oregon ladies rallied for an exciting victory over the loathed Washington Huskies up in Seattle, scoring four runs with two outs in the seventh inning.

The Ducks nabbed the lead in the first off a two-run triple by KK Humphreys, but a pair of homers in the bottom of the inning gave Washington the advantage.

In the fourth Vallery Wong knotted things up again with a two-run homer, but once again the Huskies regained the advantage in the bottom of the inning.

With two outs in the seventh, Allee Bunker hit a single to put two on base, and Wong singled to score the tying run. KK Humphreys then doubled to left for a go-ahead RBI by Wong and an insurance RBI by Bunker, then Ariel Carlson drove in even more with an RBI single of her own scoring Humphreys to go up 8-5.

Morgan Scott came in to close in the bottom of the seventh, striking out the Huskies’ slugger swinging, in between two fly outs.

It was an impressive victory over the 10th ranked Huskies on a night when Oregon Ace Stevie Hansen was pulled after giving up three homers early.