Oregon Diamond Ducks: Baseball Falters, Softball Shines

The Oregon Diamond Ducks are on distinctly different trajectories. While baseball appears to be trying (unsuccessfully) to salvage their season, the softball team is looking like a regional host.

Baseball -

Ducks baseball played an underwhelming outing in Berkeley, losing to the California Golden Bears, 6-8. Oregon has now dropped the last three of four games played.

Logan Mercado took the start, vs. Paulshawn Pasqualott for the Bears. The first inning was quiet, and then problems emerged in the second inning, with Mercado have control issues with his pitching. After a Bears single, Mercado began walking batters, and with a bases-loaded situation a double turned into three RBIs.

A quiet third inning lead to Oregon getting on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth. Sabin Ceballos knocked a single to the right side and Bennett Thompson was hit by a pitch, putting two runners on base. Anson Aroz - in the first start of his college career - brought them home with a single to right field.

The Ducks were down by one, 2-3. They would have a higher hill to climb after Mercado walked three batters, followed by this double that sent them home:

Leo Uelmen relieved Mercado, performed well in pitching for a bit over two innings. He had no walks with three strikeouts.

After a quiet fifth inning, Oregon’s bats came to life. The Ducks went through the order en route to a four-run sixth, that coincidentally tied the score at 6-6. It started with an Aroz home run that scored two.

The Ducks scored two additional runs, but missed the opportunity to score more when they ended the top of the inning with the bases loaded.

The offense on both sides brought nothing until the bottom of the seventh inning, when Grayson Grinsell gave up the two-run homer to bring us to the final score of 6-8.

Oregon did not respond, and that was the ball game.

The Ducks, oddly enough, picked up the majority of its production from the bottom part of the order. The bats were lead by Anson Aroz, who had an outstanding first start of his college ball, going 2-3 with three RBIs.

Oregon’s pitching is continuing to falter, so it’s likely that the Ducks offense will have to get runs on the board if Oregon is to avoid the series loss on Sunday.

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Softball -

The win on Saturday was a series win for the Oregon Ducks, who were hosting the Arizona Wildcats. The 8-3 final score was the eighth win in a row for the Ducks.

Stevie Hansen took the circle and pitched well until the fifth inning, getting the hook after giving up a run, which brought Reagan Breedlove to the circle.

Hansen and Breedlove had some cushion in the fifth, after the Ducks put four on the board in the bottom of the 4th. Oregon picked up their runs exclusively off singles and one double.

The Wildcats scored three in the fifth inning to close the Ducks advantage to just 4-3.

Breedlove pitched through the sixth inning, and Oregon brought out Morgan Scott to close the game. Arizona’s three runs in the fifth would be all that the Wildcats could muster.

The Ducks matched Arizona’s runs with three of their own in the bottom of the fifth, pushing the score to 7-3.

Oregon padded their lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, and brought us to the final score of 8-3.

Stevie Hansen picked up the win, and her record is now 17-4. Ariel Carlson was the batting leader, going 2-4 with three RBIs.

This is what Carlson had to say after her outstanding performance on Saturday:

Head coach Melyssa Lombardi offered this after the game:

Oregon softball plays on Sunday for the sweep, then plays a midweek OOC game against the Pacific Tigers.