Diamond Ducks Cruise Past Game One

Oregon Ducks baseball and softball opened their Pac-12 series with wins behind plenty of offensive firepower, even as they rolled their opponents differently.

Softball -

Oregon softball traveled to the Bay Area for a series against the California Golden Bears, with the Ducks sitting in third place in conference play and the Bears in sixth place. Oregon’s nine runs came mostly from small ball effort, with only one solo home run contributing to the final score.

Morgan Scott gave herself a great birthday present and pitched another complete game opening win. Scotty had only one run off nine Cal hits, with two Ks and no walks.

Oregon scored in each of the first four innings, and California’s inability to bring runners home (the Bears left nine on base today) proved costly.

The Ducks’ first run was made possible by a Kai Luschar single that turned into her ending up on third because of a Cal error.

Allee Bunker hit a sacrifice ground out that scored Luschar, and Oregon’s first run.

Bunker made some noise again in the second inning, capping the four-run effort with a two-run double.

Terra McGowan’s sacrifice fly to follow put the Ducks up 5-0.

The lone run for the Bears came in the bottom of the second inning, and that’s all they would be able to generate.

KK Humphreys increased the Oregon lead to 6-1 with a solo home run in the third inning.

The rest of Oregon’s runs were icing on the cake, and the game was only a question of whether the Ducks could run rule Cal into an early end of the game. They ultimately could not, but still won going away.

When a softball pitcher has nine hits and one run, that likely means their defense has been active, and that was the case in this game. Check out these great catches by Hannah Delgado in the fifth and seventh innings:

Oregon took the first series game from Cal by the final score of 9-1.

Allee Bunker was a scoring demon today, going 3-4 with four RBIs.

Coach Melyssa Lombardi had these comments after the game:

Oregon softball now sports an 11-game win streak. Their last 11-game win streak was last season, but the context is completely different; last season’s streak came early, in non-conference play, whereas this streak is at the end of the season in the heat of Pac-12 play.

The Ducks will try to make it 12 in a row when they go for the series win on Saturday. Watch the game on split-screen, because it starts at the same time as the Spring Game, at 1:00 pm PT.

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Baseball -

Oregon baseball enters a crucial home stand against Arizona State. The Sun Devils were atop the Pac-12 standings before this game, and with the loss have fallen to second place, with the Ducks pulling up into third place.

Jace Stoffal got the Friday start again, and overall pitched very well against #12 ASU. Stoffal would pitch 6.2 innings, and when he was relieved the Ducks sported a comfortable 9-2 advantage.

Drew Cowley opening up the scoring in the first inning with this solo home run:

The teams went scoreless in the second inning, and then in the top of the third the Sun Devils tied the game, 1-1.

In the bottom of the third it was Colby Shade’s turn to go yard.

The top of the fourth inning ended with a very unusual double play by the Ducks, one that has to be seen to be believed:

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Oregon unloaded for seven runs, including this Drew Cowley grand slam.

After a scoreless fifth inning, the Sun Devils scored a run in the sixth and Oregon answered in the bottom to make the score 10-2. Colby Shade added another RBI with this double:

In the seventh, Joe Walsh launched a solo homer to give the Ducks 11 runs.

The Sun Devils scored three more runs in the late innings, but it was never going to be enough, and Oregon gets the opening win by the score of 11-5.

Jace Stoffal (6-2) won another Friday start, and this one is especially impressive given the batting talent of Arizona State.

Drew Cowley went 2-5, and both of his hits were long ball shots that scored five RBIs. Rikuu Nishida and Colby Shade both brought home two across the plate.

Saturday’s game against the Sun Devils is a 3:05 pm PT, and will be starting as the Spring Game wraps up. It will be a sellout, so you can watch the game on Oregon Live Stream.