Softball: Oregon Oregon State Recap

The Ducks took on the Beavers last night on the softball diamond for the 3rd and final time this season.

The Platypus rivals had been split the first two games of the season series with the Beavers winning at the Jane Sanders classic 5-2 in early March and the Ducks winning in Corvallis 9-1 earlier this month.

Wednesday night’s game in Corvallis served as the rubber match for the season series and the two Oregonian rivals played a hard fought game.

Oregon State struck first in the bottom half of the 1st inning getting to Oregon’s starter, Staci Chambers, early. The Beavers were able to get two runs off of 3 hits and 2 walks to take the early 2-0 lead.

Elise Sokolsky relieved Chambers to get the final out of the 1st inning and then pitched two scoreless innings in the 2nd and 3rd highlighted by two strikeouts in the 3rd.

After a couple of errors by the Beavers, Katie Flannery would get the Ducks on the board in the 4th with an RBI groundout to cut the lead in half.

In the 4th Sokolsky ran into some trouble and the Beavers were able to push their lead back out to 2 again and then load the bases.

But Taylour Spencer came in out of the bullpen to end the threat and keep the lid on this game.

In the 5th Emma Cox would make it a 1 run game again with a single up the middle to score Paige Sinicki.

Spencer would continue her strong outing with a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half of the 5th. For the day Spencer pitched 1 and ²⁄₃ only giving up 1 hit 0 runs and 0 walks while striking out 2. A very impressive outing against a quality opponent. That and a scoreless inning pitched by Lyndsey Grein in the 6th would keep the door open for the Ducks offence in the 7th and final inning.

It was Emma Cox, who has done nothing but deliver clutch hits since returning to the lineup from injury, with another big hit in this game. Bases loaded and nobody out Cox hit an RBI single to score the game tying and go ahead runs to put the Ducks on top for the first time in the game.

Rylee McCoy would add an insurance run with a sac fly and the Ducks would take a 2 run lead into the bottom half of the 7th.

That would be more than enough support for Lyndsey Grein as she shut the door on the Beavers in the 7th to secure both the win and the season series win for the Ducks.

Grein pitched 2 innings in relief holding the Beavers off the board and striking out 5 batters showing she had corrected any potential issue to may have ran into in Minnesota last weekend.

Next up, the Ducks will return home for the biggest weekend series of the Big Ten Schedule when #6 UCLA comes to town.