EUGENE, Ore. — After splitting the first two games on Friday and Saturday, the No. 22 Oregon Ducks took down the No. 9 Washington Huskies in a thrilling 6-4 win on Sunday, giving the Ducks their fourth Pac-12 series victory of the year.
"The Pac is tough," head coach, Melyssa Lombardi said of taking the series against a top-10 opponent and conference rival. "So to come in a get one from a team that's ranked in the top 10... We want to win the Pac, and in order to win the Pac, we've got to go through a team like Washington and find a way to win the series."
"What I was really excited about with our group overall is, if you looked at each game, we got better and better as the series went along, which to me is a really good sign."
Stevie Hansen got the start for the Ducks (22-13, 9-5) and quickly found herself in a hole. After walking the leadoff batter on five pitches, she got two quick outs on a strikeout and a flyout to left. She hadn't escaped the inning yet, and Alana Johnson knew it, sending the first pitch she saw over the left field fence to give the Huskies (26-7, 10-5) an early 2-0 lead.
Hansen walked the next batter but Vallery Wong got her out of the inning by gunning down the runner trying to steal second.
After the Ducks failed to bring home two different runners from third, with Kai Luschar being cut down at the plate and Ariel Carlson getting stranded when Wong struck out to end the inning, Hansen was back on the mound for the second.
She got a quick out on a great play by Alyssa Daniell at first, reaching up to snag a line drive that almost certainly would've been extra bases, but lost control again, walking the next batter before allowing a single to end her day.
"That was a tough catch to make," Daniell said of her incredible play at first. "As a corner [infielder], you're either getting it shot right at your face, or you have to time it up. That one was one that I had to time up so I'm just anticipating it, getting low, and then I just shot up and caught it. I went as far as I could and I was able to get it."
Hansen was relieved by Elise Sokolsky, who had gotten the start on Saturday, allowing four runs on three hits and two walks while striking out three batters in 1.1 innings.
"It really is just a big mindset thing," Sokolsky said of being able to dominate on Sunday after a shaky start the day before. "It's just really being able to come out today and flush whatever happened yesterday 'cause that can't control what I'm gonna do today. So just being able to [keep a] short-term memory and just keep moving on, do whatever the team needs."
She immediately allowed an infield single, with a run coming home to score on a throwing error by second baseman, KK Humphreys. Sokolsky got out of the frame with a lineout to left and a grounder to third, but the damage had already been done, as the Huskies led 3-0.
Oregon put two on in the bottom of the second as Katie Flannery drew a two-out walk on a full count before Humphreys singled through the left side of the infield. On an 0-1 count, Paige Sinicki grounded out to third to end the inning, stranding Flannery and Humphreys.
Sokolsky worked a clean top of the third, negating two base runners by picking up her first strikeout, dotting the corner on a full count to end the inning.
Luschar led off the bottom of the frame with a single to left but was thrown out trying to steal second. Hanna Delgado followed up with a single of her own but got caught in Carlson's fielder's choice before Wong flew out to the warning track to end the third.
Sokolsy continued her excellent pitching through the fourth and fifth innings, pitching two scoreless frames while only allowing a pair of singles that she matched with a pair of strikeouts.
"With the offspeed, they have a hard time tracking that in, especially whenever I'm hitting my corners with my harder pitches," Sokoslky said of the four strikeouts she picked up on Sunday. "So just being able to mix in that changeup in any count is really effective."
Emma Kauf was left stranded after a double in the fourth, but the Ducks offense absolutely went off in the fifth, notching six runs to put them in the lead.
Sinicki led off the inning with a double to the gap in right-center before Luschar reached on an error by the Husky shortstop. Delgado then grounded to second, moving both of the runners over to scoring position for Oregon's best hitter, Ariel Carlson. She battled to reach a 2-2 count but was called out on a controversial pitch-clock violation that resulted in strike three.
With two outs, it looked like the Ducks' rally might end there, but Vallery Wong was hit by the first pitch of the next at-bat, loading the bases. The bats then exploded, as Alyssa Daniell cleared the bases with a double to left-center before coming home to score on Kauf's second double of the day.
"She's my best friend, I get almost protective of her," Daniell said of the pitch-clock violation that ended Carlson's at bat. "So when I saw that happen, I saw her walk off, it just fired me up. I'm like, 'There's no way I'm letting that go.' That at-bat was for Ariel [Carlson], that at-bat was for Val [Wong] who just got hit the next pitch after that. It was for everybody, it just fired me
up."
Katie Flannery then sent her second career homer over the left-field fence, putting the Ducks up 6-3. KK Humphreys worked a full count but went around on a pitch that hit her, ending the fifth on a weird strikeout.
"It was a huge inning, and they were just passing the bat," Lombardi said of her team's explosive sixth inning. "When we pass the bat, that's when really, really good things happen. They just were in the dugout, betting on each other, just knowing that the person up to the plate was gonna come up big, and every time they came up big, they just continued to celebrate and then know the next one was gonna come up big."
Sokolsky came back out for the top of the sixth, quickly picking up her fourth strikeout before allowing a single and a double to put two runners in scoring position and ending her day.
Morgan Scott came in to relieve her, walking the next batter on a full count to load the bases with only one down in the inning. She dialed it back in after that and struck out both of the next two batters on 1-2 counts to end the inning and preserve the Oregon lead.
"I think I was very amped up, even going into it," Scott said of her two strikeouts to end the sixth. "I was trying to get my mindset right, 'cause I try not to get super amped up 'cause obviously, I'm not super emotional out there at all. But, in those kind of moments, that's when I feel like, for me personally, that it's okay to show my emotions."
Sinicki picked up a walk and a steal in the bottom of the frame but was left stranded when the top of the Oregon lineup went down in order.
First baseman, Brooke Nelson, led off the top of the seventh with an extremely close infield single for the Huskies but Scott seemed to recover quickly, forcing a flyout to Luschar in left before striking out the next batter on three pitches for the second out of the inning.
The game wasn't over yet though, as the Huskies then walked and singled to load the bases, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate.
On a 2-1 pitch, Washington's Sydney Stewart lined a ball towards first that Daniell knocked down, but with no one covering the bag, Stewart was able to beat Daniell to the base, driving home a run to cut the Oregon lead to two.
"It was hit very hard," Daniell said. "It kinda like flipped out of my glove. I immediately picked it up and looked for KK [Humphreys], and she wasn't there, so that's when I dove. That was the little hesitation."
Eight pitches later, Scott forced a grounder to short where Sinicki made the play and threw to first, ending the game and securing a series win for the Ducks.
"When she came in, she wasn't gonna be denied," Lombardi said of Scott. "She knew exactly what she wanted and was able to execute it. It was tough, we had bases loaded... I felt it, I knew she was gonna get out of it."
The turning point of the game was the sixth-inning rally, as with two outs against them, the Ducks scored six runs on three hits to take a lead they would never relinquish. After they went 4-10 with two outs on Sunday, it brings their season average to .324, demonstrating the clutch gene that this team seems to find time and time again.
"I mean to do that all in two outs," Lombardi said of the sixth-inning rally. "I feel like that is something that our program has always been known for since I've been here. We've always come up big with two outs."
Oregon heads to Phoenix on Wednesday for a mid-week game against Grand Canyon, followed by a trip to Tucson to visit the Arizona Wildcats (24-12-1, 7-8), who are coming off a series win of their own at Utah this weekend.