LOS ANGELES, Cal. — The 21st-ranked Oregon Ducks finally met their match this weekend, dropping a pair of games to the No. 15 UCLA Bruins.
The series was originally scheduled for three games, but Saturday's contest was canceled due to rainy conditions in southern California, preventing the Ducks from getting a chance to capture a win.
Thursday's 5-3 loss snapped the Ducks' five-game win streak and Friday's 6-3 defeat officially gave them their first series loss since the start of conference play.
Morgan Scott got the start for Oregon (20-12, 7-4) in game one and managed a clean first two innings before Maya Brady, the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year, took her deep in the third to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead. The Ducks' first run had come on Paige Sinicki's first home run of the season in the top half of the frame.
Scott surrendered one more run in the third before ending her day after the fourth inning. She allowed three runs on five hits, striking out two while walking one.
In the top of the fourth, freshman infielder Katie Flannery swatted an 0-2 pitch over the right field fence for her first career home run, cutting the Bruin lead to one.
Taylour Spencer came in to replace Scott for the fifth inning. She picked up two swinging strikeouts to negate the baserunner she had allowed on a hit-by-pitch.
Vallery Wong was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth inning for the Ducks and was pinch run for by Regan Legg. After Alyssa Daniell popped up to second for the first out of the inning, Emma Kauf roped a double into the right-center gap, sending Legg to third and allowing her to come home to score the tying run on a throwing error by the Bruins' center fielder.
Despite a runner in scoring position, Oregon wasn't able to take the lead as Flannery flew out to right and Sinicki struck out swinging to end the inning.
Spencer allowed a leadoff single to start the bottom of the sixth and was subsequently replaced by Elise Sokolsky. She walked the next batter on four pitches before a sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position. A single then brought home both runs, giving UCLA (20-8, 6-2) the lead they would need to secure the win after the Ducks went down one-two-three in the seventh.
Game two was over pretty quickly, as UCLA scored all six of their runs in the first four innings. Elise Sokolsky was handed her first loss of the season, allowing two runs on six hits in 1.1 innings.
Oregon picked up their first run in the third when Kai Luschar singled and came around to score on Ariel Carlson's double. Luschar and Carlson were two of four Ducks to record multiple hits on Friday, joined by Katie Flannery and KK Humphreys.
Stevie Hansen came in to relieve Sokolsky in the second inning and was clean through her first 1.2 frames. In the fourth a single, walk, and hit-by-pitch loaded the bases for Megan Grant's grand slam that gave the Bruins a five-run lead.
Oregon added two more runs in the seventh on a pair of RBI singles by Humphreys and Hanna Delgado, but at that point, it was too little too late, as Luschar popped up to third to end the rally and the game.
Oregon struggled with runners in scoring position on Saturday, picking up only two hits in 11 at-bats. The ended up stranding 13 runners on the day.
The Ducks return home next weekend, hosting the No. 8 Washington Huskies for a three-game set from Friday to Sunday. The Huskies sport the second-best record in the Pac-12 right now and are coming off the back of a three-game sweep in Seattle over the Oregon State Beavers.