No. 11 Oregon softball completes sweep of Cal, finishes regular season 3rd in Pac-12
Updated May 15, 2021;
Oregon softball completed a sweep of Cal and, thanks to an assist from UCLA, finishes in third place in the Pac-12.
Rachel Cid capped her hot weekend by going 2 for 3 with an RBI and Brooke Yanez, Samaria Diaz and Raegan Breedlove combined to allow a run on four hits and two walks in a 3-1 win for the No. 11 Ducks to complete the sweep in Berkeley on Saturday afternoon.
Oregon (37-15, 14-10 Pac-12), which completed its first Pac-12 road sweep since May 2018, also at Cal, jumped both Arizona State and Arizona on the final day of the regular season.
No. 11 Oregon softball sweeps doubleheader with Cal
Updated May 15, 2021;
Oregon softball will enter the final day of the regular season with a chance to slingshot up to third place in the Pac-12.
The No. 11 Ducks swept a doubleheader at Cal Friday afternoon in Berkeley thanks in large part to Rachel Cid, who went a combined 5 for 6 with four RBIs and three runs scored across a 4-1 win in the opener and 9-4 UO win in the nonconference game.
With UCLA’s win over Arizona, Oregon will play Saturday’s series finale for a chance to move past Arizona State for fourth place with a win and if the Bruins complete the sweep of the Wildcats then the Ducks will move to third place based on win percentage.
Jessie Harper hit a historic two-run homer and
Alyssa Denham threw a six-hit shutout as No. 7 Arizona blanked No. 12 Oregon 2-0 on Sunday in Eugene to salvage a four-game split.
The Wildcats won the final two games of the series after dropping the first two in disheartening fashion. They now enter the final week of the regular season in a much more reasonable spot, likely needing a couple wins against No. 2 UCLA to secure a coveted top-8 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“We were grinding and pressing a little bit,” head coach
Mike Candrea said on the Pac-12 Network. “It felt like we had a hole in our bat, but they hang in there. That’s one thing about this group they keep plugging away and keep trying to make adjustments and every day is a new day.”
Arizona softball bounces back to beat Oregon in second game of Saturday doubleheader
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Photo courtesy Arizona Athletics
With the seniors struggling at the plate, a pair of freshmen sparked Arizona’s offense in what felt like a must-win game.
Carlie Scupin and
Allie Skaggs came through with clutch go-ahead hits as the No. 7 Wildcats rallied to beat No. 12 Oregon 4-3 in the third game of the four-game series after dropping the first two.
Scupin drove in two runs in the sixth with a long single to left, an inning after Skaggs pinch hit for a struggling
Reyna Carranco and punched a two-run homer to right to put Arizona up 2-1.
No. 12 Oregon softball drops series finale to No. 7 Arizona
Updated May 10, 2021;
EUGENE The margin for error between Oregon and Arizona was razor thin all weekend and Sunday was no different.
Neither team got a hit with runners in scoring position and each stranded eight in the process, but a single on a 1-2 pitch followed by a two-run home run by Jesse Harper on an 0-2 pitch from Samaria Diaz is all that decided a 2-0 loss for the No. 12 Ducks to the No. 7 Wildcats in their series finale at Jane Sanders Stadium.
They were two of four hits and two walks allowed by Diaz over 2.1 innings and Brooke Yanez allowed just three hits and struck out four over 4.2 scoreless innings of relief to keep UO in it.