Oregon softball salvages weekend series with two wins over Cal
Melyssa Lombardi was forced to watch from the couch as her Oregon softball team dug deep to salvage a weekend series against Cal.
Lombardi missed Oregon’s Pac-12 home opener after testing positive for COVID-19, and she couldn’t have been too pleased with what she saw Friday when the Ducks were blown out by a team they had beaten in 21 of their last 23 meetings.
Oregon fell behind early in each of the next two games but rallied to win both, capped by an 8-7 comeback victory Sunday at Jane Sanders Stadium to improve to 24-5 overall and 4-2 in Pac-12 play.
“I’m just so proud of our group. It’s tough to play a game like we did in game one and to come back and take a series in the Pac-12,” said associate coach Sam Marder, who took over in Lombardi’s absence. “I’m so proud of how they continued to fight and how they weren’t afraid to look at our mistakes and to look at where we’re going to make adjustments."
Sunday’s result capped an up-and-down weekend for the 12th-ranked Ducks, who dropped the opener in a run-rule loss Friday but rebounded with an 8-6 victory on Saturday.
The series opener was close until Cal blew things open with five runs in the fifth inning and six more in the sixth, capping an 11-2 victory.
Oregon faced an early deficit Saturday but rallied for a win to even the series. Acacia Anders and Sona Halajian hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning to give Cal a 2-0 lead before the Ducks answered in the bottom half of the inning with a two-run single by Ariel Carlson and an RBI single by Vallery Wong.
Allee Bunker went 2-for-2 with an RBI double and two runs scored, Kai Luschar scored twice and Hanna Delgado was 1-for-2 with a run scored, extending her hitting streak to 14 games.
Stevie Hansen got the win in the circle, leaving after four innings and then returning to retire the final five batters of the game after Cal scored three runs in the sixth to cut the Ducks’ lead to 7-6.
“To our players’ credit we didn’t shy away from re-looking at that game,” Marder said of Friday’s loss. “This team continues to learn from what they’ve done and continues to fight.”
The Ducks found themselves playing from behind once again Sunday after Halajian launched a three-run homer in the top of the first. Oregon tied things up with two runs in the fifth on an RBI groundout by Delgado and a sacrifice fly by Carlson, and the Ducks took the lead for good with a four-run flurry in the sixth, punctuated by an RBI double from Gabby Herrera and a two-run single from Luschar.
“In those situations, you’ve got to bet on yourself. The game presents so many stressful moments … you have a choice of whether you’re going to feed the fear and the stress of it or if you’re just going to bet on yourself and feed into that,” Marder said. “You can’t fake having belief that you can come back.”
There were a few nervy moments in the seventh inning after Cal cut the lead to 8-7 on Hope Alley’s two-out RBI single, but Jordan Dail came on in relief and recorded the final out of the game with the bases loaded.
“We challenged our players to raise their intensity and I think that starts with us as coaches,” Marder said. “I think it’s OK to show (emotion). I was really proud of them. To come back from what we came back from (on Friday), I want them to feel me and feel how in it we are with them.”
The Ducks return to action next weekend with three games on the road against UCLA.
Follow Zack Palmer on Twitter @zpalmer_11 or email at zpalmer@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Ducks salvage Pac-12 series with two wins over Golden Bears