Oregon State wins Civil War baseball series from Oregon with double-play finish

AUSTIN, Texas ? It?s no surprise that the difference for Oregon in its two-game sweep of Texas on Saturday in the Austin Super Regional of the NCAA softball championships was in the pitching circle.

The surprise for the 11th-ranked Ducks, especially in their 10-6 win in the nightcap at McCombs Field, was that Oregon?s Jessica Moore was so dominating and her Texas counterpart, Blaire Luna, was so bad.

The difference has Oregon heading to Oklahoma City to play in the Women?s College World Series for the second time in the school?s history and left the Longhorns, who needed just one win in the two games Saturday and were playing before their home crowd and in the wilting 92-degree heat, wondering where it all went wrong.

The Ducks ? in their first WCWS trip since 1989 ? will play Arizona State, a team with which they are very familiar, in the opening round on Thursday.

Moore (32-13) pitched 20 of the 21 innings for the Ducks (44-16) in this super regional and at times was on the ropes against the powerful Longhorns, who woke up in time to club three solo home runs in the seventh when it was too little, too late.

?Jessica got a little tired at the end, but we had enough of a cushion late in the game where we could trade solo home runs for outs,? Oregon coach Mike White said. ?This was an emotional and hard-fought series, and we knew Texas would never stop coming at us.?

Luna (22-6), who had been so effective in her past six games (when she racked up five wins, including four in a row), lasted just 2 2/3 innings in the opening-game loss and just 1 2/3 innings in the nightcap.

?I thought Blaire was ready to continue to pitch as she has, but Oregon was patient and made her bring the game to them,? Texas coach Connie Clark said. ?Give Oregon a lot of credit; they made the adjustments they needed to and got the hits and made the plays that made the difference.?

Oregon used the momentum it forged via its win in the first game to pounce on Texas in the second game, sending 10 batters to the plate in the second inning and scoring six runs. The Ducks scored on a suicide-squeeze play, a sacrifice fly, a two-run double by Janie Takeda, a single by Samantha Pappas, another single by Kaylan Howard and a double by Kelsey Chambers.

?Once we got the lead, you could see Texas begin to get a little tight and to want to chase a few pitches outside the strike zone,? Moore said. ?That didn?t last long, but by the time they got their focus back we were ready for what was coming.?

Texas (47-13) cut the lead in half in the fourth inning, batting around and getting back into the game with run-scoring singles by Kim Bruins and Gabby Smith and a bases-loaded walk to Mandy Ogle.

But as soon as the Horns looked to be finding their stride, Oregon reasserted itself. Takeda singled and came home on a booming, opposite-field home run to left-center by Pappas. Bruins was inserted into the circle for Rachel Fox, who relieved Luna in the second inning, and allowed a triple to Howard and run-scoring singles to Chambers and Moore to push the Ducks lead to 10-3.

Pappas, Howard, Kelsey Chambers, Takeda and Peterson had two hits each to pace Oregon in the deciding game. Pappas added three RBIs and scored twice, and Kelsey Chambers and Moore each had two runs batted in.

The Ducks forced a deciding third game Saturday with a 5-4, eighth-inning win in the marathon first game, which took 3:19 to play and was marred by two situations at the plate in which push came to shove and the ejection of both first baseman Kailee Cuico (she was suspended for the second game as well) and Oregon assistant coach Lisa Dodd.

Oregon, which had jumped to a 3-0 first-inning lead off Luna, won it in the bottom of the eighth on Howard?s sacrifice fly to left field that scored Takeda, who had singled to open the frame and stole both second and third base, the later with one out.

The extra-inning heroics allowed Moore, who pitched all eight innings and surrendered four runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and five walks) to earn her 31st win.

Oregon left 10 runners on base and had a two-on, no-out chance to win in the bottom of the seventh. After a bizarre play where Alexa Peterson was called out for runner?s interference near second base, Allie Burger lifted a fly to short left field that was caught by Texas? Torie Schmidt. The Ducks? Christie Nieto tried to score from third but was out by three steps, setting the table for Howard and Takeda to win the game in the eighth.

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