Friday night looked like it was going to be a repeat of Thursday nightโs comeback win for the Wildcats.
Runs were being tallied on both sides in the first few innings.
But then visiting Oregon exploded for five runs and the Wildcats couldnโt answer back. The Ducks cruised to an 11-3 run-rule victory at Hillenbrand Stadium, tying the weekend series at one game apiece.
Arizona drops to 22-15 overall and 3-11 in Pac-12 play, while Oregon improves to 25-12 and 5-9. The teams meet Saturday at noon in the series finale.
After crushing 11 hits the night before, Arizona could only muster two Friday night.
โI think nine of the balls we put in play were all in the air and not competitively in the air," UA coach Caitlin Lowe said. โI think more than that itโs the pitches we were swinging at. I think if you give a good pitcher (a) really, really big strike zone, then she's not really going to throw anything hittable over the plate. The two times that we got something good to hit, I thought they were over the fence. So just having a little bit more discipline. This one (up high) looks good to the eyes right now, which it's hard to let that one go, but you have to trust that you're gonna get something a little better.โ
Oregon struck in the first inning on a two-run home run by Alle Bunker. The Wildcats answered on solo home run to right center field by Sharlize Palacios, then tacked on two more runs โ on a home run by sophomore shortstop Sophia Carroll โ in the second inning.
Carroll said she has been seeing the ball better lately because of her new glasses.
โI think itโs helped (and) just to be patient and to trust my eyes and training that I have,โ Carroll said.
Oregon belted five home runs, a season high. The ninth batter in the Ducks lineup, Paige Sinicki, hit two of them and drove in three runs.
Down 11-3 in the bottom of the fifth, Arizona had one last shot to make a comeback. Hannah Martinez reached base on a walk, but Jasmine Perezchica ended the game on a groundout.
Carroll said the mindset for the Wildcats was simple: โDo it for the team.โ
"So what about the score?" Carroll said. "I still have a job to do, and (that's) to back up my teammates and the pitchers and to help anyway I can."
After giving up six runs in the first three innings, Arizona had a 1-2-3 inning as Madi Elish in relief of Hanah Bowen, enticed two ground outs and a flyout. Then the Wildcats got rocked for five runs in the fifth inning.
Despite all that, the series is "ours for the taking tomorrow," Palacios said.
"And I think that should light a fire under our butts and get us ready to play,โ she said. "I think it's going to have us walk out with a little bit of swag and stepping on the field like we want to win and not like we don't want to lose. There's a difference between those two. if we step on here, like we want to win and we want to beat that team. You're going to see a lot of harder hit balls on the ground and you're gonna see a lot more softball being played."
