Softball team struggles on the road against pair of Oregon schools
Spring rain, wild pitching and errors plagued the first day of play this weekend for the Utah State softball team against Oregon State University. During Saturday’s doubleheader against the Beavers, USU would suffer a 9-0 loss. The Beavers scored all nine of the team’s runs off of just four hits.
Oregon State’s starting pitcher Marina Denmore kept the Aggies off the bases throughout the first two innings, allowing only freshman Kristina Bava as the first baserunner for USU, reaching base on a fielding error by Denmore. The Beavers would start marking up runs in the second inning without even one hit when sophomore Aggie pitcher Mandy Harmon walked one and allowed her to advance to second on a ground out. Harmon then hit Mary Brenner with a pitch to put runners on first and second. Two more errors and a wild pitch would allow the Beavers to plate two of the four runners by the end of the inning while still hitless as a team.
USU junior Tatem Day was able to get the first hit for her team in the third inning but OSU’s Denmore was able to keep her stranded on-base, allowing no hits for the rest of the inning.
Oregon State would plate seven more in the bottom of the third inning after hitting Nikki Chandler with a pitch, allowing a hit to Lea Cavestany and walking Paige Hall, Chandler and Cavestany reached home on a double by Erin Guzy. A base-clearing double and another single would run the score up to 9-0 for the Beavers. Junior Dani Chaplin would replace Harmon as pitcher for USU for the rest of the game.
In their second game against Oregon State, the Aggies were first to strike in the second inning. Junior Ashely Ventura would single to first and then move to advance to second base when an OSU pitch hit Aggie senior Kelley Kaneshiro. Freshman Annie Thomas would pinch run for Ventura as senior Joreigh Landers would bring both Thomas and Kaneshiro into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Day would bring Thomas home, giving USU a 1-0 advantage early in the game.
In the third inning USU’s Kassy Uchida reached second with two outs in the inning. OSU starting pitcher Tina Andreana would hit both Lindsey Marquez and Shasta Tyteca to load the bases. Ventura was unable to get the clutch hit when popped out to second base, ending the top half of the third inning. The Beavers would take the lead in the fifth inning with run score on a play at the plate, giving the Beavers a 2-1 lead. OSU blew past USU with a grand slam and then added two more runs in the sixth inning to make the final score 8-1.
The next day the Aggies would travel the short distance to Eugene, Ore., to play the University of Oregon Ducks, who are ranked No.15 in the nation. In their first game, the Aggies had to face the powerful starting pitcher for the Ducks, Sam Skillingstad, who struck out five of first six Aggie batters she faced. The Aggies would pick them themselves back up to compete with two runs scored by Marquez and Day and a third by Uchida on an outfield error, making the score 4-3. Oregon would rally back, however, scoring two more runs in the fifth inning and five more in the sixth, ending the game with an 11-3 win for the Ducks.
“We hit an emotional fallout point during the second game, this was where either we learn from our mistakes or said ‘that is it'”, said USU head coach Carissa Millsap-Kalaba.
As Oregon put seven of their final nine runs up in the second inning, Aggie starting pitcher Harmon buckled down and allowed only two more hits throughout the rest of the game.
“She got tougher and made them look stupid, it was great to see her come back,” Millsap-Kalaba said.
This week USU returns to action Tuesday, playing Weber State in Orem for a game that Millsap-Kalaba is carrying in high hopes.
“They are not bad but we should kill them,” Millsap-Kalaba said.
Afterwards they will be traveling to the islands to play against the University of Hawaii. The Warriors lost in even worse fashion to the University of Oregon this season.
Millsap-Kalaba said, “Hawaii should be surprised at the pace we’ll be able to keep against them.”
As for the Aggies’ main season forecast, Millsap-Kalaba said, “We have played these highly ranked teams and have learned a lot on how they play their games, we’ll bring that back to WAC conference game play and show the WAC what the Aggie softball team really is, not what they think we are.”
– mfiggat@gmail.com