Oregon (22-5) took the lead in the first inning of the first game as Sam Pappas reached base on a SeattleU error and scored on a double by Monique Fuiava. The Ducks increased their lead to 5-0 with four runs in the fifth inning, helped in part by two Redhawk wild pitches that brought runs across the plate.
Seattle University struck back in the top of the sixth, as Katie Antich (Spokane, Wash.) led off with a single and pinch hitter Sandra Hernandez (Redlands, Calif.) drew a walk. Jessica Ulrich (Lewiston, Idaho) sent a single to right field that scored Antich, and two Oregon errors allowed Hernandez to score and Ulrich to reach third base. Megan MacIsaac's (Santa Barbara, Calif.) single to left field scored Ulrich, but relief pitcher Mikayla Endicott ended the rally with a strikeout.
The Redhawks threatened to score in the seventh inning, as Allegra Wilde (Kennewick, Wash.) singled to center field and Rose Harrington (Missoula, Mont.) drew a walk. Oregon's third pitcher of the game, Brittany Rumfelt, was able to notch two strikeouts to prevent SeattleU from coming any closer, picking up her second save of the season.
Sam Skillingstad earned the victory for the Ducks, pitching the first 5 2/3 innings and giving up three hits, two walks, and three unearned runs while striking out nine Redhawk batters. Hannah Klein (Camarillo, Calif.) was the losing pitcher in the game, allowing five hits, two walks, and four runs in four innings of work.
In the first inning of game two, the Ducks manufactured a run, as Allie Burger singled to right field, stole second base, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Kelsey Chambers, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Pappas. Oregon picked up another run in the second inning when Cortney Kivett earned a two-out bunt single, stole second base, and came around to score on a single by Burger.
The two teams sat through a one-hour, 48-minute rain delay before resuming play. Oregon increased its lead in the fourth inning, loading the bases before Chambers drove in pinch runner Hannah Barril on a single to left field. A SeattleU error allowed Kivett to score, but Klein, coming on in relief, induced a groundout and a lineout to end the rally.
The game was called with two outs in the top of the sixth inning when more rain moved in. Rumfelt and Jessica Moore limited SeattleU to one hit, a single by Ulrich to lead off the second inning, while combining for 13 strikeouts. Kelsey Reynolds (Kent, Wash.) took the loss for the Redhawks after allowing seven hits, three walks, and four runs, three of them earned, in 3 1/3 innings of work.
Seattle University (2-19) stays in Oregon in preparation for another doubleheader against a Pac-10 school, as the Redhawks face Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore., Friday, March 26, with the first game set to start at 12 noon. After a doubleheader at Simon Fraser this Sunday, March 28, the softball team welcomes South Dakota and Simon Fraser to Logan Field for a series of games April 1-3.