CATHEDRAL CITY, CALIF. – The bats came alive Friday for No. 23 Oregon as the Ducks defeated Notre Dame, 8-2, and Long Beach State, 11-4 at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.
Ariel Carlson, Alyssa Daniell and Vallery Wong all homered twice on Friday. The first of Wong’s home runs was an inside-the-park one, while Carlson capped her nine-RBI day with a grand slam against the Beach.
Oregon 8, Notre Dame 2
How it Happened: Morgan Scott allowed two runs over five innings as the Ducks pulled away from the Irish in the middle innings.
Oregon (9-6) got on the scoreboard first with a run in the top of the second. Ariel Carlson led off with a single up the middle. One out later, she stole second and then came around to score on Emma Kauf’s RBI single.
The Ducks hit a pair of home runs in the third inning – one of the traditional variety and an unconventional one.
Wong drove a high fly ball deep into the left field corner. Notre Dame left fielder Emily Tran dove to make a play on the ball and it kicked away from her, allowing Wong to round the bases before anyone could retrieve it. Tran was shaken up on the play.
Carlson followed with a moonshot to center that landed 50 feet beyond the center field fence.
Carlson’s torrid night continued the next inning. Kai Luschar and Hanna Delgado hit consecutive one-out singles. Daniell walked. Carlson then ripped a double into the left field gap to clear the bases, making it 6-0
Addison Amaral hit a home run in the bottom of the fourth to cut Oregon’s lead to 6-1.
The Ducks used their speed to plate a couple of two-out runs in the fifth inning.
Paige Sinicki walked and Luschar followed with her second hit of the day. Delgado then doubled into left center field and both runners sprinted to the plate, giving the Ducks an 8-1 lead.
Notre Dame (6-5) scored once in the bottom of the fifth to account for the final score.
Carlson and Delgado were both 3-for-4 in the first game. Carlson had three RBI, while Delgado added two. Luschar also had three hits as the Ducks collected 15 hits as a team.
Scott struck out four and walked one in improving to 4-2 on the season.
Oregon 11, Long Beach State 4
How it Happened: After the Beach (1-10) scored a run on the bottom of the fifth to pull to within 7-4, Carlson’s grand slam in the sixth put the game out of reach.
The Ducks scored twice in the first inning when Delgado singled and Wong hit her second home run of the day for a 2-0 lead.
Oregon’s lead was short-lived. LBSU used four hits and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second to take a 3-2 lead.
The Ducks responded with four runs in the top of the third. Sinicki and Luschar both singled and Delgado moved the runners up with a sacrifice bunt. Carlson followed with a single that scored both runners for a 4-3 Oregon lead.
With Carlson at third, Wong brought her in with a sacrifice fly before Daniell closed out the inning with a solo home run – her first of the game – and Oregon led 6-3.
In her next plate appearance, Daniell homered again to make it 7-3 Oregon before the Beach answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth.
The Ducks took advantage of an error to put the game away. After the first two Ducks got out. Sinicki reached base on a bunt single. Luschar followed with a walk and Delgado followed with a chopper the second baseman couldn’t handle and the error loaded the bases.
Carlson stepped to the plate and drove a 1-1 pitch the opposite way out of the park for her first grand slam since hitting one in the 2023 NCAA Fayetteville Regional Championship game.
Taylor Spencer pitched the final six innings in relief. She gave up one run on three hits in moving to 3-1 on the season.
Sinicki had three hits and scored twice against the Beach.
The first five batters for the Ducks went 7-for-16 and drove in all 11 runs.
Noteworthy: Scoring four earned runs, Long Beach State ended the Ducks consecutive games streak of allowing three earned runs or less at 13 games … Luschar, the Pac-12 leader in hits with 24, has reached base safely in all 15 games this season … Oregon and Notre Dame met in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Fayetteville Regional. The Ducks won that game, 5-4.
On Deck: Oregon will finish the Mary Nutter Classic with a game against Nebraska Saturday at 10 a.m.
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