FULLERTON, Calif. – Duck catcher Emma Kauf has played in 204 games during her college career, but none quite like the one Tuesday night at Anderson Family Field.
No. 21 Oregon scored eight runs in the top of the seventh to pull away from Cal State Fullerton, 12-4, but before that, it was a roller coaster ride for Kauf and the Ducks.
Kauf’s stat line read 2-for-5 with a home run and three RBI. She also threw out two runners but committed two errors. It was a journey came full circle for the fifth-year transfer from Georgia Tech when she drove in the go-ahead runs in the top of the seventh.
“I think we did a really good job of staying together as a team throughout the whole game,” said Kauf. ”Going down the first inning and then bouncing right back the next few innings. I think we did a really good job sticking together and we kept fighting the whole game.”
The end result was a season-high fifth straight win for the Ducks, who also notched their 20thwin of 2024 against 10 losses.
How it Happened: The Titans took advantage of two uncharacteristic errors – including one by Kauf – in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. It was the first time all year Oregon committed two errors in one inning.
The Ducks responded with both the long ball and small ball in the top of the second to take a 3-2 lead.
Kauf homered the opposite way to left center to cut the Titans’ lead in half.
Katie Flannery followed with a walk and went to third on KK Humphreys’ single. Paige Sinicki brought the tying run home with a squeeze bunt and reached second on an error by the pitcher, whose throw home was off target, allowing pinch-runner Regan Legg to score the tying run as Humphreys advanced to third.
Hanna Delgado walked to load the bases and Humphreys came home on a wild pitch.
The Titans (19-12) tied the game at 3-3 on a two-out home run in the bottom of the third.
Oregon jumped back in front in the top of the fourth. Humphreys and Sinicki both singled. Humphreys then came home on a double by Delgado to make it 4-3 Ducks. But Fullerton knotted things at 4-4 in the bottom of the inning, again aided by an errant throw to second from Kauf that took a wild bounce off the bag and into right field.
“We were talking about as a team, continuing to reset,” said Kauf. “Whenever something wasn’t going our way or we were making errors on defense, we just had to tell ourselves that we had to reset; get back to neutral, and then go out of offense an execute there. I think the whole team did a good job of that.”
When a chance for redemption presented itself in the seventh inning, Kauf did not miss her shot.
Daniell led off with a walk and Wong doubled to deep center field putting two runners in scoring position. Kauf delivered with a two-run single through the right side that put the Ducks ahead for good, 6-4. Then it was time to add-on.
Flannery reached on a fielder’s choice and Kauf went to third on a fielding error. Humphreys loaded the bases with a walk and Sinicki worked a full count walk to force in a run, making it 7-4.
Delgado extended the lead to five with a double to the warning track in left to bring Flannery and Humphreys home.
An out later Ariel Carlson doubled through the middle to plate two more runs and put the game out of reach at 11-4.
Wong brought Carlson home with the Ducks’ 12 run of the game on a single past third base.
Taylour Spencer worked three scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win, improving to 6-2 on the season. Starter Morgan Scott went the first four innings and gave up four runs – two unearned – and struck out four.
Wong had three hits on Tuesday, while Kauf, Humphreys and Delgado all had two.
Quotable
C Emma Kauf on using the game as momentum for UCLA
“I think we can take a lot of stuff from today and learn from it, use that and then take this momentum going into UCLA.”
Noteworthy: The bottom of the order – Humphreys, Sinicki and Delgado – went 5-for-8 with five RBI and scored five runs … Carlson’s two RBIs moved her into a tie for the Pac-12 lead with Arizona’s Carlie Scupin at 36 … With two doubles, Delgado moved into a tie for the team lead at nine with Wong, who also doubled on Tuesday … freshman Braiesey Rosa got her first career stolen base.
On Deck: Oregon moves to Westwood for a three-game series at UCLA that begins Thursday. All three games will be on the Pac-12 Networks.
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