If the Utes were hoping to turn their Pac-12 fortunes around in the series-opening doubleheader against Oregon (30-5, 7-0 Pac-12), they had another thing coming.
Utah (14-18-1, 1-7 Pac-12) lost the first game 11-3, and the second game 11-1.
“I don’t think we came out with as much energy as we should have,” said junior Chalese Fankhauser. “I do believe Oregon is a better team [than Arizona], but I don’t believe we showed them what we could do and we didn’t play the best we could have like we did against Arizona. I’m not exactly sure why but I think we’re ready for tomorrow and we’ll do a lot better. I’m just glad today is over.”
The Ducks dominated both games at home. Oregon’s pitching in the first game wasn’t up to the team’s usual level, but the defense stepped up and only allowed three runs off seven hits. In the second game freshman Cheridan Hawkins struck out eight pitchers before she was replaced in the final inning. As in the first game, the team’s defense was strong. Oregon only allowed one run on four hits.
The Ducks were also offensively phenomenal. In the first game alone, three different players hit home runs as well as driving in nine runs. The team hit one home run in the next game and matched the first game with nine RBIs.
The Utes didn’t help themselves either. In the second game, Utah allowed four errors, three of which resulted in immediate scores, and the other put a player on base who would score later in the inning. Overall Utah made five errors and Oregon scored on four of them.
“You know if you get seven hits and four hits against their 18 and 12, your chances of winning aren’t good unless you play clean defense, and we didn’t,” said head coach Amy Hogue. “We made five errors on the day. They beat us in every area of the game today, and I’m glad we have one more shot at them tomorrow.”
Utah was having trouble on offense as well. The Utes couldn’t score with runners in position, leaving nine on base.
“We just need to capitalize on what they give us, and when we get runners on we just need to capitalize and score them,” said sophomore Marissa Mendenhall. “I think that is the biggest thing — scoring when we have runners in position.
Utah will play the Ducks today to finish off the series. Hogue said the team needs to take a page out of Oregon’s playbook and be more aggressive.
“I think we’ll be better because of having an opportunity to play on that field for a day,” Hogue said. “Our strategy is to play aggressive because that’s what they do, and it wins games for them. This is a team that went to the College World Series last year. I hope, if anything, my team picked up some things they [the Ducks] do and do some things better tomorrow so we can start to emulate a team that clearly has shown they are a top team in the country, and that is what we want to be.”