No. 15 Stanford Stages 4-Run Comeback in 7-3 Regular Season Finale

Saturday, May 15

Stanford, Calif.

12:00 PM

University of Oregon

33-19, 8-13

Stanford

36-17, 8-13

Oregon

Stanford

No. 15 Stanford Stages 4-Run Comeback in 7-3 Regular Season Finale

05/15/10 | Softball

Box Score

By: GoDucks.com

* A boxscore and play-by-play is located in the LINKS box to the right, updated season/career stats are available via the link above, and a more detailed recap will be posted shortly.

STANFORD, Calif. - The No. 20 University of Oregon softball team (33-19, 8-13) closed the regular season Saturday with a 7-3 loss to No. 15 Stanford (36-17, 8-13) at Smith Family Stadium.

Trying to take its first win off the Cardinal since 2007, a three-run fourth inning gave UO a 3-2 lead, but Stanford responded with three runs of its own in the fourth en route to a series sweep.

The Cardinal got on the scoreboard in the first inning when leadoff hitter Alissa Haber doubled, advanced on a passed ball, then scored on a ground-out. Haber tacked on another run in the second inning when she singled with runners on second and third base.

UO battled back to go ahead, 3-2, in the fourth when sophomore shortstop Kelsey Chambers and junior first baseman Monique Fuiava doubled to left field and center field, respectively, to open the inning. Freshman second baseman Kaylan Howard followed with a three-run homer to left center field - her eighth of the season and second-most on the team with Chambers.

Fuiava's double - her team-leading 11th of the year - left her one shy of the 10th-best mark in a season for Oregon, and the Las Vegas product entered the weekend tied for 10th in the league in the category in 2010.

The returning Super Regional advancer Cardinal went back ahead in the bottom half of the inning. With one out, a double and home run accounted for the first two runs, and Haber followed with a single, stole second, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on a double by Ashley Hansen.

In the fifth inning, the Cardinal added another run on a bases-loaded hit-by pitch. In the sixth, its final run came on a one-out single with runners on second and third base.

At game's end, Oregon hitters combined on five hits, and other singles came from freshman left fielder Allie Burger (1-for-3) and junior catcher Ashley Kivett (1-for-3) to lead-off the first and third innings.

On the mound for UO, freshman Jessica Moore (14-11), struck out none, walked one, allowed 10 hits, and four of her six runs allowed were earned. Sophomore Samantha Skillingstad worked the final two innings, struck out one, walked one, gave up two hits, and her only run allowed was unearned.

In her third straight complete game victory, Stanford sophomore Ashley Chinn (11-8), struck out three, walked one, yielded five hits, and all three of her runs allowed were earned.

At the plate for Stanford, eight batters hit safely, and three had multiple hits - Haber (3-for-4, 1 RBI), Jenna Rich (2-for-4) and Rosey Neill (2-for-4).

During the weekend, senior Neena Bryant climbed all-time Oregon top-10 lists to sixth place in at-bats (678) and runs (120). The Placentia, Calif., native already stood top 10 in a majority of the team's career offensive categories, including RBI (second-tie, 141), home runs (second-tie, 35), doubles (third, 38), stolen bases (third, 71), hits (sixth, 210) and batting average (10th, .310).

Altogether for the three-game set on 'The Farm', Chambers led the team in batting (.286, 2-for-7, 2 doubles, 2 RBI), just ahead of Howard (.250, 2-for-8, 2 home runs, 6 RBI).

On Sunday, the Ducks will tune into the 64-team NCAA tournament field announcement on ESPN-U at 7 p.m. Pacific Time in anticipation of their 12th postseason bid in school history. The show will be replayed an hour later on ESPNews at 8 p.m.

UO capped one of its most successful regular seasons in recent memory, and its eight conference wins were its most since it won 10 in 2003 and '04 when first-year head coach Mike White served as a Duck assistant coach. Oregon topped five different foes in the 'Conference of Champions' teams this season – No. 1 UW, No. 3 Arizona, No. 9 ASU, No. 13 Cal (3), OSU (2) – its most since it beat all seven rivals in '04.

White also played a key part in Oregon's prior success vs. the Cardinal, when UO took the series in 2-1 fashion in 2003 and '04. After his initial departure, Oregon also won the series 2-1 in 2007 and '06 before the Cardinal swept the last three season series vs. the Ducks.

LINESCORE

#15 Stanford 7, #20 Oregon 3 (May 15, 2010 at Stanford, Calif.)
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Oregon.............. 000 300 0 - 3 5 2 (33-19, 8-13 Pac-10)
Stanford............ 110 311 X - 7 12 1 (36-17, 8-13 Pac-10)
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Pitchers: Oregon - Moore, Jessica; Skillingstad, Sam(5) and Kivett, Ashley. Stanford - Chinn and Neill. Win-Chinn(11-8) Loss-Moore, Jessica(14-11) T-2:13 A-488. HR ORE - Howard, Kaylan. HR STAN - Becerra. Weather: 68 degrees. Moore, J faced 2 batters in the 5th.