OKLAHOMA CITY — Nine outs way from staying alive for at least one more game, the Oregon softball team instead saw its season end in frustrating, heartbreaking fashion Sunday.
Up two after a Danica Mercado home run that broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth, the Ducks (54-8) suffered defensive breakdowns in the bottom of the inning that helped defending national champion Oklahoma score four times. The comeback, the first by any team at this year’s Women’s College World Series, propelled the Sooners (59-9) to a 4-2 victory before 9,419 fans at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium, and into a three-game championship series with Florida beginning Monday.
After losing its opener Thursday but bouncing back with two wins Saturday, Oregon needed to beat the Sooners twice to advance to the title series. The Ducks seemed to be on track to force a decisive second game later Sunday, until the defensive breakdowns.
“My team came out there and they fought as hard as they can every pitch, and it came to a point where we did make a couple mistakes, and we weren’t able to back it up with our bats,” said Mercado (below). “I think there’s only so many times that you can put yourself in the bottom of the seventh, but I’m so proud of my team because we very well easily could have rolled over after losing the first game and we fought every inning until the very last one.”
Oklahoma’s fifth-inning rally began in controversial fashion, with a bunt that appeared have rolled foul when UO catcher Gwen Svekis picked it up before throwing wide of first base. Two batters later, that runner scored on a groundball to shortstop that might have been the first out of the inning; instead, UO senior Nikki Udria tried unsuccessfully to throw out the runner at home. That extra baserunner ended up providing the go-ahead run on a two-RBI single by Shay Knighten, who came around on an RBI double by Nicole Pendley that chased UO starting pitcher Megan Kleist (21-4).
The apparent foul ball fielded by Svekis was one of a number of controversial calls at this WCWS, prompting UO coach Mike White to call for a replay review process in future years.
“This game is played at a high speed,” White said. “Umpires are human. You should have the ability to challenge a call. … We didn’t help ourselves, don’t get me wrong. But I think the need for a challenge is sorely needed, and hopefully we will look at that, and we have the ability now with a lot of games to be able to do that.”
The Ducks were forced to settle for their second-ever trip to the WCWS semifinals, after winning two do-or-die games Saturday over Baylor and Louisiana State. Oregon made it to Sunday in Oklahoma City for just the second time, and the first since 2014.
The loss brought to a close the careers of Udria, Mercado and Sammie Puentes, members of both the 2014 and 2017 WCWS semifinal teams. They contributed to three Pac-12 championships, and helped the Ducks finish just a half-game short of sharing what would have been their fifth straight conference title this spring.
“Obviously they’ve had a big part in our success,” White said. “What happens is that as you bring young underclassmen in, they help to build, they help to coach, they help to reinforce what we say as a team to those players, and you know, I’m proud of what they’re doing. I’m sure right now they wish they could probably have another couple years, but it doesn’t happen that way. But I’m so proud of them.”
After the loss of a 2016 senior class that included pitcher Cheridan Hawkins and catcher Janelle Lindvall — both on hand for Sunday’s game — along with outfielder Koral Costa, this might have been considered a rebuilding year for the Ducks. Instead, bolstered by the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class that included Mia Camuso, Miranda Elish and Maggie Balint, along with transfer Alexis Mack, Oregon put together one of the most successful seasons in school history.
“This was a really big learning experience for the underclassmen coming back,” Kleist said. “We can use this and kind of let it fire us to be better next year and just kind of know that we tasted the chance to actually get to the end. You know, just coming back next year stronger and working on our weaknesses that were shown in this last game, shown in this whole tournament, and just be better than we were this year.”
Both teams Sunday had chances in the early innings but couldn’t capitalize. Kleist stranded runners at the corners in the bottom of the first, and the Sooners left two more on in the third.
But the Ducks were similarly unable to drive in runs through four innings. Udria was hit by a pitch to open the second, but couldn’t advance. An inning later, Lauren Lindvall hit a leadoff double, but Jenna Lilley popped out on an attempted sacrifice bunt and Lindvall was stranded at second. Again in the fourth, a leadoff single by Svekis and stolen base by pinch runner Cherish Burks gave the Ducks a runner in scoring position.
It wasn’t until Mercado’s homer, however, scoring Lilley after her two-out single in the fifth, that Oregon finally broke through.
“We never gave up, even until that last out,” Udria said. “As tough as it is to swallow, I wouldn’t change anything because everything happens for a reason. If it took us losing this game to build the program to learn something, for our teammates to learn to go forward, then that’s what it took.”
– Via goducks.com
