Texas State beat Oregon Softball 5-1 in the opening game, but that loss did not deter the second seed in the Austin Region.
Oregon battled through two games on Saturday, dealing with weather delays in the process, as well as getting to Sunday where they would have to beat Texas twice to advance. The games on Sunday were expected to start just after 3 p.m. CT, but the weather pushed the first game against Texas back more than four hours.
Oregon pitcher Brooke Yanez proved to be the workhorse for the weekend throwing over 300 pitches in the process and getting Oregon to the Regional Final to face Texas. In the first game against former head coach Mike White, the Ducks found a way to a 3-2 win. Catcher Terra McGowan provided the power in the eighth inning hitting a ball off the wall and scoring Haley Cruse for a 3-2 win and giving Texas their first loss of the weekend.
In double elimination, two losses mean you are done. There were just two teams left on Sunday with Texas and Oregon and Texas had an easier road to get there from Friday. The Ducks used Yanez, as well as experienced players like Cruse to win three straight games.
After the first game ended, the decision was made to play the second.
The NCAA made the decision that it would be played late into the night in Austin as weather was again a concern for Monday, which would have been a make-up day. With Yanez having thrown to get the Ducks to that point, Oregon turned to Samara Diaz who was solid through the first 3 2/3 innings before getting into trouble.
The Ducks were in for a pitcher’s duel and were not able to score in the finale. Texas won the game 1-0. Yanez finished the season with 278 strikeouts helping Oregon to a 40 win season. Haley Cruse ends her career with the Ducks hitting .378, good enough for fifth-best in Oregon Softball history.
Through the 2020 pandemic season, Oregon was the only team in the Pac-12 that did not have a game rescheduled. They found a way to fight back after a tough loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and also not earning a national seed and hosting in Eugene.
Melyssa Lombardi has found her winning formula for this team. They will improve and have improved in each of her seasons at the helm. The experience at the end of this season should help motivate this team for bigger things in the future.
Oregon Softball finished the season at 40-17 and 20-7 at Jane Sanders Stadium.