By Steve Gress
For the Democrat-Herald | Posted: Thursday, April 26, 2007 12:00 am
CORVALLIS - When the ball left Suzie Barnes' bat in the sixth inning, it looked like the Oregon State softball team was going to get out of a jam.
But then the ball skipped out of the reach of pitcher Brianne McGowan. Next, third baseman Sherina Galvan was unable to corral the grounder.
Shortstop Mia Longfellow couldn't get to it before it got past her.
That allowed pinch runner Blair Williamson to score from second and tie the game at 5-5.
After an infield single by Sari-Jane Jenkins loaded the bases, Jenn Salling followed with an infield single to give the No. 16-ranked Ducks a 6-5 Pacific-10 Conference win over the Beavers on Wednesday.
"I mean it just found the right spot," Galvan said of Barnes' grounder. "We all went for it, we were all going for it but definitely sometimes the ball just finds the hole. You can't do anything about it."
Oregon (39-11, 4-8) won the season series 2-1 and won its first Pacific-10 Conference game since a 4-3, eight-inning win against the Beavers on April 7 in Eugene. Oregon also earned two points in the Civil War Series and won the annual competition for the first time since 2004,
9-8.
The 13th-ranked Beavers (34-16, 6-6) threatened in the seventh, loading the bases with two outs. Longfellow, bidding to become the school's all-time hits leader, lined out to second to end the game.
Oregon scored three times in the sixth on six hits. Four of those hits were in the infield; one was fielded by second baseman Paige Lowe, but she couldn't make the throw to first, prolonging the inning.
"Bottom line, our defense fell apart in that inning," coach Kirk Walker said. "They had four balls hit in the infield, four infield singles.
"If we can stay on our feet, we can play ball."
Coming off a tough 8-7 loss in 11 innings at Arizona State on Sunday, the Beavers started well on Wednesday.
Longfellow tied Jodi Chmielewski's record of 225 hits with a leadoff double down the right-field line.
She was thrown out trying to score from third on a grounder by Cambria Miranda, but McGowan lined a home run over the left field fence for a 2-0 lead.
The Ducks evened the score on back-to-back homers by Neena Bryant and Joanna Gail in the top of the second.
Longfellow put the Beavers up 3-2 when she scored Galvan on a fielder's choice in the bottom of the inning.
Three straight two-out hits in the third put OSU up 5-2. Stefanie Ewing and DeAnn Young had back-to-back doubles before Galvan delivered a run-scoring single.
Oregon countered with a run in the fourth when Bryant doubled and scored on a single by Kristi Leiter.
OSU had the bases loaded in the fourth, but Ewing grounded into a double play. The Beavers hit into another double play in the sixth.
Oregon 6, Oregon State 5
Oregon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .020 103 0 - 6 15 1
Oregon State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .212 000 0 - 5 13 1
Rice and Morris. McGowan, McElroy (7) and Ewing. WP: Rice (21-9). LP: McGowan (20-9). 2B: Bryant 2 (UO), Longfellow (OSU), McGowan (OSU), Young (OSU), Ewing (OSU). HR: Bryant (UO), Gail (UO), McGowan (OSU)
Hits: UO 15 (Barnes, Jenkins 3, Salling 2, Bryant 4, Gail 3, Leiter, Shlee). OSU 13 (Longfellow, Miranda 2, McGowan 2, Ewing, Young, Galvan 2, Johnson, Dyer).
RBIs: UO 6 (Barnes, Salling, Bryant, Gail, Leiter, Shlee). OSU 5 (Longfellow, McGowan 2, Young, Galvan).