No. 11 Utah Drops Pair to No. 3 Oregon

Sunday, March 26

Salt Lake City, Utah

2:30 PM

University of Utah

21-6, 0

Oregon

28-0, 0

Oregon

Utah

3/26/2017 10:11 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Utes look to salvage third game of series tomorrow

SALT LAKE CITY - No. 11 Utah Softball suffered a pair of setbacks on Sunday in a doubleheader against No. 3 Oregon. The Utes dropped the first game, 12-3 and then fell in the nightcap, 3-0.

Oregon 12, Utah 3
Oregon got its bats going in the second when Mia Camuso laced a double to the right-center gap for a 1-0 lead and Jenna Lilley smoked a double over the center fielder's head for another run.

In the third, Nikki Udria smacked a RBI single under a diving Hannah Flippen and into center field. Shannon Rhodes smacked a base hit to left and a Utah bobble brought in another run. Lauren Lindvall then hit a ball behind the bag at second and some sloppiness in the field allowed two more to score for a 6-0 edge.

Utah got on the board in third when Delilah Pacheco drew a lead-off walk before Alyssa Barrera and Flippen followed with consecutive singles. Anissa Urtez then slapped a grounder to short and a bad throw plated another to make the deficit, 6-2.

Udria and Camuso got the runs back for the Ducks with RBI singles in the fourth and a bases-loaded walk to Jenna Lilley pushed the score to 9-2.

Sammie Puentes hit her first homer of the season to start the fifth and after the next Duck walked, an error in right field on a Danica Mercado single allowed the ball to roll all the way to the wall for a 12-2 tally.

Utah brought the scoring to an end in the fifth when Kelly Martinez legged out a grounder to second and moved up on an Oregon throwing error. Barrera smacked a RBI double to center that scored the Utah catcher for the final margin.

Oregon 3 Utah 0
Oregon jumped on the Utes from the onset when Gwen Svekis smacked a two-run homer off the scoreboard in left-center.

The Ducks added another run in the third when Rhodes legged out a grounder to third, avoiding a double play. With the bases loaded, another run came home for a 3-0 lead.

The closest Utah came to scoring occurred in the fourth when Flippen led off with a single but was erased on an Urtez grounder. After a strikeout, a Duck error on a Bridget Castro grounder put two one with two down. However, Maggie Balint induced a fly out to end the chance.

Balint improved to 13-0 on the season with a complete-game shutout while Katie Donovan pitched very well after the first few innings, retiring the final 11 batters and going the distance (135 pitches).