May 19, 2007
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Columbia, S.C. – Despite recording 12 hits, the second most of the season, the South Carolina Gamecocks (35-24) fell 8-4 to the 20th-ranked Oregon Ducks (44-17) Saturday afternoon in the Columbia Regional of the NCAA Softball Championships. With the loss, the Gamecocks now face elimination and will play the winner of the N.C. State/Penn State game at 7 p.m. Saturday night. McKenna Hughes went 3-for-3 with a run, while Ashton Payne went 3-for-4 with a run for the Gamecocks. Oregon now advances to the championship game set for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
“When we give up that many runs, we just couldn’t get outs at key times,” said head coach Joyce Compton. I felt our offense was never out of it. We couldn’t put a couple of key hits down when we really needed it.”
Melissa Hendon (18-17) took the loss for South Carolina as she gave up a season high, eight earned runs on 12 hits. The junior pitcher recorded 10 strikeouts, marking her ninth 10-plus strikeout game of the year, and her first since April 21 against Kentucky. The Gamecocks were able to hit Alicia Cook (23-4), who posted the win for the Ducks, as they recorded four earned runs on 12 hits.
Oregon jumped out early as the visiting team and led off the inning with three straight hits, including a two-RBI single by Jen Salling to give the Ducks the 2-0 lead in the first.
The Gamecocks cut the lead in half in the second inning when Salling had a throwing error to first and allowed Payne, who reached safely with a single, to score.
The Ducks handed a crucial blow to the Gamecocks in the fifth when Ann Marie Topps hit her 19th home run of the season, a three-run shot to left center field and extended Oregon’s lead by four, 5-1.
South Carolina was resilient to the home run and continued to fight. The Garnet and Black scored in the bottom half of the fifth with an RBI double by Lisa Longo and cut the lead to three. With the hit, Longo extended her hitting streak to seven-games.
Oregon dealt another blow to the Gamecocks in the top of the seventh with a two-RBI double by Neena Bryant and an RBI single by Kristi Leiter to make the score 8-2. The Gamecocks however continued to swing at the plate in the bottom half and with two outs, attempted a rally. With two outs, Hughes kept the inning alive with a single to left field, followed by Jessica Josker with a double down the left field line. Runners at second and third, Lindsay Walker came through with a single and drove in both Hughes and Josker to add to more runs for the Gamecocks. South Carolina would get one more hit with a single by Payne but then Ducks were able to end the game when Becky Martinez lined out to third base for the final out.
“We had our opportunities,” said Compton. “I can’t complain about that, although we need to have a few people step up when we have those situations. McKenna and Ashton did that, and Jacqueline had another good day offensively.”
The Gamecocks are now 0-3 all-time against Oregon and 0-1 this season against a PAC 10 team. South Carolina also falls to 26-25 all-time in NCAA Tournament play.
