The matchup the college softball world was looking forward to seeing is set: Oregon will face Texas in the Austin Regional final.
The Ducks staved off elimination thanks to a pair of stellar pitching performances on Saturday, with Samaria Diaz leading a 7-0 win over St. Francis and Brooke Yanez striking out 14 in a 2-0 win over Texas State to cap the night at McCombs Field in Austin.
“You could see she was determined, she had that look in her eye tonight,” Oregon coach Melyssa Lombardi said of Yanez, who matched the UO NCAA Tournament record for strikeouts. “She really wanted to fight and be really good for her team and you could see they wanted to be really good for her.”
The lone offense in the nightcap came in the top of the second by Oregon (39-16), which advances to play No. 12 seed Texas (41-11) and former UO coach Mike White and ex-Ducks Lauren Burke, Shannon Rhodes and Mary Iakopo in Sunday’s regional final (1 p.m. PT).
Rachel Cid hit a 1-2 pitch to center and Hanna Delgado followed with a bunt single. Alyssa Brito bunted them over to put two in scoring position for Deijah Pangilinan. The second-year freshman, who entered hitting .238 with runners in scoring position, fell behind 0-2 and just barely got the end of the barrel on a ball to keep the count alive before hitting an RBI single to third to put the Ducks on the board.
Pangilinan went on to steal second and an errant throw allowed Delgado to score to make it 2-0.
“Deijah’s really coming into her own,” Lombardi said. “You can see different players start to get hot, Deijah’s one of them. Love what she’s doing on defense. Love how she roams the outfield. She makes it look so easy out there. I really like what she’s doing at the plate; she’s turning the lineup over and really in a good spot.”
The game shifted for good in the bottom of the second on an incredible swing of polar extremes by Yanez. The junior left-hander got ahead 0-2 against Hailey MacKay only to throw four straight balls for a leadoff walk, then came a fifth straight ball out of the zone, prompting Melyssa Lombardi and the Oregon infield to meet with their ace in the circle.
“I think she just needed a second,” Lombardi said. “I went out there and really didn’t say a whole lot. I think it was just to give her an opportunity to reset.”
But Yanez threw three more balls to put two on with nobody out.
“It was kind of getting out of place for me so for coach to come out, I needed that,” Yanez said. “Going back to my ways, I think I was getting out of hand when I didn’t need to, kind of overthrowing it at times when I don’t need to. Having her come out and having Terra (McGowan) come out as well, that helped me get my mind back right.”
The ensuing play was one of the most spectacular putouts by a pitcher throwing to third you’ll ever see. Hannah Earls dropped a bunt towards first that Yanez fielded and somehow, despite her momentum going toward the first base line, managed to set her feet and fire a dart to third base to get the lead runner out.
“Free passes aren’t acceptable at that point,” Yanez said. “I wanted to get the lead runner out and do my part afterwords. ... I shifted my weight to one side once I got the ball and shot it to third. We practice defense a lot, especially us pitchers. If it comes to us it should be an automatic out.”
Yanez then ended the inning with back-to-back three-pitch strikeouts to end the threat. She got the Bobcats to strand two more in the third and one each in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and recorded multiple strikeouts in six of seven innings to finish one shy of a season-high.
Meagan King allowed two runs, one earned, on seven hits and struck out three in a complete game loss that ends the season for Texas State (39-14).
Oregon will need to win twice on Sunday to win the regional while Texas will need to win once to advance to the Super Regional round next week against the winner of No. 5 seed Oklahoma State’s regional.
“This is what I came here for: to compete and to be at a bigger stage like this,” Yanez said. “I know my team is prepared for it. We’ve been conditioned for it the entire season. We’ve played doubleheaders every weekend so we know what’s to come and we know what we need to do.”
The Link LonkMay 23, 2021 at 12:01PM
https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2021/05/brooke-yanez-strikes-out-14-to-send-oregon-ducks-to-ncaa-regional-final-meeting-with-texas.html
Brooke Yanez strikes out 14 to send Oregon Ducks to NCAA regional final meeting with Texas - OregonLive
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