Oregon State
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#24 Oregon State Drops Extra-Innings Thriller To #9 Washington
April 21, 2012 | Softball
April 21, 2012
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Dani Gilmore went 2-for-4 with a home run and Elizabeth Santana registered a trio of hits from her leadoff spot in the order, but No. 9 Washington scored a pair of runs in the sixth to send the game into extras and eventually beat the No. 24 Oregon State softball team, 7-6, in a thrilling nine-inning affair on Saturday afternoon.
The loss moves Oregon State's record to 28-15 overall and 5-8 in Pac-12 play.
The game opened with a barrage of offense and, after just three innings, 10 runs had already crossed the plate with OSU holding a 6-4 lead.
Washington (36-10, 7-9 Pac-12) scored a single run in the top of the first with the help of an unlucky bounce that popped a routine ground ball almost six feet in the air and over the head of Santana at short. Unfazed by the bad break, the Beavers put three up in their half of the opening frame, highlighted by a two-out, two-run single off the bat of Ally Kutz.
The Huskies would tie things up in the top of the second, but OSU had an answer yet again, as Gilmore crushed the first pitch she saw from Kaitlin Inglesby just inside the foul pole in right field for a three-run homer, her sixth of the season and first since March 3. The long ball not only tied her for the team lead in that department but, more importantly, gave the Beavers a 6-3 lead.
The home run also knocked Inglesby out of the game, as Oregon State tagged her for six earned in two innings. She had come into the afternoon with a 1.78 ERA in 161.2 innings of work.
From that point on, the contest evolved into a pitchers' duel with both sides mixing and matching where they could. After a Nikia Williams home run brought UW to within two, 6-4, Paige Hall came on in relief of Beaver starter Aryn Feicket in the third and surrendered just three hits in three innings of work.
Washington added two more in the sixth on a home run by Hooch Fagaly to tie the score, 6-6, and send the game into extras.
As the Beavers' Marina Demore and UW's Bryana Walker threw up zeroes late in the game, the atmosphere in the stadium continued to build. Demore worked her way out of a tough jam in the seventh when Washington loaded the bases with just one out. But OSU's junior right-hander induced a pair of ground balls to get her team back into the dugout.
OSU had two on and nobody out in its half of the seventh, but a strikeout and double play stifled the walk-off opportunity.
The Huskies finally inched ahead in the ninth when Nikia Williams hit her second home run of the game, this time to left field, to put Washington up, 7-6.
Oregon State had runners at the corners with one out in its half of the ninth when Gilmore lofted a fly ball to left field. Ya Garcia, who had led off the inning with a walk, attempted to tag up from third, but Victoria Hayward made a nice throw to the plate to cut off the tying run and end the game.
The third and final game of the series will be tomorrow, April 22, with first pitch scheduled for noon.
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