Ducks Hang On To Win Rivalry Finale

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Brooke Yanez and Makenna Kliethermes combined for 14 strikeouts as Oregon fended off a late rally by Oregon State in a 4-3 win Saturday to clinch the rivalry series win.
 
Yanez (13-0) capped off her incredible weekend with 12 strikeouts and just two walks while Kliethermes entered in the sixth inning and tossed 1.2 perfect innings with a pair of strikeouts to earn the save.
 
How it Happened: Up by three headed to the sixth inning, the Beavers got back-to-back homers to lead off the inning to cut the Oregon lead to one. After two more runners reached, Kliethermes replaced Yanez in the circle and got the first two she faced to preserve the lead. She came back out for the seventh and retired the side in order, getting a strikeout to end it.
 
After a scoreless first, the two teams traded solo homers in the second to make it 1-1. Rachel Cid put the Ducks in front with an opposite field shot to lead off the top half of the inning. The Beavers answered with a leadoff bomb of their own, with Bailey McLaughlin delivering a shot to center field to tie it up.
 
The Ducks jumped right back in front in the third inning with a pair of runs to go up 3-1. After Haley Cruse walked and Allee Bunker singled, Mya Felder came up with two outs and ended an 11-pitch at-bat by dropping a two-out single into left center field to score both Cruse and Bunker. Shaye Bowden delivered what turned out to be the difference with a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to make it 4-1.
 
Notable: Yanez turned in her sixth double-digit strikeout game of the season with her 12 over 5.1 innings … She struck out 34 batters while walking just five over 19.1 innings this weekend while earning the win in each of Oregon's victories … Her 34 strikeouts over the last three games are the most in a three-game stretch by a Duck pitcher since 2018 (Miranda Elish) … Cruse has reached base in 20 straight games after finishing with a walk and run scored … Bunker turned in her ninth multi-hit game of the year, going 2-for-4 with a double and run scored … Cid's homer was her third of the year … Oregon has scored at least one two-out run in 26 of the 28 games after adding two more today.
 
On Deck: Oregon will host No. 2 UCLA for a four-game series starting Friday at 5 p.m. Three of the four games will be on Pac-12 Network while game one of Saturday's doubleheader will be on ESPN2.