Ducks Belt Four Homers in 10-2 Win Over Shockers

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Oregon brought its two-out magic to the postseason. The Ducks scored seven two-out runs and toppled Wichita State 10-2 in five innings in the opening round of the Fayetteville Regional Friday in front of 2,870 at Bogle Stadium.
 
The Ducks, 32-17, will face No. 4 overall seed Arkansas in the winner's bracket Saturday at 11 a.m. Pacific Time.
 
"I would just say that we could feel that these guys were ready today, from the minute we woke up to waiting patiently for the first game to end," said head coach Melyssa Lombardi. "You could just feel that there was really good energy."
 
How it Happened: Oregon's first three runs came with two outs in the second inning. KK Humphreys drew a walk followed by Jasmine Williams' infield single. Freshman Paige Sinicki then blasted a 1-0 pitch out to left center to give the Ducks a 3-0 lead.
 
"For me I think it was just having a quality at-bat," said Sinicki. "You could see all of us having quality at-bats and I think when the ball went, we were all just super-excited, even with the walks and the singles, and those three-run home runs, I think that was huge for us. It was an awesome feeling for all of us."
 
Wichita State (33-17) got a couple of runs back on a home run in the top of the third, but those would be the Shockers' only runs of the game.
 
The Ducks scored another run for a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the third on Vallery Wong's RBI ground out before blowing the game open in the fourth.
 
Oregon's speed set the table for a big inning. Williams dropped a ball over the infield to right for her second hit of the night and advanced to second on an interference call at first base. Sinicki then slapped a ball that the second baseman couldn't handle and Williams scampered home on the play.
 
Delgado then singled to move Sinicki to third and both runners came around on Ariel Carlson's monster shot to the parking lot in left field, giving the Ducks an 8-2 lead. It was her club-leading 14th home run of the season.
 
Rachel Cid followed Carlson with a line drive that just cleared the left field wall for her fourth home run of the season.
 
Terra McGowan led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to end the game via the run rule.
 
"Getting the first win is always the most important and having a little bit of experience with that, we came in definitely with a chip on our shoulder from last year, and we just wanted to have fun," said McGowan, who played on the Ducks' 2021 NCAA Tournament team that lost its opening game to Texas State. "It's postseason, it's the best time of the year, and to bring newbies into it and to have such a fantastic night was honestly the most fun I've ever had."
 
While the Duck offense scored in four straight innings, Makenna Kliethermes was just as effective in the circle. She came on in relief of Stevie Hansen the in top of the third with the Ducks holding a 3-2 lead and the tying run at third base. She induced a groundout to Sinicki at short to end the inning and kept Wichita State off the scoreboard for rest of the game.
 
Kliethermes worked out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the fifth that included a strikeout of Addison Barnard, the nation's leading home run hitter who had homered in the second inning, in improving to 10-5 on the year.
 
Noteworthy: Carlson's 14th homer of the season tied her for ninth on the UO single season top 10 list. … Sinicki's home run was her fifth of the year; McGowan's was her third. … It was the seventh time this season that Oregon hit four or more home runs in a game. … Williams went 2-for-2 in her NCAA Tournament debut. Delgado had her team-leading 18th multi-hit game of the season. … The Ducks didn't commit an error for the 26th time this season. … Oregon has been error free in six of its last seven games.
 
Quotable
Head Coach Melyssa Lombardi
"Every team we're going to face in the postseason is really, really good. There's a reason why everybody is here so it's just again like I'm going off of what our athletes have said earlier, staying with ourselves, trusting our plans when we have opportunities to make plays on defense, opportunities to cash in on offense, we need to be able to do it."
 
Shortstop Paige Sinicki
 "It helps having Terra and (Allee Bunker) and all the older girls here to help me relax in these moments, but we just talk about getting that first win and getting that first tile, and just chipping away at this game, because this game is all that matters. I think today we did that, and tomorrow we go in like it's a new game."
 
On Deck: Oregon plays the No. 4 overall seed Arkansas Saturday at 11 a.m. Pacific Time (ESPN+).
 
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