For six tense innings Wednesday afternoon, it appeared as if Portland State’s tenuous 1-0 lead over the Oregon Ducks would hold. Freshman pitcher Nicole Latham was cruising, locating her pitches well and using her biting screwball to render Oregon batters helpless.
Then the floodgates opened for the Ducks in the top of the seventh inning, when they finally figured out Latham (8-8, 4.83 ERA) and piled on seven runs (five earned) to take a 7-1 lead, strolling to victory in the second game of the midweek doubleheader.
The Ducks won the first game 2-1 behind their own freshman pitcher, Brittany Rumfelt, tagging senior Mandy Hill (12-13, 3.24 ERA) with her 13th loss of the year. The two losses give the Vikings (22-20, 5-3 Pacific Coast Softball Conference) a four-game losing streak and losses in five of their last six games, including a 1-3 weekend against Sacramento State.
Head coach Amy Hayes talked at length with her team after the two losses Wednesday, and said she suspected they might have been looking past Oregon to their weekend date with St. Mary’s (19-19, 5-3 PCSC).
“I thought we played okay,” Hayes said. “I think maybe we looked past Oregon a little bit. They’re a great team. For us, that’s a big rivalry. I think maybe we had started the day thinking a little bit about conference and not putting the importance that we needed on this game.”
Hayes said she thought her team played adequately but that they seemed to be playing “reserved, instead of just going and getting it.” The Vikings’ reserved attitude came into play in the sixth inning of game one, when Portland State had sophomore centerfielder Jackie Heide on first base with one out and the hard-swinging Hill up to bat.
Instead of taking her hacks, Hill, the team leader in home runs, used a sacrifice bunt to move Heide to second base. After Heide moved to third on a wild pitch, senior first baseman Jana Rae Slayton grounded to first base to end the inning, and with it, the last Vikings threat.
“It’s disappointing,” Slayton said. “We always want to win. We just look forward. We don’t dwell on the past. We still have that ring to get.”
Slayton made up for it in game two, when she slapped a single off the hip of pitcher Melissa Rice to drive in what appeared to be a game-winning RBI in the fourth inning. Slayton went 2-3 in game two, after going 0-3 in game one.
Rice was removed after Slayton’s hard liner and was replaced by Alicia Cook, a flame-throwing senior.
“If she gets on, watch out,” Hayes said. “This is the best she’s thrown all year. I didn’t want to see it today.”
Cook came into the game and shut down the Vikings, striking out seven in 3.2 innings of action. The relief effort win was a measure of revenge for Cook, who took a 4-0 loss at the hands of the Vikings on March 5 in Eugene. In that game, Hill pitched a complete-game shutout and went 2-2 at the plate with two RBIs.
“She did a good job throwing us off-speeds,” Slayton said, “and we didn’t do a good job of adjusting.”
Slayton was one of the few bright spots for the Vikings, as was Latham’s commanding performance-up until the final inning. Sophomore catcher Brandi Scoggins was another, as she went 3-3 in game one, driving in the Vikings’ sole run.
“It just felt good,” Scoggins said. “Second game, not so good.”
Scoggins gave credit to Latham for her efforts in the circle, despite the final result.
“She pitched an awesome game,” Scoggins said. “I don’t know what happened. They just found a way to get it through.”
The Vikings will have to find a way to get through this latest rough patch in a season where they struggled for consistent play early on and also had a stretch where they won 12 of 13 games, including a sweep PCSC team San Diego.
They face St. Mary’s this weekend at Erv Lind Stadium for two key doubleheaders. The Gaels are tied for second place in the PCSC with the Vikings at 5-3, one game behind conference-leading Sacramento State (24-15, 6-2 PCSC).
“I don’t doubt anything about this weekend,” Hayes said. “I think our kids are going to show up and do everything they need to do to win the conference championship.”