Oregon softball has talked all season about taking strain from each other and playing for each other. With an injury to its RBI leader and an early deficit, everyone needed to step up to keep the season rolling.
Senior Dezianna Patmon was the one who stepped up to the plate in the biggest moment. In the bottom of the seventh, the Ducks had runners on the corners and a chance to host a Super Regional. “The Lion’s Den” exploded in cheers as soon as the pitch to Patmon bent over the left field wall.
No. 16-seeded Oregon (51-7, 19-3 Big Ten) walked it off in a 10-7 win against Stanford (50-13, 16-8 ACC) on Sunday night. The host team came off a 15-5 victory over the Cardinal earlier in the day to force a decisive Eugene Regional final.
“We had some miscues today in both games that could have took us out of it, and it didn’t. These guys were so on a mission to get what they want,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “To watch them come together as a team and just compete on every pitch was amazing. To me, that was the last little piece that I’ve been waiting on for this team.”
Stanford had the bases loaded in the top of the first. Lyndsey Grein got up in the count 1-2, one strike away from sending it to the bottom of the inning.
Joie Economides battled back to run the count full. She belted the payoff pitch over the left field wall to earn the grand slam, giving the Ducks a tall mountain to climb in the first inning.
The Ducks left runners on the corners after the four-run top of the inning. Matters got worse for Oregon in the second when Rylee McCoy, who just tied the Oregon single-season home run record in the previous game, got blasted in the face by a line drive to first base.
Jane Sanders was so silent that you could hear a pin drop as McCoy spent several minutes surrounded by Oregon staff. Remmington Hewitt replaced her at first base, and the Ducks were able to send it to the bottom of the second inning without any more runs allowed.
“I’ve never seen a team come together more than we did in that moment, because she has meant so much to us this whole season,” catcher Emma Cox said. “We wanted to do it even more for her than anything else.”
The Oregon players huddled up to regroup after the McCoy injury. The Ducks refused to let the beginning of the game rattle them. The nine hitter, Katie Flannery, belted a homer with two runners on to pull the Ducks back within one.
Economides earned back those three runs for the Cardinal with her second homer of the game to put her RBI total up to seven in the top of the third. Staci Chambers entered in relief of Grein and retired the remaining Stanford batters.
Shortstop Paige Sinicki walked at the bottom of the inning, before Cox homered to trail 7-5.
Despite the untraditional defensive lineup — with Stefini Ma’ake later coming in at first, Ayanna Shaw in right field and Chambers pitching — Oregon kept the Cardinal out of the scoring column for the rest of the game.
“I have had multiple outings throughout this season, where the team has put me on their back,” Chambers said. “So being able to flip the switch and just do what I can for them.”
Kedre Luschar came home to score in the fifth off a wild pitch and an obstruction error by third base. The Ducks had an opportunity to go up with two on base and one out, but they came up short in the inning following a Stanford double play.
Patmon nearly hit the ball over the right field wall, but instead tripled in the sixth. Kai Luschar drove in the tying run with a single to pitcher, and no play was made at home.
Chambers’ night came to an end after 4.1 innings pitched. She didn’t allow any runs, but the Cardinal had the potential leading run on third. The throw from third to first was in time to give the Ducks a chance to walk it off.
Sinicki singled through the right side. She stole second and advanced to third off an errant throw to put Oregon only a few feet away from a Super Regional berth. An intentional Cox walk brought up Patmon.
Patmon’s walk-off kept the Ducks’ season alive and extended their streak of wins when recording a homer to 41 straight.
“This is why you come to Oregon to have big moments like this. I wasn’t hanging up the cleats today,” Patmon said. “I know that we talked about that as seniors. We were not done. This was not the end of Version 7’s journey.”
Oregon will host the Super Regionals against Liberty on May 22-25 after Texas A&M fell to the Flames 6-5 on Sunday.
“We were competing to play at the Jane again. We have the best stadium,” Patmon said. “I stand on that. Jane-sanity is real, and our fans are crazy, and I love them.”
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