Triple Plays and Twin Killings: The Middle Infield Sparking Oregon’s Momentum

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EUGENE, Ore. — The Ducks were dominant in the circle Friday, broke out the bats Saturday and flashed the leather Sunday. A team that wants to be firing on all cylinders for the final month of the regular season was certainly doing so against Iowa over the weekend.

The finale was a 6-2 victory for the Oregon softball team, before a sun-soaked crowd of 2,056 at Jane Sanders Stadium. UO middle infielders Kaylynn Jones and Taryn Ho combined to go 3-for-5 at the plate with two runs and an RBI, and they were right in the middle of the sparking defense the Ducks played Sunday.

"Our team is amazing," said Ho, the Ducks' freshman shortstop. "We can win in every different way, and we've shown that. So just knowing we're always going to come back and we're just trusting in each other, leaning on each other, that's all we need."

The Ducks are about to head out on the road for the third time in four weeks, and they'll take with them records of 29-9 overall and 10-2 in the Big Ten. April began with an emphatic sweep, and Oregon will look to maintain that momentum in hopes of securing postseason play back at The Jane come May.

"Going into this weekend, we were talking about, like, it's time to take it up another level," UO coach Melyssa Lombardi said. "Like, can we go to another gear as a team? And I think this series certainly shows that we did that. You look at the first game, you look at the second and the third game, we won in all different ways. And they weren't easy ways to win."

Emma Cox Run

After a run-rule victory Friday, the Ducks came from behind to win a slugfest Saturday. Sunday saw them have the back of starting pitcher Lyndsey Grein (18-4) by throwing out multiple runners on the basepaths.

"The defense was just my absolute highlight," Lombardi said. "I just thought the defense was tremendous. We talk about how defense wins championships, and we want to see all three cylinders, but there's times where different cylinders have to take on more strain. And to see the defense get us out of a couple of big-time innings that could have possibly gone the other way was huge."

How It Happened: Jones tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Amari Harper in the first, staking Grein to an early lead. It remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth, thanks in part to that outstanding UO defense.

With one out and a runner on first in the top of the fourth, the Hawkeyes hit a potential game-tying double. Harper dug the ball out of the left-field corner and hit the cut-off player, Ho — whose relay caused the lead runner to check up between third and home. Ho then scrambled to cover third, where she first tagged out the lead runner trying to get back to the base, then tagged out the batter on the play trying to stretch her double during the rundown.

Taryn Ho Third Base Tag

"We're trying to help our pitchers," Ho said. "So for us to be able to do anything to help them and get off the field so we can go hit, that's our job. So we just know what we have to do and we get it done."

The Ducks thus still were up 1-0 going into the bottom of the fourth, when Ayanna Shaw made it 3-0 with a two-run homer. It was the first of the season for the speedy outfielder, who can sometimes be found at the top or bottom of the order but hit fifth Sunday, allowing her to swing away.

"I kind of play it by situation," Shaw said of her approach at the player. "You know, nobody on, trying to get on base; runners on, trying to drive them in. It's by situation."

Iowa broke through for two runs in the fifth, but it might have been three or more. With two runners in scoring position and nobody out, Grein fielded a comebacker and started a pickle that ended with Jones tagging out the runner from third base.

Kaylynn Jones Rundown Tag

Taylour Spencer came on to get the final two outs of that inning. The Ducks doubled their lead in the sixth when Jones tripled and scored on an error, Ho drove in a run and Stefini Ma'ake capped the three-run rally with a single that scored Shaw. That sent Spencer back out to close it out in the seventh, when she pitched around a one-out single to secure the win.

"Loved it," Lombardi said of Spencer's outing. "She retired eight out of nine batters; came in and just pounded the zone. And that's something we talked about all week in practice, was just pounding the zone. She let her defense work behind her. I thought her look was completely different than Lyndsey's look, and you could see they were trying to figure her out, and just didn't have enough innings to do it."

Notable: Spencer recorded the first save of her career. … Harper's sacrifice fly extended Oregon's single-season record this spring to 27. … Jones had two triples in a game for the second time in her career, and just the fourth time in UO history.

Up Next: The Ducks open a three-game series at Maryland on Friday (3 p.m., Big Ten Network).