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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 10, 1998)
Ducks travel to Corvallis for final Civil War Oregon swept its last doubleheader with Oregon State earlier in the season at Howe Field By Joel Hood Sports Reporter Revenge will be on the mind of the Oregon State softball team as it hosts No. 17 Oregon in Corval lis on Saturday. On March 14, the then-No. 12 Beavers were swept by the Ducks at Howe Field to cap a streak in which Oregon won 18 of 21 games. The 2-0 and 5-3 losses dropped Oregon State from the nation’s top 15 and from the list of teams that might challenge Arizona for the Pacific-10 Confer ence crown. Four weeks later, the tables have turned. Oregon (32-15 overall, 4-4 Pac 10) enters this season's final Civil War battle as the favorite and as a team steadily climbing up the conference standings. Despite a disappointing split with Portland State on Wednesday, the Ducks come into Corvallis on a high note following a 3-1 homestand against No. 12 Stanford and No. 20 California. “I expect to see two good ball games,” head coach Rick Gamez said. “I expect Oregon State to come out as hungry as we did at home and ready to play hard and swing the bats well.” But Oregon is the hot team at the plate. Eight of the 10 Duck runs in the first game against Portland State came via the long ball, in cluding two- and three-run homers by Lindsey Welch and Melisa Jeppsen in the top of the fourth inning and capped by a three-run shot by Melinda Wal ton in the fifth. Welch and shortstop Jill Robinson each hit a three-run homer in the Ducks' 9-6 loss in Game 2. Halfway through its conference schedule, Ore gon ranks sec ond in the Pac 10 with a .306 team batting av erage and has at least one player ranked in the top 10 of every major offensive cat egory, including hits, runs, home runs and runs batted in. Those were the keys to the Ducks’ early season Beaver sweep. “I think we’ll have the advantage having beaten them earlier in the season," Gamez said. “But we need to be on top of our game. Every weekend is big for us from here on out. We need to be ready to go.” The key this time around may be the Game 2 starter, which has yet to be announced. Gamez had hoped to make a decision after the Portland State doubleheader but failed to do so after starters Bethany Smith (10-5) and Chris tine Birnbaum (4-1) struggled to get batters out. Smith gave up five runs and six hits in the Game 2 loss, while Birnbaum al lowed six runs on 12 hits in picking up her fourth victory of the season. “We’ll have to wait and see,” Gamez said Wednesday. “It may be a situation where Jennie Cook has to pitch the first game, then wrap up the second one if the game is close.” Cook, who leads the Ducks with a 17-9 overall record, has made a habit of pitching the first game of important doublehead ers, only to return hours later and close out Game 2. The junior pitcher accom plished this feat against the Beavers on March 14, when she held Oregon State to just two hits and no runs in the first game, then came on in the fifth inning of Game 2 and held the Beavers scoreless again. Cook picked up her team-high 10th and 11th vic tories of the season. Oregon State (20-13, 3-5) en ters this game having split three of its four Pac-10 doubleheaders this season. The Beavers hold a 66-53 series advantage over the Ducks but haven’t beaten them since April 30 of last season. NICK MEDLEY/Emerald After unnning the steeplechase last weekend, Micah Dams ttnll sit out Saturday's Brutus Hamilton Memorial in order to prepare for next week's Pepsi Invitational at Haynvard Field. Men: Field events important for UO m Continued from Page 11 next week with Colorado, Arizona State and Wash ington, We know that that’s going to be a tough one and we like to do well at home." The Ducks are not even going to bring two of the athletes who did their fair share in last week’s victory over the Cougars. Piotr Buciarski — who cleared his career outdoor best of 17 feet, 10 1/2 inches in winning the pole vault and who turned in second-place performances in the 100-meter dash and long jump last week — will get a long-needed weekend off. So will junior Micah Davis, who competed in a tough double last week, winning the 3,000-meter steeplechase and fin ishing third in the 5,000 meters. “Piotr competed all through the winter and I think needed a break," Dellinger said. “Micah Davis won’t be going down, so he can get some preparation for a good steeplechase at the Pepsi meet.” Dellinger said the meet also gives the Ducks an op portunity to try some athletes in “some alternate events.” Richard Girvan, a junior from Ireland who sur prised many in winning the 800 meters last week end, will compete in the 1,500 meters Saturday. Jody Mortimore, who won the long jump last weekend, is scheduled to compete in his first 100 meter dash of the season, in addition to the long jump. As they did last weekend, the field events are ex pected to carry the Ducks in Berkeley. Gregg Bleakney, who overtook Washington State's Hilary Mawindi on his final attempt to win the triple jump with a season-best mark of 52-6 1/2 last week, headlines a strong group of Oregon jumpers. “I feel comfortable going into it,” Bleakney said, “and I'll be going against some good jumpers.” Bleakney said his mental approach going into Sat urday’s meet is completely different than last Satur day. “Last week I was just trying to win and this week I’m just going to try to jump far," he said, the differ ence being that he was a bit conservative in his ap proach down the runway last week in order to be sure to get a mark with each jump and not scratch. In the long jump, Mortimore goes into the meet as the Pacific-10 Conference leader after last week’s ef fort, although he may see limited duty because of an ankle injury. Freshman Damian Olson looks to make some noise in the high jump after going 7-0 1/2 last week, 1 1/4 inches off an NCAA provisional qualifying mark. Oregon’s javelin trio of David Ovall, Shawn Ras mor and Ben Mitchell, who all broke the 200-foot barrier last week, are expected to lead the Ducks in the throwing events. Other Pac-10 teams scheduled to compete in the meet include California, Stanford and Southern Cali fornia. Women: Two will compete in 3 events ■ Continued from Page 11 think that effort really helped us as a team. Now it will give us a boost to the individual competi tion this week where we mini mize the team score.” With a month to go until the Pac-10 Championships, Heinonen said the Ducks are in a position to make a big splash in the league meet. “We’ve already qualified 20 people for the Pac-10 meet,” the head coach said. “We’re well ahead of where we’ve been in the past. I think we’re in position to do really well at the end of May.” Leading the way for the women is junior distance runner Marie Davis, who won both the 1,500 and 3,000 meters last weekend. Davis will concentrate on the 1,500 in the Bay Area after recording the nation’s top 3,000 meter time so far — nine min utes, 20 seconds — at the Oregon Preview on March 21. Davis’ sea son best in the 1,500, 4:19.60, is the fourth best in the nation this season. Among the athletes who will be doubling at the meet will be Aisha Wallace (100- and 200-me ter dashes and 4xl00-meter re lay), Stacy Robson (200 and triple jump), Katie Crabb (1,500 and 4x400-meter relay), Jennifer Thomas (100-meter hurdles and long jump), Chris Cvitanich (shotput and hammer) and Mau reen Morrison (discus and ham mer). Two women will compete in three events at the Brutus Hamil ton. Tish Henes and Nicole Com missiong will both run legs in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, while Henes will run the 400 hurdles and Commissiong is entered in the 400 meters. “It’ll be a great chance for Nicole to run a 400 against some fast people without having to worry about a 200 afterwards,” Heinonen said. Also of note for the women is the return of Sue Morris. A 200 and 400 runner, Morris has missed competition with an Achilles injury since the Oregon Preview but will run the 400 in Berkeley. Campus Briefs Hughes invited to ABL combine Natalie Hughes, a Kodak honor able mention all-American and first-team all-Pacific-10 Confer ence selection, has been invited to compete at the American Basket ball League combine April 22-26 at the Koret Center in San Francisco. The ABL combine precedes the league’s draft on May 5, which features five rounds and likely 50 players drafted. Hughes led the Ducks in scor ing (15.3 per game), assists (89 to tal) and minutes played (32.6 per game) last season. The only player to have started all 27 games, Hughes was also second on the team with 34 steals and fourth with a .723 free-throw percentage. Her all-American recognition marks Oregon’s first Kodak hon oree since Lauri Landerholm in 1987, and she also becomes the first guard to lead the team in scoring since that same season. Hughes had eight games of more than 20 points last season, incl uding a career-high 30 against then-No. 17 Western Kentucky. Her biggest shot of the season, however, was a 14-foot jumper with two seconds left that clinched a 68-66 victory against then-No. 7 Arizona, a team that advanced to the Sweet 16. In two years at Oregon, Hughes ranks 10th all-time with a .314 three-point field-goal percentage and is 11th with a .714 free-throw percentage. Bibby announces NBA draft eligibility (AP) — Arizona all-American sophomore guard Mike Bibby moved toward millionaire status Thursday, announcing he’s leav ing school to make himself avail able for the NBA draft. Next up, he’ll get to ponder whether he’ll be a top-five lottery pick, and which offense among the NBA’s worst teams he’ll likely be chosen to run — perhaps Den ver, Golden State, the Los Ange les Clippers, Toronto, Vancouver or maybe Dallas. Some NBA officials believe the 19-year-old Bibby will be the first point guard taken.
