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Best Bet
NHL, Conf. quarterfinals No. 5
4:30 p.m., ESPN
April 20,2000
Volume 101, Issue 135
Emerald
Freshman Vidlund helps UO bounce back
The Ducks pick up the
second game of
Wednesday’s
doubleheader to win
one against Hawaii
By Matt O'Neill
Oregon Daily Emerald
It was a bittersweet after
noon for the No. 18 Oregon
softball team as it split two
games with Hawaii Wednes
day afternoon at Howe Field.
The Wahine (17-20 overall)
picked up the first contest, 9
6, while the Ducks (29-18,4-6
Pacific-10 Conference) sal
vaged the day with a 6-1 vic
tory in the nightcap.
“Our intensity was really
low in the first game,” fresh
man Andrea Vidlund said. “I
told them if we don’tpick up
our intensity, then we aren’t
going to win another game.
So I had to make sure the
mental focus was there.”
Vidlund (15-4) helped the
Ducks’ cause by throwing a
gem, going seven innings and
allowing one run on five hits.
“My mental focus was
there today,” Vidlund said. “I
really concentrated out there;
that was my main goal to
day.”
Oregon batted around in
the fourth inning, scoring five
runs on five hits and an error.
The Ducks loaded the bases
with no one out. Holly Ray
then laid down a squeeze
bunt to score Welch. Then
Amber Hutchinson delivered
a double to drive in two runs.
Hutchinson scored one batter
later on a wild pitch.
“We did some things right
out there,”
head coach
Rick
Gamez
said. “We
squeezed,
hit the ball
with run
ners in scoring position, and
that was helpful.”
Vidlund gave up the
Wahine’s only run in the top
of the first when Melissa
McGie led off with a double
and scored on a single by
Tyree Woodruff.
“Andrea did a great job in
the second game,” Gamez
said. “She gave up five hits
on the game and I think three
or four of them were in the
first inning.”
In the first game, Hawaii
started the day with a blast —
or two in the case of Dana De
gen, who had a career day.
The designated hitter parked
two home runs over the fence
Turn to Softball, page 9A
My mental
focus was there
today, I really
concentrated
out there...
Andrea Vidlund
pitcher
Ryan Starkweather Emerald
Pam Sowden is the winner of two individual titles this year.
■ New Zealand natives Pam Sowden and Kylie Wilson
hope to end their illustrious Oregon careers on a
high note this postseason, starting at the Pac-10
Championships in Eugene next week
By Peter Hockaday
for the Emerald
Last summer, the Oregon
women’s golf team took a trip
down under to the largest is
land in the world and its hum
ble next door neighbor. For
most of the team, it was a
chance to see the sights and
soak up the sun of Australia
and New Zealand.
But for two Ducks, it was a
homecoming.
“It was awesome to have the
team come home to play our
golf courses and meet our fam
ilies,” senior co-captain Kylie
Wilson says in her bright New
Zealand accent, in which
“team” sounds more like
“tame” and “golf” more like
“gulf.”
Wilson and fellow senior
captain Pam Sowden have
traveled a long way to get
where they are today — cap
tains of a Pac-10 golf team,
medalists at three tournaments
this year, playing on some of
the most beautiful golf courses
in America.
“They’ve represented Ore
gon and themselves, their fam
ilies and actually their country
as great ambassadors,” head
coach Renee Baumgartner
said.
Now, less than a week be
fore Sowden and Wilson’s fi
nal postseason in Oregon golf
shirts, the two Auckland na
tives are at once excited about
the postseason and reflective
of their time as Ducks.
For Sowden and Wilson,
leading the women’s golf team
has been much more than a
position. The two have cap
tained the team on and off the
golf course this year with low
On Tap
What: Pac-10 women’s goif
championships
Who: Every Pac-10 team
Where: Eugene Country Club
When: April 24- 26, all day
scores and positive attitudes.
“Coach always says, if we
look after ourselves, the team’s
going to benefit as well,” says
Wilson.
Baumgartner knows what
she’s talking about.
In the nine tournaments
Oregon played during the reg
ular season, Sowden won two
individual titles and Wilson
won one. Oregon won all three
of those tournaments — the
Fall Nittany Lion Invitational,
the Colby/ Santa Clara Invita
tional and the Lady Aztec In
vitational.
“Not a lot of Oregon golfers
have won tournaments,”
Baumgartner said. “They’re
pretty significant in what
they’ve meant to Oregon golf.”
Although you might not be
lieve it in the scores-oriented
world of Pac-10 golf, the two
captains stress team unity al
most as much as low handi
caps.
“It’s an individual sport but
also a team sport,” Sowden
says. “You have to trust your
teammates.”
Beyond golf course fences
the team eats, hangs out and,
of course, takes the occasional
trip to Australia together.
“It’s like a family,” Wilson
says.
But before the captains can
Turn to Thunder, page 10A
Ryan Starkweather Emerald
Senior Kylie Wilson has also won an individual tourney.