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Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
-OregonDailyEmerald
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Monday, April 7,2003
Softball snaps losing streak with upset
Oregon splits its Rac-10 road
trip over the weekend with a
win over Stanford and two
losses to California
Softball
Mindi Rice
Sports Reporter
The Ducks snapped their three
game losing streak with a win Friday,
tying their Pacific-10 Conference win
I
total from the 2002 season.
No. 21 Oregon (18-11 overall, 2-5
Pac-10) won two conference games af
ter only five Pac-10 battles for the first
time since 1999, when the Ducks were
3-2 after five Pac-10 games.
Oregon had lost three straight games
for the first time this season going into
Friday’s matchup against No. 12 Stan
ford. The Ducks stretched a two-hour
and 50-minute game into a 10 inning,
3-2 win against the Cardinal.
Stanford (28-14, 2-4) scored first
with one run in the first inning, but
Oregon junior catcher Jenn Poore hit a
two-run home run — her first of the
season — to left field in the top of the
second inning.
Stanford came back to tie in the bot
tom of the second with a solo home
run. Oregon pitchers Amy Harris, a
freshman, and senior Andrea Vidlund
held Stanford scoreless over the next
eight innings, combining for eight
strikeouts during the game.
In the top of the 10th, senior first
baseman Alyssa Laux hit a two-out
single, scoring Poore for the win
ning run. Vidlund closed the game,
earning the win.
“This was an outstanding win for us
today,” head coach Kathy Arendsen
said Friday. “Our defense was excel
lent, our pitching was tremendous and
we were able to get key hits when we
needed them. I’m extremely pleased
with how we played today. ”
The win marked the team’s second
victory in a row at Stanford. The Ducks
ended their 2002 season with a 4-0 win
against the Cardinal.
Saturday did not hold the same fate
as Friday for Oregon, as the Ducks
were held scoreless by a top-10 team
for the second time in one week.
No. 7 California (32-9,4-2) gave up
only two hits to Oregon in the Bears’
4-0 win. Oregon had its sixth errorless
game of the season, but the Bears
scored two runs in the third and added
two more in the fifth to end the
Ducks’ hopes for consecutive wins.
“I thought we came out strong
again defensively and pitched well
again,” Arendsen said Saturday. “We
Turn to Softball, page 14
Plugging the gaps
A number of position battles
started Saturday at the
beginning of spring practices,
most notably at quarterback
Spring football
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
Oregon football head coach Mike
Bellotti admitted after the team’s
spring practice Saturday — the
first of the year — that “we’re not
in great shape yet.”
“The first drill where we had to
move around, a couple of guys’
tongues were hanging out,” Bellotti
said. “That’s to be expected and
that’s why we do spring ball.”
Four months after a devastating
38-17 loss to Wake Forest in the
Seattle Bowl, the Ducks were back
on the field in the first of 15 spring
practices allowed by the NCAA.
There were no pads for this day as
the NCAA also prohibits teams
from practicing in anything but
helmets on the first day.
That will change, however, in up
coming days as the Ducks will don
shoulder pads today and full pads
Tuesday.
“You always fight the battle,
when you’re in helmets only, of
pushing the kids to go as fast as
they possibly can without risking
injury,” Bellotti said.
The practice saw inclement
weather with intermittent rain
throughout most of the day. That
mostly affected the team’s quarter
backs, namely Jason Fife and
Kellen Clemens, who are both ex
pected to fight for the starting
position, and received a majority
of snaps Saturday.
Bellotti said he liked how both
threw the ball, especially in the
face of swirling winds which
wreaked havoc with passes at
times. Both players were just ready
to get back on the field after six
losses in seven games toward the
end of last season.
“It was great,” Clemens said. “It
rained on us a little bit; typical Eu
gene weather. The team is definite
ly excited to come out here, both
offense and defense. We’re ready to
go and get the ball rolling. We’ve
been waiting a long time with a bad
taste in our mouth from the Seattle
Bowl.”
“(The Seattle Bowl) lit a fire un
der our ass in the offseason, so to
speak,” Fife said.
Johnny DuRocher, a 6-foot-4
inch quarterback from Graham,
Wash., and one of five early new
comers to the Ducks after finishing
high school early, also got his first
taste of action.
“He threw the ball pretty well,”
Clemens said. “He’s picking up re
ally fast. There’s a lot of stuff in this
offense to learn. I thought he did
really well. I was really impressed
for his first day.”
Turn to Football, page 13
Danielle Hickey Emerald
Kenny Washington is one of several tailbacks competing for Onterrio Smith's old job as Oregon's starter.
Holliday vaults to win Saturday at Texas Relays
Geoff Thurner Oregon Media Services
Becky Holliday won the Texas Relays pole vault on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
The senior duplicates her Texas
pole-vaulting title from a year ago
in final action at the four-day meet
Women’s track and field
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
Senior Becky Holliday had her poles with her
Saturday, luckily for her.
Holliday missed the Oregon Preview two weeks
ago because of cargo shipping problems that de
layed her poles and her outdoor debut.
And without missing a step, she vaulted her
way to the top of the podium with her second
straight pole vault crown at the Texas Relays.
Holliday led the women’s track team in Satur
day’s final day, along with four other Ducks who
reeled in top-10 finishes in the field events.
In an all-star field that contained five All-Amer
icans, Holliday was one of just two to clear the
opening height of 12 feet, 1 1/2 inches.
Holliday went on to easily pass 13-1 1/2 while
taking all three attempts to clear 13-5 1/4, the
height that won her the competition. She opted
to pass at 13-9 1/4 and nearly cleared 14-1 1/4 on
her final try but knocked the bar off with her
body on the way down.
“My first jump was probably my best, and after
that I felt a little tired, probably because we’ve
been training hard,” Holliday said. “The condi
tions made it more challenging, but I also didn’t
feel at top physical condition, so considering the
results, I’m happy with it as an outdoor opener.”
Also in the vault, junior Kirsten Riley finished
eighth after parsing 12-1 1/2 in her only clear
ance of the day. Senior Niki McEwen no-heighted
after passing up the first two attempts and miss
ing three times at 13-1 1/2.
In the throws, senior Mary Etter broke through
at the 76th edition of the Texas Relays. In Satur
day’s shot put, Etter needed only one of her six
Turn to Women's, page 12