Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dzulyemerald.com
Tuesday, April 15,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
English Premiership:
Manchester United at Newcastle
Noon, Fox Sports
Ducks or
Mariners?
Nobody
could tell
The crack of the bat. The smack of
the ball into a waiting glove. The sun
shining down on fans dispersed through
the stands.
All these things are reminiscent of an
afternoon game in a major league park.
For 327 fans at Howe Field,
Saturday afternoon held all the famil
iar promise of a day well spent at
Safeco Field — minus 46,000 fans,
Edgar Martinez and overpriced sushi.
With the Pacific-10 Conference
being the national powerhouse it is —
three teams lead the conference and
country — a game between any two of
these eight teams can range from
blowout to battle.
After being
rocked 9-0 by No.
3 Washington on
Friday, the No. 20
Ducks had a
pregame pep talk
from men’s bas
ketball head
coach Ernie Kent
on Saturday.
Combined with
the one-day revis
it of an old
Oregon uniform
— a uniform that
had its start in
2000, the last time Oregon finished
the season about .500 — the tracks
were laid out for a good battle.
Amy Harris, a Freddy Garcia in her
own right, was strong in the top of
the first inning. The freshman struck
out one batter and got the first and
third batters to hit into outs.
The next inning and a half went
much the same: The Ducks sent 10
batters to the plate but couldn’t pick
up a run, while Harris struck out
another batter.
In the top of the third, Harris gave
up a single and a double — with the
runner scoring — but struck out two
batters as Oregon escaped the inning.
Sophomore Erin Goodell, a Carlos
Guillen-esque middle infielder, led off
the bottom of the third with a walk.
Freshman Beth Boskovich followed with
a perfect Ichiro-like sacrifice bunt.
After hearing about senior Andrea
Vidlund’s stellar Wednesday against
Portland State — Vidlund had an
impressive old school Alex
Rodriguez-like day with two home
runs — the Bruins wanted no chance
for her to school them. Vidlund was
granted an intentional base on balls.
Next up was senior Alyssa Laux.
Laux pulled a Bret Boone on her sec
ond pitch, sending her second home
run of the season over the fence in
right center field for a three-run shot.
No. 2 UCLA took a turn in the fourth,
but Harris threw only nine pitches as
the Bruins hit into three outs.
In the bottom of the fourth,
Boskovich earned a walk on four con
secutive pitches. Rodriguez — oops, I
mean Vidlund — took the second pitch
Turn to Rice, page 10
Mindi
Rice
The girl
and the game
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Oregon's Doug McKenzie snags a disc at a tournament in Santa Cruz, Calif.
Disc locks
The Oregon Ultimate team is ranked third in the nation
and is looking for more success in a talented region
Jon Roetman
Freelance Sports Reporter
What do you get when you mix a football-style passing attack
with a plastic disc?
Oregon Ultimate.
The seven-on-seven, non
contact display of disc-passing
ability is a popular game
among Oregon students. So
popular, in fact, that it has led
to considerable success at the
club level. With its calculated
aerial assault, different de
fenses and high energy level, the Oregon men’s Ultimate team has
worked its way into the No. 3 spot in the national rankings.
“It’s definitely a pretty popular sport,” club coordinator and soph
omore Ben Parrell said. “People just like to toss (a disc) around.”
A rough explanation of the object behind Ultimate is this: Ath
letes attempt to score goals by passing a disc from teammate to
teammate until someone catches it in the endzone. While on the
attack, the offensive team must keep the disc off the ground at all
times. If the disc touches the ground, the defense immediately
takes over possession with no down-time in between.
Once a player has the disc, he is allowed a pivot foot but can’t
take any extra steps. Shuffling of the feet leads to a traveling call
and a change in possession. The game is over when a team, de
pending on the tournament, reaches 13 or 15 goals. If a team does
not reach the winning goal total within the time limit (between 90
minutes and two hours), the new winning total becomes two goals
higher than the score of the team with the lead.
Since contact is outlawed, playing defense proves to be the most
difficult aspect of the game. Teams use both zone and man defenses
in an attempt to obscure an opponent’s passing lane as best they can.
“Stopping another team’s precise, calculated offense is extreme
ly difficult,” senior and coach Ben Wiggins said. “Especially against
the type of athletes we’re playing.”
The Ducks need all the practice they can get, as they compete
in the toughest region in the country. The Northwest region holds
nine of the top 20 spots in the national rankings, including the top
pair of Stanford and California.
“We’re coming out of the hardest region,” Wiggins said. “Wre
need big, fast and strong athletes.”
Turn to Ultimate, page 10
Club
Sports
Tuesday
Ducks surpass ’01 and ’02 Pac-10 win totals
Oregon’s six-member senior class
has its second-best record in four years
at the 2003 season’s halfway point
Softball
Mindi Rice
Sports Reporter
In the midst of Pacific-10 Conference play, No.
20 Oregon has tied its combined conference win
record from the past two seasons.
The Ducks split their first weekend of Pac-10
play at home, playing what head coach Kathy
Arendsen called a “phenomenal” game against
UCLA on Saturday. The Ducks pulled out the 5-4
win over the Bruins—the first time since May 1999
that Oregon won against UCLA and the first time
since May 1998 that the Bruins did not sweep the
Ducks in Eugene.
Friday’s 9-0 loss to No. 3 Washington extended
the Huskies’ Eugene winning streak to five years.
“It was rather disappointing,” Arendsen said
about Friday’s game.
The game included a first inning home run by
Husky Kristen Rivera that fans claimed was foul—
and they didn’t let the umpires forget it for the rest
of the weekend.
Regardless of the Friday and Sunday—a 9-3 loss
to UCLA — outcomes, Oregon’s senior class now
has its second-most Pac-10 wins for a season with
conference play only halfway over.
A Wednesday doubleheader against Portland
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Alyssa Laux and the Ducks upended UCLA on Saturday but lost to the Bruins on Sunday and UW on Friday.
State sends Oregon into a two-game home series
against Oregon State. The Ducks have already
chalked up one Pac-10 win in Corvallis this season.
Basketball vibes rub off
The day of the Ducks’ 5-4 win over UCLA, a spe
cial guest paid Oregon a pregame visit.
Men’s basketball head coach Ernie Kent spoke
to the softball team before the squad’s first game
against UCLA.
“It was a motivational point of view,” Arendsen
said. “He talked about where basketball was when
he arrived at Oregon and how it’s progressed. ”
From Oregon’s inspired performance on
Turn to Softball, page 10