Civil War rivalry takes flight in Corvallis
The Ducks search for their
first series victory of the
Pac-10 season with two
games against Oregon State
By Mindi Rice
Senior Sports Reporter
This year, the Civil War softball bat
tle has no official bearing on the Civil
War Cup — Oregon has already
clinched the victory, 9-6, with the two
point softball match the only one left
on the docket.
Instead, the rivalry that resumes at
2 p.m. today in Corvallis and ends
with Saturday's 2 p.m. game will ei
ther put space between No. 14 Ore
gon and No. 15 Oregon State or tight
en up the state's contributions to the
Pacific-10 Conference.
"We know they want nothing more
than to beat us," said Oregon second
baseman Erin Goodell. "There's noth
ing more disappointing than losing in
the bottom of the seventh inning.
That's just going to make them even
more ambitious to go out there and
beat us."
The schools opened the Pac-10 sea
son March 26 at Howe Field, one
week before any other teams played
within the conference.
Oregon State (32-11 overall, 1-3
Pac-10) held an 8-3 lead on the rainy
Friday going into the bottom of the
seventh inning. The Ducks (29-9,3-1)
batted through the order to tie the
game at eight. When shortstop Bre
anne Sabol came up to bat for the sec
ond time in the inning, she hit a sin
gle to left center that scored the
winning run for Oregon.
"We've beaten them already," catch
er lenn Poore said. "We came from a
big deficit to win. We know that we
can win these next two games this
The Ducks were winless in Corvallis
for seven seasons before Arendsen
came to town last season. Oregon
won the sole game at Oregon State in
2003,10-2.
The Beavers have held resentment
from last year's blowout win as well as
from the last-minute loss two weeks
ago. While the Ducks have last season's
results on their minds, they also want
to rewrite the end of the 2003 season,
when Oregon fell one game short of
the Women's College World Series
with a 6-4 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette.
"We think about last year," Goodell
said. "It was kind of devastating for us
just missing the World Series. We're
trying to go one game at a time, but
we still have our long-term goals in
mind. We want to be there this year."
Before Oregon can make plans for
Oklahoma City, the site of this year's
World Series, the Ducks must take it
one game at a time. Next up: Oregon
State.
Contact the senior sports reporter
at mindirice@dailyemerald.com.
weekend. We've just got to take the
momentum into this weekend."
The momentum that Oregon has is
not only from the win against Oregon
State. The Ducks are 6-2 in their past
eight games, including a five-game
winning streak last week that boasted
wins against No. 3 California and No.
11 Stanford, as well as a doubleheader
sweep of Portland State.
"We're feeling really good about
how we're playing right now," Good
ell said. "Confidence is a key in this
game and we have it right now. 1 think
we have a lot going for us."
Oregon is off to its best conference
start, 3-1, since the 1989 season. The
one loss was a 6-1 defeat at the hands
of Stanford on Sunday.
The two games this weekend close
the regular season series between Ore
gon and Oregon State before either
plays four other Pac-10 squads. Nei
ther the Ducks nor the Beavers have
faced Washington, UCLA, Arizona or
Arizona State this season.
"The first thing we're trying to do is
win a series," Oregon head coach
Kathy Arendsen said. "That's always
the first sign of success — when you
can win a series against a Pac-10 op
ponent. Going to our arch-rival's
place is pretty hard. We're going to
have to be sharp."
Adam Amato Senior Photographer
Erin Goodell and the Ducks close the regular season series against the Beavers this weekend, just six games into the Pac-10 season.
SPORTS BRIEF
Gwynn calls for tougher
drug-testing
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. —
Tony Gwynn was quick to point out
that he is just a college baseball coach
now, but he was critical Thursday of
his former major-league colleagues
for not pushing for a stiffer drug-test
ing policy.
Gwynn retired in 2001 with 3,141
hits and a .338 batting average, and is el
igible to enter the Hall of Fame in 2007.
Gwynn, 43, the coach of San
Diego State's baseball team, was at
the Air Force Academy for the first of
three games.
Thursday's game was postponed
because of the weather, but before it,
Gwynn voiced concerns for the game
he played for 20 years. He said base
ball needs a more stringent drug-test
ing policy.
"Everybody thinks it's the union
(opposing stiffer drug-testing)," said
Gwynn, who is in his second season
as the Aztecs' coach. "It's the players.
The players run the union. (Players
Association executive director) Don
Fehr doesn't run the union. If the
players don't want it, they are going to
tell Don Fehr they don't want it and
it's not going to happen.... Ihe play
ers run the union. The players are the
ones who make the decisions."
Baseball's drug-testing policy, adopt
ed in 2002, does not call for the sus
pension or identification of first-time
offenders — just counseling. One-year
suspensions await five-time offenders.
After balking at first, the player's
union has recently agreed to consider
stiffening its rules because of pressure
from Congress and President Bush.
Bush was critical of steroids in
sports during January's State of the
Union address, and Sen. John Mc
Cain, R-Ariz., told l ehr and baseball
commissioner Bud Selig at a hearing
last month that "the status quo is not
acceptable."
Gwynn spoke out about drugs in
baseball a year ago, estimating 50 per
cent of position players use ampheta
mines, in an interview with The New
York Times.
* —Todd Jacobson
The Gazette (KRT)
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