Bend’s Addisen Fisher leads No. 6 UCLA past No. 5 Oregon softball to even series

EUGENE — Addisen Fisher returned to Jane Sanders Stadium, the place she led Bend Excessive College to the Class 5A state title final 12 months, and delivered a shutout efficiency to tug UCLA again right into a tie with Oregon for the Huge Ten lead.

Fisher allowed three hits and one stroll and struck out three in an 8-0 win for the No. 6 Bruins win in six innings over the No. 5 Geese Saturday afternoon in entrance of two,517.

“All the feels coming back here,” Fisher mentioned. “Obviously I grew up coming to games here and this is a crazy experience to be able to do this with this team.”

It was the second shutout of the season for Fisher, who had a five-inning win over Howard in March. Final 12 months’s Gatorade Nationwide Participant of the Yr, Fisher wanted simply 86 pitches whereas holding Oregon 0 for 8 with runners in scoring place.

“A lot of people came from Bend to support,” Fisher mentioned. “The thing I told everybody was everybody who’s coming here to support me and everyone who wants to see me play is going to be just as proud if I go out and play great, if I don’t play great or if I don’t play at all. That was a lot more comforting than I thought it would be; to go out and play my game and know that my team is going to back me up on offense.”

It was Oregon’s first run-rule loss since April 22, 2022, in opposition to Washington and its first time being shutout since a 3-0 loss to Oregon State on April 24, 2024.

“I don’t think we played well enough today, in any area, to come and get that win,” Oregon coach Melyssa Lombardi mentioned. “It took us long to try to make an adjustment at the plate. We had two hits going into the sixth. I liked some of the pitching hand-offs that we did, but I thought it got deeper in the game we were not commanding the zone and working ahead. We were working behind and let (up) too many big hits.”

Lyndsey Grein, who led Oregon to Friday’s series-opening win, began the day within the circle and recorded back-to-back eight-pitch strikeouts in an ideal first, however was relieved after only one inning by left-hander Staci Chambers as Lombardi elected to play for matchups early on.

Chambers allowed two hits in 2/3 inning earlier than Elise Sokolsky took over and ended the second.

Sokolsky walked No. 9 hitter Kaitlyn Terry to guide off the third and an error put two on. Two batters later, Jordan Woolery hit a sacrifice fly to place the Bruins (41-6, 13-2 Huge Ten) on the board and wild pitch made it 2-0.

Fisher (14-4) retired seven straight Oregon hitters till Dez Patmon led off the fifth with a single and took second on an error. The Geese (40-5, 13-2) had a runner on third with one out, however couldn’t get on the board as Fisher escaped the jam with a pair of floor outs.

“She pitched well and kept getting us to ground out,” Lombardi mentioned. “We kept making the same type of outs and not making the adjustment as soon as we needed to.”

Terry and Jessica Clements hit back-to-back two-out singles to finish the day for Sokolsky (11-2) within the sixth. She allowed 4 runs, two earned, on 5 hits and three walks over 4 innings.

“I thought she needs to tighten things up a little bit,” Lombardi mentioned. “We were too up and down with the counts, instead of getting ahead and putting people away.”

Taylour Spencer walked Savannah Pola and Woolery adopted with a bases-clearing double to make it 5-0. After an intentional go to Megan Grant, Kaniya Bragg hit a three-run residence run to left to invoke the run rule.

Kai Luschar singled to guide off the underside of the sixth and stole second, however was stranded as Fisher retired three straight to even the collection.

“I was trusting my strength more than I was trusting their weaknesses and that usually works for me best,” Fisher mentioned.

The collection finale is 2 p.m. Sunday with first place within the Huge Ten at stake.