NORMAN, Okla. - Arkansas' offense never got untracked Saturday night as the Oregon defeated the Lady Razorbacks 3-0 to advance to today's championship game at the NCAA regional tournament at the OU Softball Complex.
Arkansas was playing its second game of the day after being knocked into the losers bracket Saturday afternoon by host Oklahoma. The Sooners defeated the Lady Razorbacks 6-5 in 11 innings, and Arkansas' offense never seemed to get itgoing against Oregon.
"I want to first off express how proud I am of this ball club" Arkansas Coach Jamie Pinkerton said. "As disappointing as it is right now, the seniors and the heart of Arkansas softball are really devastated. The team was emotionally spent, and after the first inning they did a heck of a job to come out and play."
Oregon jumped on Arkansas with three runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back. Sari-Jane Jenkins reached on a leadoff walk, stole second and was sacrificed to third by Lovena Chaput. Neena Bryant hit a sacrifice fly to center that brought in Jenkins. With two outs, JoannaGail doubled to left center before Monique Fuiava hit a tworun home run to right-center.
That was all it took as Arkansas managed only five hits in the game, led by Dayna Huckabee's 2-for-3 performance.
It was quite a contrast from the first game, when Arkansas pounded out 13 hits.
Arkansas forced extra innings against Oklahoma thanks to Miranda Dixon's home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Oklahoma (45-12) won it with Savannah Long's home run in the 11th.
Sports, Pages 36 on 05/18/2008