Stefini Ma'ake's two homer day lifts Oregon over rival Oregon State

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Two weeks ago, and with her Ducks trailing the Washington Huskies by three runs in the sixth inning, Stefini Ma'ake drove a double up the middle to clear the bases and tie the game, snapping a 0-18 skid at the plate.

The freshman from San Diego had gotten off to an incredibly hot start to the season, taking home Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors after hitting four home runs at the Littlewood Classic in February, before falling into a rut, beginning a seven-game hitless streak at the Jane Sanders Classic.

Since that hit at Washington, Ma'ake has cemented herself as a staple in the Oregon lineup, hitting .600 with four home runs and 17 RBI. She took home Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors for the second time at Rutgers last weekend before putting a stamp on things on Wednesday night, leading the No. 5 Ducks to a 9-1 victory over the Oregon State Beavers with a pair of home runs. 

Back at that Jane Sanders Classic Ma'ake's cold spell began. The Beavers stole a game from the Ducks in what had otherwise been a successful weekend that saw them win a pair of games over a top 10-ranked Florida State team. Oregon's lineup failed to manage a single extra-base hit off of Beaver starter Logan Hulon as she tossed a two-run complete game to lead Oregon State to victory.

That was the opposite of Wednesday night's story, as this time, it was Oregon (32-3, 6-1) starter Elise Sokolsky who dominated for the complete game, while the Ducks' offense pieced up Hulon for nine runs on 11 hits.

Early on, the game looked like it would be a pitchers' duel. Kai Luschar led off her birthday game by reaching base and stealing second for the 18th time this season — this time with her sixth walk — but was left stranded as her sister Kedre flew out to left to end the inning. Sokolsky fanned the first two of her six strikeouts into the bottom of the inning, once again utilizing her nasty changeup for whiffs, before with two outs, Ma'ake went downstairs to scoop a full-count dropball from Hulon over the fence in left center.

Both pitchers continued to look solid, but in the bottom of the third, Sokolsky began to face trouble for the first time. A pair of walks and a single loaded the bases for Oregon State with only one down, but Sokolsky was able to limit the damage to just one run after a pair of flyouts to Luschar in left field.

The game broke open in the next half inning as Kedre Luschar led off with a double before scoring on Braiesey Rosa's sacrifice fly, and Ma'ake crushed her second homer of the day, this one a towering two-run shot that just scraped over the fence in left to make it 4-1 Ducks.

Oregon continued to pour it on from there while Sokolsky shut down the Beavers. The Ducks scored in each of the game's final four innings while Sokolsky retired the final 13 batters she saw in a row.

A Katie Flannery single brought home Paige Sinicki after a leadoff double in the fifth, and Kaylynn Jones brought home Regan Legg on a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Oregon added three more runs in the seventh thanks to a costly Beaver throwing error that allowed a pair of runs to score on a Rosa grounder.

Sokolsky shut things down from there, striking out her sixth and final batter on yet another changeup to secure her third complete game victory of the season.

Oregon will be back home this weekend to host the Michigan Wolverines for a three-game set of Big Ten softball, with first pitches set for 6 PM on Friday, 4 PM on Saturday, and 1 PM on Sunday. The Ducks will conclude their season series with the Beavers on April 16 after they return home from Minnesota, their next conference road series.