By: Cole Rothman

An impressive 4-1 home stand against UC Berkeley and Portland State has helped the Ducks scrape their way into sixth place in Pac-12 standings. This afternoon, the women in white and green took on the Oregon State Beavers, in game 1 of 3 in their classic rivalry series. The Civil War series is usually drama enough for the Eugene faithful, but today’s game was about more than just bragging rights. Both teams are looking to make a postseason push, and everyone expected a hard fought battle from both side. Today was anything but that. The Beavers were all over Jordan Dail, as they smashed their way to a dominant 8-0, run-rule victory in the 5th inning.

The Ducks managed only 6 hits today, 4 of which came from stellar freshmen, Allee Bunker and Jasmine Sievers. The stat sheets shows an offensive travesty, but a closer look at game film would reveal that the Ducks actually made solid contact for most of the afternoon. Oregon State’s Mariah Mazon only struck out 4 batters, but the Ducks balls continuously found gloves in either the hands of Beavers or disconcerted looking fans. The Ducks threatened to score a couple times, but were never able to get a runner across home plate.

Jordan Dail is usually seen dominating opposing bats and doing it with quite a few strikeouts, but today was exactly the opposite. Dail struggled with her accuracy today and  in 5 innings of action, Dail: allowed 8 hits, walked 3 batters and only struck out two Beavers.

Today was an uncharacteristic lose from Dail and the Ducks, marred by bad hops and controversial calls. When asked about what the Ducks need to do to bounce back from this loss, coach Melyssa Lombardi wisely advised her players to forget this game, move on and regroup for tomorrow. Tomorrow, the Ducks look to put this anomaly behind them and reinvigorate their playoff push. The second battle of the Civil War begins tomorrow night at 6 p.m in Eugene.