Oregon State defeats Arizona softball for the first time since 2016

The old baseball cliche is “get ‘em on, get ‘em over, get ‘em in.” Oregon State did that all night while Arizona softball stalled as the Beavers defeated the Wildcats 4-1. It was OSU’s first win over UA since 2016 and its first win in Corvallis since 2013.

The pitchers had almost identical stat lines. Arizona’s Hanah Bowen and Oregon State’s Sarah Haendiges both walked five batters. Both gave up four hits. But in the one stat that mattered, Haendiges gave up no earned runs while Bowen gave up four.

Arizona’s only run came on an Oregon State error in the first inning. Despite Haendiges providing numerous opportunities with the bases on balls, the Wildcats couldn’t manufacture anything after that. Arizona left nine runners on base over the course of the game.

One of the major reasons Arizona stranded so many runners was the other superior stat for the Beavers’ freshman pitcher: strikeouts. Haendiges struck out seven Wildcats while Bown had three strikeouts.

The Beavers didn’t use big hits to get their runners across home plate. Three of the four runs were scored on sacrifice flies. Those runs came in the first and fifth innings. In both innings, Bowen walked the leadoff batter.

Arizona was led on offense by Jasmine Perezchica and Allie Skaggs. Perezchica went 2-4 at the plate. Skaggs went 1-3 with a double. The only other Wildcat to get a hit was Blaise Biringer, although four different batters drew walks. Most of the Arizona bats went silent again after hitting fairly well against Washington in Tucson last weekend.

Arizona fell to 20-13 on the year and 1-9 in Pac-12 play. Oregon State improved to 30-8 and 6-4 in league games.