With an exciting finish! Photo reprinted without permission from Eugene Register Guard.
Spring 2004. Susanna, freshman centerfielder. playing her first Pac 10 game. Civil war. Oregon vs Oregon State. Middle of the week in the rain. I am NOT there. The internet-based Gametracker/livestats is not fully developed, they're trying some nascent video. It doesn't work on my computer, I am across the street at my neighbors trying to watch it. I can see little stick figures running around, can't really keep track of things.
Oregon goes into the bottom of the 7th trailing by seven runs. Not so good for the hometown team. This and that happens and Oregon starts pushing some runs across. Oregon State changes pitchers. Susanna's up, she ends up with a controversial call with a slap that may or may not be foul which delays the game quite a bit with coaches contesting the call. Finally it's called back and she draws a walk. At my neighbor's I've lost track of the score and who's on what base. Finally Susanna is on second and Breane Sabol is up for the second time in the inning. As she said herself, when she saw the ball go through the infield, she knew speedy Suzie could score and she did. It was the game-winning run!
Photo from the local paper shows Susanna just after she scored that winning run. Oh YEAH! Her teammates coming out to congratulate her. The Oregon State catcher is not so happy about it. It was several days before I realized that Susanna had scored that winning run. Of course, she didn't tell me.
However, over the course of the 4 years, Oregon lost some heartbreakers to Oregon State. I added it up, Oregon's record in the Pac 10 over the 4 years was 28-56. I was at most of them. That's a lot of Pac 10 games to lose....
But this one was great...if you are a Duck fan.
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