It wasn’t easy, but the Ducks once again found a way to grind it out and come out on top as they defeated the Cougars, 5-2, in the first game in the Eugene Regional.

“I think we played pretty well,” pitcher Jessica Moore said. “I think we struggled with sticking to our game plan a little bit at times. We didn’t execute the way we should have with the game plan that we had, so I think it was a good game to get the jitters out.”

The game began in weird fashion as BYU starting pitcher Tori Almond threw eight illegal pitches right off the bat, which led to an early substitution.

“I wasn’t looking too much at that,” Oregon head coach Mike White said in regards to the illegal pitches. “There was a little bit of error there, but a lot of it is the interpretation of the umpire. Sometimes it gets called, but they were probably frustrated that it wasn’t called at the beginning of the year, but again that comes down to your conference. I know in the Pac-12; they are pretty tough on that stuff, so they aren’t going to let you get away with anything. They just call what they see; if they see an error there, they are going to call it.”

The Ducks would convert on Almond, however, before she was taken out. Alexa Peterson blasted a three-run home run to give the Ducks a 3-0 lead at the top of the second inning. With the early offense, the Ducks gained crucial momentum early in the game, which might have been the difference.

“It was great to be able to come through for our team that first inning,” she said, “because that’s huge having that momentum right at the beginning of the game. I knew she was having some problems with keeping her backfoot on the ground — so I knew that was getting inside her head, and I was just waiting for a mistake to pitch it over the middle.”

“Getting off to the start with three runs in the first inning was huge for us,” White said. “It kinda breaks the jitters a little bit and your pitcher is struggling just a little bit with the illegal pitching calls, and we took advantage of that. Jessica came out and threw a great game to get us started. It got a little tight in the third inning, but we were able to manage; we kind of bent, but we didn’t break. We got to make sure we capitalize on our opportunities and get ahead and use our pitching and defense to keep it that way.”

The Cougars answered with a couple runs of their own in the top of the third after Carly Duckworth recorded a game-changing RBI double. Not only did this give the Cougars some much needed rhythm, but it also forced both the Ducks and home crowd to take them a bit more seriously. After defeating the Cougars last season 4-1 and 6-4 in Regional play, the Ducks came into tonight with a confident mindset. But the Cougars weren’t going to fade away easy. Heading into the third down just one run, momentum was in favor of the Cougars.

Each team would go scoreless in the third after having their fair share of opportunities to score. The Ducks would convert in the bottom of the fourth, however, after Moore was brought in with the bases loaded. After multiple pitching errors in the bottom of the fifth, the Ducks scored one more run after Kaylan Howard came in due to a Moore walk.

To finish the game, Moore struck out Lacey Millett early in the seventh inning as the Ducks eventually went on to hold their 5-2 lead over the Cougars. It wasn’t the cleanest game, but the Ducks can be happy to move on in regional play Friday morning against the Tar Heels.

In regards to this game against North Carolina, White had this to say: “UNC — they move the ball well, and we got to be ready for them. They are going to want to come at us hard tomorrow, but we’ll have a game plan set in place with how to deal with their offense and defense as well and have a good approach overall.”

First pitch will be Friday at 11 a.m. at Howe Field. The game can be watcher via live-stream here.