After outscoring Oregon State and Stanford by a combined 53-16 in two consecutive three-game sweeps, the Bruins, following a somewhat shaky outing by junior Donna Kerr, tallied six runs in the fifth and three in the sixth on their way to an 11-4 victory Friday night against Oregon.
Senior Megan Langenfeld, who relieved Kerr in the third inning, surrendered just three hits and allowed the Bruins to rally from a 4-2 deficit.
Her timely entrance was complemented by her two hits, which accounted for five runs.
In the fifth, Langenfeld singled up the middle with two outs, scoring freshman B.B. Bates and senior Kaila Shull. Then in the sixth, again with two outs, Langenfeld put the game firmly out of reach by clearing the bases with a double to deep center.
“There’s no better time to get timely hits than at this point of season,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “It’s not about averages anymore; it’s about timely hitting, and we were able to come up with them throughout this weekend.”
On Saturday, the Bruins manufactured multiple runs in each inning until the fifth, when junior GiOnna DiSalvatore led off with a home run that sealed a 10-2 mercy-rule victory.
Much of the Bruins’ success has been attributed to the tough practices in between weekend matchups, and DiSalvatore said they have had a positive impact on the team’s recent offensive output.
“We put in the work and during the weekend it paid off,” DiSalvatore said. “My main goal is to stay disciplined at the plate. A lot of times they try to get me to chase at the balls but I try really hard to stay in the zone and swing at strikes.”
Sophomore Andrea Harrison put the Bruins on the scoreboard first with a two-run drive to center, and junior Whitney Baker easily picked up her third win of the season, retiring the first 10 of 12 batters before allowing two home runs in the fifth.
Harrison again added two home runs in the final matchup on Sunday, hitting a no-doubter to right in the first, then one in the third that ricocheted off the left field scoreboard that put the Bruins up 4-2.
It seems as if the team has finally settled into a rhythm, not a lackadaisical one, but one motivated for the end goal: a championship.
“I would definitely say we have a championship mentality right now,” Harrison said. “It’s what the team talks about a lot: going after every game like it’s a championship game and always playing to win no matter what. We want to keep it high energy throughout and never let up.”
In the fifth inning, after sophomore Samantha Camuso reached on an error and a Shull single, DiSalvatore lasered one over the right field fence, giving her six runs batted in on the weekend and the Bruins an 8-2 advantage.
The Bruins invoked the mercy rule for the 18th time this season in the sixth, winning 10-2 after a solo shot from Shull to the deepest part of the park.
Now sitting just two games out of first, the Bruins will face the California Bears before a showdown with the No. 3 Arizona Wildcats.