Beavers use walk-off home run to down Huskies

Washington’s postseason prospects took another blow yesterday afternoon.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Cambria Miranda belted a walk-off homerun to lift last-place Oregon State to a 3-2 victory over the Huskies at the OSU Softball Complex in Corvallis, Ore. The Beavers handled the Dawgs their fifth straight loss — and their eighth loss in their past nine games.

The win snaps an eight-game losing streak for the Beavers. Oregon State became the fifth Pac-10 team to win its season series against the Huskies, taking two out of the three contests between the teams.

At least the Huskies scored this time. Jace Williams doubled down the left-field line with two outs in the first inning to score Bailey Stenson, giving the Huskies an early 1-0 lead and snapping Washington’s 27-inning scoring drought in the process.

OSU (27-30, 5-14 Pac-10), facing scoring difficulties of its own after plating just six runs in its past six games, got its offense going in the bottom of the frame. Back-to-back RBI singles by DeAnn Young and Erin Guzy put the Beavers on top 2-1 before Aleah Macon struck out Stefanie Ewing to retire the side.

Washington came back right away, as Amanda Fleischman singled, stole second and scored on a base hit by Alicia Blake — all with two outs — to even the score at 2-2 in the top of the second.

Those two runs were at that point more than the Huskies had scored in their last 30 innings of play going into the contest, and their three hits were more than they mustered in two games against Arizona last weekend.

It wasn’t enough. Macon took the complete game loss, allowing six hits, walking two and striking out three. She allowed only two hits between OSU’s three-hit first inning and Miranda’s home run, which was the second game-winning home run Macon has allowed against the Beavers this season. The first was to Guzy in the seventh inning of a 5-3 OSU win in Seattle.

The Huskies (26-22-1, 5-13 Pac-10) are just a half-game ahead of the Beavers in the Pac-10 standings. They will now travel to Eugene for three games against Oregon to close out the regular season. Washington could finish in last place if the team doesn’t manage to take at least two from the Ducks.

While this most recent loss won’t eliminate the Huskies from tournament contention, it certainly doesn’t make things any easier. This series held the most potential in terms of climbing the Pac-10 ladder, a task that is now almost impossible. Even if fifth-place California is swept by Arizona this weekend, the Huskies will still need to take two of three against Oregon just to finish tied for fifth.

At this point, they’re just trying to get one.