Oregon softball lost to a former Pac-12 rival for the first time this season.
Tiare Ho-Ching hit a walk-off single in the eighth inning to give Arizona State a 4-3 victory Thursday night at the Littlewood Classic in Tempe, despite the No. 20 Ducks rallying to tie the game and holding on to force extra innings.
In the first, Oregon (5-1) took the lead with to an RBI single from Emma Cox.
Ho-Ching doubled for two runs in the third inning to put Arizona State (4-1) ahead, and he added a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
In the fourth, Kaylynn Jones (2 for 3) doubled home two runs with two outs to tie the score for UO.
Taylour Spencer entered with the possible game-winning run on second and no outs in the eighth inning in her first appearance of the season. The game went into extras after the sophomore retired three in a row, including back-to-back with a runner on third.
Oregon failed to drive the runner in despite having the game-winning run on third with no outs in the eighth.
In the bottom of the eighth, Ho-Ching drove in the winning run with a 1-2 pitch from Spencer to right.
In a no-decision game, Lyndsey Grein pitched 2.0 innings and gave up three runs on four hits, one walk, and two strikeouts. In the loss, Spencer gave up an unearned run on one single and Elise Sokolsky gave up one hit, one walk, and two strikeouts in 4.0 scoreless innings.
Meika Lauppe (2-1) of ASU earned the victory by striking out three batters in 4.0 innings of hitless relief.
On Friday, Oregon takes on Weber State and North Dakota starting at 9:30 a.m.
