EUGENE -- What can be done in 21 minutes?



If you leave Jane Sanders Stadium and drive west, you're a quarter of the way to putting your feet in the sand on the Oregon coast.



Edward Cheserek, the Oregon distance runner and all-time leader in NCAA titles whose UO career ended Sunday, can run nearly five miles.



And if you're the third-ranked Ducks softball team, you can break your opponent's last hope, chase off their starting pitcher and secure a berth in an eighth consecutive NCAA tournament super regional.



Oregon led Wisconsin 4-0 when the bottom of the fourth inning began Sunday at Jane Sanders Stadium at 5:08 p.m., with all UO's runs coming in a first-inning barrage in which it sent nine batters to the plate.



Twenty-one minutes later Oregon had added five runs, the fourth was over, and for all intents and purposes, the NCAA tournament's Eugene Regional was, too.



Led by its streaky offense and freshman righty Miranda Elish's commanding one-hitter, UO took out Wisconsin, 9-0, by run-rule in five innings. Oregon is now 24-0 in the regional round under coach Mike White.



"We took the fun out of it early," White said. "And that was pretty good."



The Ducks will host Kentucky in a best-of-three NCAA tournament super regional beginning Friday.

UO is two wins away from advancing to its fourth Women's College World Series in six seasons.



Oregon loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth on a perfectly placed bunt by No. 9 hitter Jenna Lilley, which senior Danica Mercado followed with a hard liner that right fielder Jordan Little couldn't field cleanly on her dive. As the ball ricocheted into shallow center field, a pair of runs scored and UO's lead reached 6-0. Wisconsin pulled starter Kaitlyn Menz.

Kirsten Stevens, Menz's replacement, didn't fare much better.

Pinch-hitter April Utecht ripped a single up the middle on a full-count that scored Mercado and Lilley as UO padded its lead to 8-0. Two hitters later, Nikki Udria hit into a fielder's choice that scored Alexis Mack and provided the final margin. In all, nine Ducks batters went to the plate in the fourth, with Elish hitting twice.



Freshman center fielder Shannon Rhodes, named the regional's most valuable player thanks in part to her game-tying double Saturday against Wisconsin that came with UO down to its final out, was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run Sunday.



This win was 24 hours in the making.



"In order to win you've got have a sense of belief," said Mercado, who was one of four Ducks to drive in two runs Sunday. "I think that yesterday's game is big for our sense of belief from here on out. We proved to ourselves we can come back."



While the rest of the four-team regional played late into the night, UO spent its Saturday relaxing. Mercado hung out with her family. A few hours after scoring the winning run, Elish took her dog to a dog park, then went to Buffalo Wild Wings.



"Last night," she said, "I enjoyed it."



The Ducks (50-6) were plenty happy after Sunday's game, too.



For Wisconsin (35-17), meanwhile, something changed between that first loss to UO and its second. Wisconsin starter Kaitlyn Menz's effectiveness was off from the start -- as was her team, too. Only four runners reached base against Elish, who struck out two and and threw 70 pitches to 17 hitters.



"It's heartbreaking," Wisconsin coach Yvette Healy said of trying to rebound from Saturday's gut-punch loss to UO. "You try as best you can but we're human, they're all human and I think everybody knows how close we were in that game and we gave it everything we had. Even today, I think everyone was still pumping on all cylinders and trying to turn the page but Oregon's that good that you don't want to have to face them that many times. It makes it that much more gut-wrenching that you're that close but, I don't think many people can say we gave them a scare like we did."



But there was little for UO to be scared about Sunday.



Elish (10-0) ended the top half of the first inning with a changeup so sudden it froze UW third baseman Sara Novak.



In the bottom of the first, Elish's hit a Menz pitch just to the left of second base, but the shortstop lost track of the ball in her dive to make the stop and couldn't flip it to second for the inning-ending out. Two runs scored in the delay. Before the inning was out UO led 4-0, Menz had thrown 37 pitches and met with her pitching coach and infielders in separate conferences inside the circle as she worked to figure out a smaller strike zone and regain control of her changeup, which had befuddled UO for long stretches a day earlier.

Menz pitched three innings Sunday, allowing eight earned runs and seven hits and walking three.



White called UO's 13-game winning streak the best his team has played all season.



Without a doubt, Sunday's fourth inning was one of UO's best 21-minute stretches all season, too.



"I think our pitching staff, yes, is doing as well as we've done," White said. "I think our lineup, offensively, is pretty solid right now, especially with Jenna Lilley coming back. That creates some diversity down at the bottom there, an ability to get on base and turn the bottom of the lineup over. And defensively we've been making some good plays.



"We had a couple hiccups yesterday. Maybe last year we would have carried that with us and it would have continued. This year they shut it out, came back out and played lights out defense."



-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif