Oregon softball made its return to Jane Sanders stadium today, opening the Oregon Classic with a 9-5 victory against the San Diego Toreros. Coming into the game with a 15-1 record, the Ducks looked to keep momentum rolling.
Bats were hot in the first inning for Oregon, with Kai Luschar leading off the team. Following bringing up a quick 1-1 count, she held her own, ending a full count show with a lead off single, stealing second shortly after. With help from an error made by the San Diego infield, Luschar found herself in scoring position and Dezianna Patmon advanced to first.
This sent Rylee McCoy up to bat, who was tied for second on the team in RBIs. Naturally, she set up Patmon and Luschar to score with a deep single to right field. A pair of outs and a single brought Oregon to the top of its batting order, allowing Luschar to earn her second hit of the inning. This resulted in an early 3-0 lead for the Ducks, as Stefini Ma’ake was able to find her way home off an error. Any further momentum was not only halted by an out at second, but for another three innings.
Both San Diego and Oregon could not bring in any runs between the second and fourth innings. Oregon pitcher Elise Sokolsky earned three 1-2-3 innings in this stretch of play, as well as two strikeouts.
The Toreros put an end to their four inning scoring drought during the top of the fifth, where all five of their runs came in. Hailey Mulligan began with a RBI double to send Michelle Delgado home. Immediately after, Sokolsky was subbed out for Lyndsey Grein after pitching for 4 ⅓ innings, and allowing three hits and runs to go along with two errors and three strikeouts. She did not allow any walks.
Despite the change, Grein could not reign in the runs from San Diego, as they were able to load the bases multiple times and bring in four more runs through RBIs and a wild pitch.
The Ducks would not let this slide, and answered with five runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth. Ultimately, it was poor decisions and errors that hurt the Toreros. A fielder’s choice to shortstop allowed Regan Legg to begin the scoring, putting Kaylynn Jones in scoring position with Patmon on second after a steal.
Soon enough, it was Jones, followed by Patmon coming home after an error at second base. Two walks and two steals gave Oregon favorable position yet again, and Elyse Kresho was able to come in after a wild pitch. A sacrifice from Luschar put Paige Sinicki out at third, but sent Braiesey Rosa home, ending the inning with a regained lead for the Ducks.
The Toreros had no answer for the pitching of Grein, facing five strikeouts from her throughout 2 ⅔ innings. Katie Flannery brought in the final run for Oregon in the bottom of the sixth off of a wild pitch, establishing what would be the final score of the game. Grein picked up two more punchouts in the top of the seventh, and a pop out just beyond the infield cemented the win for the Ducks.
As Game 2 is set to begin shortly, the main concern for Oregon is the loss of freshman Emma Cox after a pitch bounced off her glove and seemingly hit her chest. It was, and will be Rosa catching behind the plate against the Portland State Vikings.