Oregon softball’s program is in the midst of a remarkable run. The Ducks have reeled off four consecutive Pac-12 titles while advancing to the Women’s College World Series in two of those seasons.
Oregon’s championship run began when pitcher Cheridan Hawkins stepped onto campus. But Hawkins, a three-time Pac-12 pitcher of the year and two-time all-American, graduated last spring. Now Oregon must fill the void she left behind, which included 24 wins and 174 innings last year.
The fight to replace Hawkins in the pitching rotation comes down to a battle between freshmen Miranda Elish and Maggie Balint.
Miranda Elish (GoDucks.com)
Maggie Balint (GoDucks.com)
“The both of them [Elish and Balint] are two of the most competitive pitchers I’ve been around,” Oregon head coach Mike White said. “And they’re really going to push each other more than we could push them.”
Elish enrolled at Oregon as the more-touted high school player. She’s the consensus No. 1 recruit in the nation — from Crown Point, Indiana — and went 15-2 as a senior in high school with a 0.41 ERA. She’s a dominant pitcher who likes to throw the ball with a lot of north-south movement.
“Miranda throws very hard and we’ve really worked on her rise ball, getting true spin on it because at that level (high school), she used to just throw it by people,” White said. “She’s really excited and I think she just can’t wait to get out there.”
Balint, the No. 4 recruit in the nation from West Grove, Pennsylvania, is a three-time state player of the year, as is Elish. As a senior, Balint went 24-4 with a 0.52 ERA but didn’t really land on softball recruiting radar until later in her high school career.
Balint differs from Elish in that she’s more of an east-west type of pitcher, relying on the craftiness of her off-speed pitches to record outs.
“Maggie has been a good surprise,” White said. “She has the screwball-curveball combination going on, so it’ll be very interesting to see how she does.”
Elish and Balint have both performed admirably as Oregon started the season with a school record 24 consecutive wins.
Balint leads the Ducks with an 11-0 record. In 56.2 innings pitched, she’s struck out 86 batters while posting a 1.11 ERA. Elish is 5-0 with a 1.62 ERA in 39 pitched with 42 strikeouts.
Sophomore Megan Kleist has picked up a bigger workload this year. She leads the Ducks with a .77 ERA while posting an 8-0 record in 54.1 innings thrown.
With the trio of pitchers, it would seem the Ducks are going with a three-headed monster to help replace the departed Hawkins.
“I think we all complement each other really well,” Elish said. “We’re similar pitchers but we’re all different.”
White said each pitcher brings something unique.
“They’re very competitive,” White said. “The three M’s we call them; Maggie, Miranda and Megan. Each one brings something a little different to the table that will make it difficult for our opponents.”
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