Maggie Balint, Oregon softball’s only remaining pitcher from last season, has left the program, a source has confirmed.
This comes three days after the Register Guard’s story on the tumultuous offseason. Oregon lost head coach Mike White and six players transferred out of the program. Four of them followed White to Texas.
Balint, a junior from West Grove, Pennsylvania, was expected to be the team’s ace this season after Miranda Elish transferred to Texas and Megan Kleist announced she will sit out this season in order to transfer to Louisiana-Lafayette.
Although limited in her sophomore campaign due to the emergence of Elish, Balint still put up an outstanding 2.11 ERA 59.2 innings pitched.
Although outstanding, it was not as great as her freshman season. On way to making First Team All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 All-Freshman thanks to her 21 wins, 1.22 ERA and 152 strikeouts in 126 innings pitched.
“As far as pitching rotation, when you think of the leader of our pitching I think of Maggie Balint,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said on Tuesday when asked about Balint leading the staff. “I think if any of you got to see her in the fall and see what she looked like, Maggie did a great job leading us on the mound. I’m proud of her and how she’s led these two newcomers and gotten them to feel comfortable.”
This marks the the seventh transfer to leave the program since Lombardi’s arrival and is the third and final pitcher from the last two Women’s College World Series rosters.
Besides the loss of the three pitchers, the team has lost three position players expected to play a big part in the lineup this season in center fielder Shannon Rhodes, catcher Mary Iakopo and utility player Lauren Burke.
The roster is now even more thin than it was a few days ago when Lombardi said that although she wants to be at around 20-21 players, they were not looking to add anyone else to her then-17 player roster.
With 16 now on the roster, Oregon might need to find a way to add a pitcher. Balint was expected to be the ace but with her departure, sophomore transfers Jordan Dail (Virginia Tech) and Maddie MacGrandle (Texas A&M) are now the only two pitchers on the roster.
Dail pitched 98 innings for the Hokies in 2018, limiting batters to a .209 average while maintaining a 3.07 ERA. MacGrandle pitched in just eight games her freshman year, winning five of them and holding opponents to a .260 average.
