Rylee McCoy got every last square inch of a 2-1 fastball in the bottom of the fourth inning at Jane Sanders Stadium. 

The sophomore clobbered the ball, sending it sailing past the trees beyond the left center field fence. Fans watched the ball reappear briefly as it bounded down past the flag poles and onto the track lining the tennis courts below. To make the feat even more impressive, it was Oregon’s second consecutive inning with back-to-back home runs. 

“I’ts just what I’ve been waiting for,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “You can see they’re starting to just feed off each other a little bit more.”

No. 19 Oregon softball (19-7) began Big Ten conference play against Penn State (19-7) on Friday night. Behind another complete game, lockdown performance from ace Lyndsey Grein, the offense absolutely motored past the Nittany Lions: Amari Harper was a part of both back-to-back home run innings and Elon Butler was showing signs that she may never stop hitting. The 8-2 Ducks win was exactly how the team wanted to start Big Ten play. 

“It means everything to us,” Butler said. “I feel like this team has been working really hard to put all the pieces together, and you saw that today.”

Oregon had struggled in the Jane Sanders Classic last weekend to get through the first two innings without allowing a run to opponents. Through their five games on the weekend, the pitching staff had only managed to get through the first two frames unscathed once. Things flipped around against the Nittany Lions as Grein struck out six through and allowed only two base runners on two errors. 

Grein (7 IP, 2 ER, 12 K) continued to mow down Nittany Lions throughout her seven innings in the circle. While she was bitten by the home run bug twice, once by Michela Barbanente and once by Natalie Lieto, Grein managed to finish her night just 2 strikeouts away from her career high.

“I thought she did a great job. I thought she commanded the zone all night,” Lombardi said about leaving Grein in for a complete game after taking her out after 6.2 innings last time out. 

The offense, which had virtually no issue in the Jane Sanders Classic, started off on the right foot in conference play. Elon Butler kept up her slugging ways as she demolished a first inning 2-run shot into left center field. Stefini Ma’ake drove in Rylee McCoy, both now officially out of their early season slumps, for the Ducks third run in the inning.

In the third, Butler and Amari Harper launched back-to-back no-doubt shots to left center field to put the Ducks up 5-0. The two transfers were providing the pop in the lineup early on in the game.

“Its amazing,” Butler said. “I love (Harper) so much. She has been amazing for this transition.”

Harper decided to join Butler with another home run on the day. Both Butler and Harper now had a pair of 2-run home runs to left center field, and a pair of solo shots to the same part of the ball park. 

“I’m going to be honest, I’ve been working on that,” Harper said about hitting both home runs today to the opposite field. “I feel like I’ve had a lot of harder hits that way.”

Speaking of pairs, the Ducks had a pair of innings where they went back-to-back, and Harper was a part of both. After she launched her opposite field 2-run shot, McCoy absolutely destroyed a ball into left center field past the trees. Oregon led Penn State 8-1 after four. 

“It was great,” Harper said. “Honestly, the energy, just going up to bat, I felt really calm.” 

This was the team that Lombardi was talking about when she spoke last week about the three cylinders: offense, defense and pitching. Grein was shoving for the Ducks and had one cylinder covered, the offense was cruising along at a phenomenal clip and the defense, despite the errors at shortstop and firstbase, was otherwise solid. 

“I thought all three cylinders were firing,” Lombardi said. “I loved Lyndsey’s shutout inning in the first, and then to watch our offense put three on the board in the first inning, I thought was really important.” 

The Ducks had the opportunity to run-rule their way to a win in the bottom of the sixth. Though Oregon loaded the bases, it was unable to get any in. Grein went out in the seventh and finished her great performance, ending the game with 133 pitches.

The Ducks will be back tomorrow at 4 p.m. for the second game of the series. The game will be broadcasted via Big Ten+ (video) and KWVA (radio).