For a sport that struggles to draw national attention and doesn’t lend itself to many show-stopping series over a grind of a season, this weekend’s matchup provided a much-needed break from a season of mostly low-stakes softball.
For seven innings of No. 5 Oregon’s (40-4, 13-1 Big Ten) 3-1 win over No. 6-ranked UCLA (40-6, 12-2 Big Ten), fans held onto every out and close play at Jane Sanders Stadium. They could finally relax after Elise Sokolsky induced a groundout from Savannah Pola to end the contest.
That result looked far less likely in the innings prior when UCLA loaded the bases in the fourth and got its first two batters on in the sixth. But Oregon did all the little things right and every big moment went the Ducks’ way, leading to one of their more marquee wins of the season.
“We talk about belief in this team,” Sokolsky said. “We knew we were going to win, we just didn’t know how.”
For all but two fatal swings Friday night, the two teams traded body blows to keep the teams mostly even.
All three pitchers were terrific, with Lyndsey Grein throwing 5.1 scoreless innings for Oregon before handing the ball over to Sokolsky while Taylor Tinsley dealt for the Bruins.
“I find my validation in Christ, and my teammates and my coaches,” Grein said. “Those are my people, I don’t need validation from numbers or stats or throwing the ball hard. I don’t need that.”
“We were facing a really great pitcher,” Oregon head coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “So you’ve got to figure out what you want and when you can strike.”
Grein finished with eight strikeouts and allowed just five hits in 5.1 innings of work against one of the top offenses in the country.
“I thought she did a great job,” Lombardi said. “What she did is what she’s done all year.”
The first big moment came in the bottom of the fourth when Rylee McCoy blasted a homer to dead-center field, throwing her hands up in celebration after she hit the no-doubter.
“She’s the best,” Grein said of McCoy. “I’m so so excited to spend the rest of the season with her and the next few years.”
The Bruins had two massive chances to strike on offense, they didn’t convert on either.
First, they loaded the bases in the fourth before Megan Grant’s fly-ball to center died at the warning track. Then, Sokolksy entered with runners on first and second with one out in the sixth and struck out the next two batters.
Grant is one of the best hitters in the country and entered with just three strikeouts on the year — she finished the game 0-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
Kedre Luchar added on in the sixth, driving in two crucial runs as she lined a ball over the left-center fence to extend the lead to three.
Sokolsky got Pola to ground out to end the game as fans roared in delirium after one of the Ducks’ better home wins in recent years.
The series will still count as only three games in the standings — relatively low stakes for a pair of the nation’s best teams who both have championship aspirations.
Just don’t tell that to the 2,373 fans who packed the ballpark, a lagging softball industry at large looking for a mid-season spark and a Ducks team looking to flex their muscles against a program that has dominated the west-coast landscape for so long.
The series opener was a tense, tactical marathon of a game. Fans will see what game two has in store Saturday at 4 p.m.
