The pitching staff that led the Ducks to a Women’s College World Series appearance last season remains largely intact in 2026, with promising depth options in tow.

Oregon’s battle-tested tandem of senior Lyndsey Grein and redshirt senior Elise Sokolsky, who totaled 190.1 and 151 innings, respectively, last season, will face a similar workload in 2026. Head coach Melyssa Lombardi will rely on progress from junior Taylour Spencer and sophomore Rowan Thompson, along with a strong freshman season from Maddie Milhorn to round out the staff.

“I think it truly takes every single person, and we saw that last year,” Sokolsky said. “I think just relying on each other in the team aspect, and being able to be like, ‘Hey, like I need help with this right now,’ but also to be like, ‘Okay, you’re going in, and you’re going to kill it,’ it’s just no doubt that you can put any of us in and we’re going to execute.”

Grein echoed that sentiment, saying, “I think all of us have the little things that we’re really good at, but the part that makes us really cool is, you put all those pieces together, and we work really well cohesively as a group, so I’m excited to pass the ball with my fellow bullpen mates this season.”

Grein seamlessly transitioned from Virginia Tech to an ace role at Oregon last season, finishing with a 30-3 record, a 2.21 ERA and 236 strikeouts. While improvement from other returners could take some pressure off Grein, she is prepared for the same workload in 2026.

“It was a great opportunity to be able to throw as much as I did last year. I think you hit a point after throwing so many pitches, you just want to go in and get the job done and win the game. Having an approach of taking each pitch as its own and going one step at a time is going to be really important for me individually and for our team this year.”

Grein earned higher expectations with her performance in 2025, being named a preseason second-team All-American by Softball America.

“To be fully transparent, for me, it’s like they don’t mean anything. You haven’t done anything yet. I think for me, it’s just take everything one game at a time, one pitch at a time, and just go throw. Our whole team has trained really, really hard this offseason, this fall. Game time, that’s just an opportunity to go show what we can do and have fun, and I think that’s what our group does very well.”

Sokolsky enters 2026 with back-to-back All-Conference Second Team appearances, earning the second with a 17-5 record, a 2.09 ERA and 136 strikeouts. 

“This is a really deep pitching staff. Lyndsey and (Elise) are returning, and they both had big years. They both took on a lot of strain for our team and handled themselves very well — put us in positions to win,” Lombardi said. 

Spencer, Thompson and Milhorn will need to replace the lone departure from the Ducks’ 2025 staff, Staci Chambers, who threw 28.1 innings. The Ducks’ depth struggled to provide reliability in the postseason, so the trio will be a key factor in Lombardi’s goal of having “no finish line” in 2026.

Spencer struggled to build off her Pac-12 All-Freshman debut season in 2025, posting a 4.17 ERA in 40.1 innings, but Lombardi, Grein and Sokolsky all praised her work in the offseason, with Lombardi citing improved command of her pitches.

Despite Thompson and Milhorn’s inexperience, Lombardi has depth roles in mind for them.

“Rowan has a great drop ball and is going to give us a lot of ground balls, and Maddie just throws an easy 72 miles an hour, which is really nice to see her coming in and closing out a game, or if we’re needing a ground ball. I think she’ll feed our defense as well,” Lombardi said.

The pitching staff lacks a left-handed option with Chambers’ role unfilled, but with improvements from its relatively young options, the Ducks have a strong opportunity to provide Grein and Sokolsky better support than last season.

“I think (fans are) going to feel a bit of a different vibe with Version Eight than they did Version Seven. We are just very heads down, we’re going to get to work, and I’m excited to see our fans really take in Version Eight as a whole in that aspect.”

Oregon opens its 2026 season at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Florida. The Ducks will kick off the tournament against the University of Missouri on Feb. 6 at 10:00 AM.