No. 6 Oregon scraps past No. 5 UCLA to climb into solo 1st

In a battle for first place in the Big Ten, Oregon softball took down UCLA 3-1 in the open game of a three-game series at Jane Sanders Stadium Friday night.

Now 40-4 and looking for more, the Ducks used five and one-third innings of shutout pitching from Lyndsey Grein (24-1) and home runs by Kedre Luschar and Rylee McCoy to scratch out a win over the Bruins, who fell to 12-2 in Big Ten play and 40-6 overall.

The Ducks took over solo first place with the victory at 13-1. Elise Sokolsky came on in the 6th for the save, her fourth of the year. She gave up a solo home run in the seventh but that was it.

Grein dominated through five innings, striking out eight and walking two. She leads the Big Ten by a wide margin with her 24-1 record, tops in ERA at 1.20.

First baseman McCoy gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead in the fourth with a two-out solo home run, five rows up in left center. She leads the team in circuit clouts with 14 on the season.

In the sixth, Kaylynn Jones got the Ducks started by beating out an infield single, then with two outs Kedre Luschar drove an 0-1 pitch the other way to left center for a 3-0 lead.

Sokolsky came in with one out and two on in the sixth but she shut the door with a pair of strikeouts.

Game two of the three-game series is set for 4 p.m. PDT at Jane Sanders Stadium with game three Sunday at 2 p.m.

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