It's crowded at the top in Big Ten softball. After sweeping a two-game weekend series with Rutgers at Frederick Douglass Field in Piscataway, New Jersey, the No. 6-ranked Ducks are in a four-way tie for third at 6-1, a game behind undefeated Northwestern and a half-game back of 7-1 UCLA.
The Ducks pounded last-place Rutgers 20-1 and 21-2 in the two-game set. It brought their season record to a sparkling 31-3 with a midweek clash with Oregon State on Wednesday, a single game scheduled for 6 p.m. PDT in Corvallis, on TV at ESPN+, radio at KWVA, 88.1 FM in Eugene, the Oregon on-campus station. Listen live at this link:
Saturday afternoon in game two, the Webfoot nine wielded bats as deadly as a mace in sending the Knights to the conference basement, striking for 12 runs in the top of the fifth after a building a 9-2 lead over the first four.
Ace Lyndsey Grein closed out the game with an inning and two-thirds of spotless relief, striking out two and not allowing a hit as she mowed them down in order. That quick work brought her season record to 18-1, tops in the conference. In 93 innings she's struck out 125.
Defensively, leftfielder Kai Luschar and catcher Braiesey Rosa ended Rutgers' threats with double plays, Rosa executing a strike 'em out/throw 'em out in the home half of the second, Luschar gunning down a runner at home after catching a fly ball in the fourth.
.@paige_sinicki does what she does best and takes away the hit!
— Oregon Softball (@OregonSB) March 29, 2025
B2 | Ducks 2, Rutgers 0#GoDucks | #Version7 pic.twitter.com/6xDEWPqL9I
The Women of Oregon set two school records in the game. It was the first time in squad history to ring up 20 hits in one game, and the first time ever a UO softball nine had tallied 20 runs in back-to-back games. They drummed Scarlet Knight pitching 20-1 in game one Friday afternoon.
Batting stars in the second slugfest included hot-hitting first sacker Rylee McCoy who continued her torrid midseason pace with four hits in five trips to the dish, a homer to left in the first, a run-scoring single in the third, another home run to center in the fourth, four RBIs for her day's work.
Stefini Ma'ake, Kedre Luschar, Remington Hewitt, and Paige Sinicki all clubbed round trippers, Luschar and Ma'ake driving in three runs each.
This one is loooooong gone! Second homer of the weekend for Stefini Ma'ake!
— Oregon Softball (@OregonSB) March 29, 2025
T5 | Ducks 15, Rutgers 2#GoDucks | #Version7 pic.twitter.com/tzQYj80HV9
For the season Kedre leads the team in hitting with a .472 average, good for 28 RBIs. As a team Melyssa Lombardi's 31-3 squad is hitting .367, second in the league while pilfering 116 stolen bases in 34 games, caught just 12 times. No other conference squad is in within 50 of that mark.
Ranked No. 6 in the country in the latest ESPN poll, they've hit 57 homers with warmer spring weather ahead of them.
Ahead on the schedule after the single-game clash with the Beavs the Women of Oregon host Michigan at Jane Sanders Stadium next weekend, first pitch Friday at 6 p.m. PDT. The Wolverines are part of that third-place tie at 6-1, 27-9 overall.
It's a battle of ace pitchers: the Wolverine's Erin Hoehn is 14-2 this season with a 2.43 ERA, a 5-7 freshman from Poseyville, Indiana.