Softball drops home game to Spartans, 6-4

Elise Sokolsky helped the Ducks get back in the game with 5.2 innings of solid relief work, but the No. 3-ranked Oregon women lost 6-4 at home to Michigan State to fall to 45-6.
Elise Sokolsky helped the Ducks get back in the game with 5.2 innings of solid relief work, but the No. 3-ranked Oregon women lost 6-4 at home to Michigan State to fall to 45-6. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After winning at a .900 clip over the first 50 games of the season, the Oregon women fell to Michigan State in Jane Sanders Stadium, victims of a six-run rally in the second.

The Ducks remain in first place in the Big Ten at 17-3 as second-place UCLA also lost, 8-0 at home to Northwestern. The Big Ten race at the top:



Oregon 17-3

UCLA 16-4

Nebraska 15-5

Northwestern 15-5

Ohio State 15-6

Since the Ducks hold a tiebreaker over UCLA, with two games remaining they can clinch the Big Ten regular season championship with a win today or tomorrow. The conference tournament begins Thursday May 8 at Bittinger Stadium on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

After falling behind 6-0 Friday night they rallied with two runs in the third and two in the fifth but for only the sixth time all season they fell short. Kedre Luschar singled twice and drove in three runs. Paige Sinicki ripped an RBI triple in the fifth.

Ace pitcher Lyndsey Grein took the loss. Despite being lights out for most of the season she was touched for a home run and a three-run double in the disastrous second. Elise Sokolsky came on to finish and kept the Ducks in the game, allowing two runs, one earned over 5.2 innings, striking out four.

The two teams continue the series with a 2:00 p.m. PDT game Saturday at Jane Sanders Stadium and conclude it at 1 p.m. Sunday, both games carried live on the Big Ten Network and streamed on KWVA radio.

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