Oregon softball eliminated from NCAA Regional in loss to Saint Mary’s

This story has been updated with comments from Oregon coaches and players.

Oregon softball’s season is over.

After a no-hitter loss earlier Saturday set the Ducks up in an nightcap elimination game at the Eugene Regional against Saint Mary’s, Elon Butler’s leadoff home run staked the team to a quick lead.

But the Ducks gave up four runs in the fourth inning before the Gaels went ahead for good with Tori Cervantes’ fifth-inning RBI triple. 

Oregon brought the go-ahead run to the plate with one out in the top of the seventh inning, but couldn’t capitalize as the Ducks were eliminated from postseason play with a 5-4 loss at home Saturday, May 16.

Saint Mary’s advances to the NCAA Regional final against Mississippi State Sunday, while the Ducks will watch that game — and the rest of the postseason — from Eugene. The Ducks are the first national seed eliminated from this year’s tournament.

Oregon solved the hitting problems that plagued it on Saturday afternoon with the second pitch in the nightcap. After the Ducks were no-hit by Alyssa Faircloth and Mississippi State earlier Saturday to fall to the elimination game, Butler stepped up to the plate and sent Gaels starter Madeline Haun’s second pitch over the left-field wall. Two-hole hitter Amari Harper put warning-track power on her offering before Stefini Ma’ake singled into the center field gap and chased Haun for Mia Nishikawa.

“Honestly, after that first game, I think we all just kind were like, ‘Let’s just go swing it. There’s nothing that hurts about swinging the bat.'” Butler said after the game. “Obviously, the no-hit hurt us and put us in a really tough spot, but I felt like in the last game we really sold out to a point and really committed to playing for each other.”

Starting Ducks pitcher Taylour Spencer dueled a Gaels offense that posted five runs across two earlier Regional games. The junior has mostly been a third option behind Lyndsey Grein and Elise Sokolsky this year, but started twice over the weekend and initially allowed two runs and four hits to Saint Mary’s in her three-inning start before reentering the game in the fifth inning and finishing it. (Grein, suffering from an eye injury, was unable to pitch during the Regional.)

Oregon put a runner on first base in both the second and third innings, but followed both with three straight outs and left a runner on base in every inning. In all, the Ducks stranded 11 runners.

Spencer, meanwhile, fielded comebackers with aplomb to end her side of the first and second innings before an emphatic strikeout ended the third with a potential game-tying run on third base, drawing a yell from the pitcher.

Rylee McCoy singled to open Oregon’s third inning, but looked like she also could be stranded after the next two Ducks posted outs. But third baseman Katie Flannery sent her 0-1 pitch over the wall for a two-run homer and a 3-0 Ducks lead. Gaels head coach Sonja Garnett hooked Nishikawa for Saint Mary’s all-time wins leader, Odhi Vasquez.

The Ducks made a pitching change of their own when Game 2 starter Sokolsky entered in the fourth inning, inheriting a pair of runners and no outs. A long fly ball jumped out of Amari Harper’s glove deep in left field and loaded the bases before an error on a ground ball to Ma’ake at first base scored two Saint Mary’s runners. Another single into shallow left field scored two more after a runner reached on a bunt, and the Gaels had a 4-3 lead.

Friday night grand slam hero Ayanna Shaw loaded the bases with a two-out single off Vasquez in the fourth inning. With the next hitter, Taryn Ho, in a 3-0 count, the pitcher delivered ball four to walk home the tying run, Kaylynn Jones, from third base. 

Oregon couldn’t recreate Friday’s magic, though, and Vasquez recovered to strand three Ducks with a three-pitch strikeout of Flannery. 

In the bottom of the fifth, Sokolsky drew two outs in the bottom of the fifth but gave up a single, then exited after the go-ahead RBI triple to Cervantes. 

Spencer reentered the game and drew four outs to keep the Gaels scoreless the rest of the way, but Vasquez equaled her by working around a pair of baserunners to draw two outs in the top of the sixth. The two traded moments: an emphatic sixth-inning Spencer strikeout got another yell and a ground ball ended the inning with more.

In the seventh, Vasquez put the Gaels one out away from the Regional final with her own K of Ho.

Flannery, who had put the Ducks ahead with her third-inning homer, stepped up to the plate as the potential go-ahead run. She made contact, but popped up to the second baseman and the yells, this time, were all Gaels.

After the game, Melyssa Lombardi, the Ducks’ head coach, talked about the loss of Grein for the Regional: “There’s been different times throughout the year where we don’t have somebody, and when we don’t, we talk about taking on strain and how it’s a blessing to take on strain for others. All week long, this group took on strain, and for us, it was about getting it done to give Lyndsey an opportunity to pitch again at a Super Regional. I mean, that’s all we talked about, all we wanted. We gave it — we gave everything we’ve got and just sometimes don’t go your way. I know we didn’t get her there, but I do know that she felt how much this group loves her and supports her and has her back and all of them feel that way.”

Added Sokolsky: “I think we all came out this week and we knew that we were playing for Lyndsey. We really wanted to come out, and we gave everything that we could so that she could see us continue. And just to know that that’s what we were playing for — something bigger than ourselves — is what we’re all about.”

Lombardi praised Spencer’s performances in the Regional: “It was awesome to watch her pitch all weekend long and just really see her confident in what she was doing and just wanting to do big things for us as a team. You could see that. I just love watching her grow on the mound and just absolutely compete and be fearless in everything that she does. It’s hard. This hurts right now. It hurts all of us, but I think about Taylour and what it does for her going into her senior year. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and sometimes you don’t get what you want, and you don’t understand it, but it’s also setting up things that are coming down the road, and I believe that.”

And the coach offered initial reflections on the Ducks’ 41-14 season: “Obviously, we want to win. We gave our heart and soul out there. It just didn’t go our way. But what I’ll think about is just how special this group is and just the lives that they’ve touched. We’ll be forever grateful for our senior group, and everything that they’ve done for us — not just on the field; it’s more than that. It’s the relationships, it’s the human element of it. It’s just the love that they give and opening up their hearts to all of us.”