Oregon softball’s program is in the midst of a remarkable run. The Ducks have reeled off four consecutive Pac-12 titles while advancing to the Women’s College World Series in two of those seasons.
Coincidentally, Oregon’s championship run began when pitcher Cheridan Hawkins stepped onto campus. Hawkins, a three-time Pac-12 pitcher of the year and two-time all-American, graduated last spring. Now Oregon must make up for Hawkins’ dominant stats, which were 24 wins and 174 innings last year.
The fight to replace Hawkins’ innings comes down to a two-person battle: freshmen Miranda Elish and Maggie Balint.
Miranda Elish (GoDucks.com)
Maggie Balint (GoDucks.com)
“The both of them [Elish and Balint] are two of the most competitive pitchers I’ve been around,” Oregon head coach Mike White said. “And they’re really going to push each other more than we could push them.”
Elish enrolled at Oregon as the more-touted high school player. She’s the consensus No. 1 recruit in the nation — from Crown Point, Indiana — and went 15-2 as a senior in high school with a 0.41 ERA. She’s a dominant type of pitcher who likes to throw the ball with a lot of north-south movement.
“Miranda throws very hard and we’ve really worked on her rise ball, getting true spin on it because at that level [high school], she used to just throw it by people,” White said. “She’s really excited and I think she just can’t wait to get out there.”
Battling Elish for the innings is Balint, the No. 4 recruit in the nation. From West Grove, Pennsylvania, Balint is a three-time state player of the year — same as Elish. As a senior, she went 24-4 with a 0.52 ERA but didn’t really land on softball recruiting radar until later in her high school career.
Balint differs from Elish in the fact that she’s more of a east-west type of pitcher, relying on craftiness rather than speed to record outs.
“Maggie has been a good surprise,” White said. “She has the screwball-curveball combination going on, so it’ll be very interesting to see how she does.”
Elish and Balint both saw their first action in Oregon uniforms when the Ducks competed in the Kajikawa Classic last weekend in Arizona.
Balint was the star of the weekend, going 4-0 with a team-leading 19.2 innings pitched. Although she gave up a total of six runs, only one of them was earned. She also struck out 33 of the 79 batters she faced and finished with a 0.36 ERA.
Elish struggled out of the gate. Although she went 1-0, she allowed six runs in nine innings. Even with the mixed results, White expects Elish to play a big role as the season progresses.
With sophomore Megan Kleist also expected to pick up more than her 127.2 innings thrown last year, it would seem the Ducks are going with a three-headed monster to help replace the departed Hawkins.
“I think we all complement each other really well,” Elish said. “We’re similar pitchers but we’re all different.”
White said each pitcher brings something unique.
“They’re very competitive,” White said. “The three M’s we call them; Maggie, Miranda and Megan. Each one brings something a little different to the table that will make it difficult for our opponents.”
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