​​It wasn’t exactly the blueprint the Ducks had in mind.

An early deficit. A struggling ace. The tying run at the plate with one out remaining.

But when it mattered most Sunday afternoon, in the Ducks’ bid to win the series and conference regular season title, No. 3 Oregon made it happen — mounting a comeback to win 7-6 at Jane Sanders Stadium.

Early on, the Ducks got a poor performance from starting pitcher Lydnsey Grein, who limped through two innings of three-run ball. 

They were also blanked early on against Michigan State’s pitching staff, stranding three runners on base in the first two innings. 

Despite that, the Ducks scored five runs in the third inning, keyed by a Stefini Ma’ake homer that gave Lombardi’s squad a lead they would not relent. 

“We are very prepared,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said of her team’s outlook going forward. “We have played good teams and to see us start coming together is great.” 

“I knew that was gone,” Ma’ake said. “But I didn’t know how far, but then everyone was like ‘Oh you hit it to the tennis courts’.”

Elise Sokolsky entered for Grein and went the rest of the way, firing five innings of three-run ball and striking out six. 

“They have each other’s backs,” Kedre Luschar said of the pitching staff. “Elise was amazing today, just switching speeds. The hitters don’t know what’s coming, and they can’t guess because it all looks the same.” 

“She’s thrown the ball a lot for us,” Lombardi said of Grein. “We talk about the things we need to do to win games, and this weekend it was required for Elise to show that she could go against a team multiple times.” 

Sokolsky finished the three-game series with four earned runs over 15.2 innings of work. 

Lombardi used just two pitchers — Grein and Sokolsky — throughout the three-game series. 

“To see her work the ball down, up, change speeds, let her see her defense work for her, I thought she was brilliant this weekend,” Lombardi said. 

More runs came in the fifth and sixth innings via a solo homer from Emma Cox and an RBI triple from Luchar. 

Luschar finished the game 2-3 with a game-high three RBI’s. Oregon was 4-13 with runners in scoring position and 7-24 overall. 

“I don’t think this team has peaked,” Lombardi said. “This team knows what it takes to win as we go into games with the same mindset.” 

Michigan State fought back, with a seventh-inning solo homer cutting the lead to just one with an out remaining, but ultimately fell to lose its eighth-straight series. 

“I’m pretty confident that we are going to be here again,” Luschar said. “We are going to keep playing games together. That’s what matters most.” 

Officially clinching the outright Big Ten regular season title, the Ducks will be the No.1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, taking on the winner of Wisconsin vs Michigan on Thursday at 1:30. 

“We always talk about how Sunday is the start of our week,” Luschar said. “To be able to take today’s win into the start of the tournament is going to be big for us.”

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