The third game of Saturday’s Eugene Regional was a win or your season’s over scenario.
Oregon showed it wasn’t ready to put the season in the rearview mirror just yet. With a runner on second and two runs already scored in the fourth inning, Kedre Luschar belted a shot out to center field. It landed in the stands, and suddenly, the Ducks had a comfortable lead.
No. 16-seeded Oregon (49-7, 19-3 Big Ten) left little room for doubt in its 9-1 victory over Weber State University (29-32, 8-7 Big Sky) on Saturday night.
The Ducks and Wildcats faced off on Friday in their first matchups of the Eugene Regional. Oregon ended up taking that game in an 8-0 run-rule win.
The Ducks batted first on Saturday, with Weber State being the home side for this matchup. Oregon’s offense got off to a much quicker start than it did in its 14-1 loss against Stanford on Saturday afternoon.
“We did not like how we got after it the first game,” head coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “To really just reset, and then get right after it in the second game, that’s what we’ve been doing all year.”
Two of the first three Ducks in the order reached via the walk in the top of the first. Kedre Luschar brought home her sister Kai Luschar with a single down the left side.
The Wildcats responded at the bottom of the first with back-to-back doubles, one of which drove in the tying run.
Starting pitcher Lyndsey Grein came out of a circle visit looking rejuvenated. She struck out two of the next three batters, jumping in excitement after a third strike slapped the back of Emma Cox’s glove to end the inning.
The momentum carried into the second, as a Kaylynn Jones single brought up Katie Flannery.
A fan at the top of Jane Sanders Stadium shouted, “Let’s go, Katie,” before she took the first pitch. Seconds later, Flannery blasted a homer into The Bob to regain the Oregon advantage.
Grein’s time in the circle was short-lived, with potentially two more games coming on Sunday. Elise Sokolsky took the ball from her at the bottom of the second and quieted the Wildcats’ offense. She finished with four punchouts and allowed only one hit in six innings.
“I was just trying to take strain from my teammates,” Sokolsky said. “We’ve been talking about it all year. I’m just trying to go out, I’m gonna play for them, so that was my biggest thing .”
Ducks left fielder Kai Luschar drew a walk to lead off the fourth following a scoreless third inning. After she stole second, Paige Sinicki doubled down the left field line to score another run. Freshman Rylee McCoy drove in Sinicki with a nearly identical play.
Then came Kedre Luschar’s two-run shot to center field, her first homer since April 18.
The fifth inning brought déjà vu when the ball dropped inside the left center wall, and Kedre Luschar drove in Kai Luschar for the eighth run.
“I kind of just look at her and she’s like a comfort to me,” Kedre Luschar said about her sister. “I think it’s cool that it just so happens that she’s on base a lot and I’m up to bat.”
The Ducks couldn’t tack on any more runs in the fifth or sixth, despite being one away from a run-rule win. Sinicki came home to score the final Oregon run after she tripled to center field at the top of the seventh.
The Ducks will play Stanford on Sunday, with first pitch set for 3:30 p.m. If Oregon is victorious, the two former Pac-12 foes will play again at 6 to decide the winner of the Eugene Regional.
“Not to get caught up in two games tomorrow, to get caught up in one pitch at a time, and for us to have all cylinders flowing,” Lombardi said about what it’ll take to win two straight on Sunday. “We did not do enough earlier. I know this group is going to want to answer back.”
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