Softball WCWS Game 1 Oregon vs UCLA Recap

The Oregon Ducks opened up the Women’s College World Series against a familiar foe, the UCLA Bruins. Oregon and UCLA were the class of the B1G this season as they were the only two B1G teams to secure regional hosting sites in the NCAA tournament making it fitting that the two teams would find each other again in Oklahoma City.

Up for grabs for the winner, a spot in the regional semi-final against Texas Tech on Saturday. While the loser would be pushed to the brink and face a must win game against Ole Miss on Friday.

Melyssa Lombardi went with the following lineup.

Oregon as the lower seed was the designated road team and thus was the first team to bat but the Ducks couldn’t get anything going in an uneventful top half of the 1st.

In the bottom half of the inning Oregon gave the ball to Lyndsey Grein with the thinking that she re-found her form after a bumpy couple of weeks with a usual Lyndsey Grein like start against Liberty in game 2 of the super regional.

The bottom half of the 1st saw Devon Park have some lighting issues, as in the lights would go out twice in the inning. UCLA was able to get two runners on with a swinging bunt single and a walk, but Grein would induce a weak groundball to 3rd for the easy out to keep the game scoreless after 1.

After neither team could register a hit in the 2nd Kaylynn Jones was able to reach base via an in-field single to lead off the 3rd. Oregon would then use a sac bunt and a fielders choice to move Jones to 3rd. That set the table for Kedre Luschar to deliver a clutch 2 out hit to score the run and just like that Oregon had manufactured a run with their patented speed.

To the bottom half we went and after Grein was able to get through the first two UCLA batters with ease. But then a ball was hit hard to dead center field and it looked like it was going over the wall. Just after giving the Ducks a run Kedre Luschar was able to save a run for the Ducks with a huge catch right at the wall to end the inning.

The Ducks couldn’t get anything going in the 4th and in the bottom half UCLA would strike back. After a lead-off single the Bruins would get a clutch hit of their own with a home run to left field to give the Bruins the lead and make it 2-1 UCLA.

Oregon would be held scoreless again in the 5th when Kaylynn Jones was caught stealing to end the top half of the 5th. Grein would need to keep UCLA off the board in the bottom half to keep the Ducks in the game and that is exactly what she did. After two quick outs UCLA would get a runner into scoring position with a double. But Grein would make sure that’s as far as she got as she was able to punch out the next batter.

To the 6th inning it was more of the same for the Ducks as they could not get any offence going whatsoever. The 6th inning Grein would allow a single and walk UCLA’s two biggest hitters prompting a pitching change with Elise Solkolsky coming into the game.

The first batter she saw would bunt a ball that looked like it was going foul but the mon-stars must have used their super powered magnet from Space Jam to push it fair. Oregon would get the out at 1st but both runners would move into scoring position with only 1 out. Sokolsky would get a massive strikeout to get the 2nd out of inning and any type of out would do for getting out of the jam and a strange out it would be. The UCLA pinch runner strayed to far off 2nd and that created all sorts of chaos on the base paths but Oregon would be able to get the runner on 3rd in a run down. Some great heads up baseball from the Ducks defense got them out of the jam still only needing a single run to keep the game alive.

Paige Sinicki would get the 7th started off right with a lead-off double that just stayed fair and then used great speed to get into scoring position. Oregon elected to use an out to get the tying run on 3rd with only one out via a sac-bunt. Emma Cox hit a dribbler to 3rd and Oregon was running on any contact. The Oregon runner looked to be out but based on where the catcher set-up a very close obstruction call went to a lengthy review. Obstruction was called and the Oregon runner was ruled safe at home to tie game in the 7th. The next two batters would go in order but the Ducks were still alive!

Elise Sokolsky looked like she was going to get through the 7th to give the Ducks a chance to win the game but with 2 outs Jessica Clemons put UCLA into the winners bracket and the Ducks on the brink of elimination.

The Ducks will be back in action Friday night against Ole Miss in a do or die game against the Rebels.