Version 2 Was Showing Postseason Potential

Version 2 of the Oregon softball program under head coach Melyssa Lombardi was looking like a major upgrade — until the plug was pulled.

The 2020 season will forever be a "what if?" year for the Ducks. Rejuvenated by a new-look pitching staff, powered by a quickly maturing lineup, Oregon was looking ready to get back to the postseason after a one-year absence.

Then, of course, the season came to an abrupt halt. Spring sports throughout the NCAA took a back seat to helping control the spread of the novel coronavirus that became a global pandemic over the course of the winter.

Was there frustration and heartache in Oregon's clubhouse? For sure. But the Ducks understood the decision.

"They get it," Lombardi said. "They're upset their season is done. But they get this is bigger than sports."

Oregon's season will go into the record books as a 22-2 campaign that ended just before the start of Pac-12 play, one in which the Ducks showed considerable promise that will go unrealized. With transfers Brooke Yanez and Samaria Diaz complementing veteran Jordan Dail in the circle, and with senior Haley Cruse setting the tone for a quick-strike offense, the Ducks won their first 15 games of the season, lost a couple and then won another seven straight before a halt was called.

Cruse_Seattle

A year after losing eight of their last nine to fade from contention for the postseason, the UO softball team looked like a shoo-in to return to NCAA Regionals for the 10th time in 11 years.

"Were we a postseason team? No question," Lombardi said. "How far were we going to go? They were going to determine that through the Pac. That was the next step.
"Were we there yet? No. But we were right where we needed to be. We were on track."

A proper accounting of Oregon's 2020 season begins well before the Feb. 6 opener, an 8-0, six-inning victory over Utah Valley to spark the 15-game winning streak. Perhaps the biggest early step was taken much earlier, when Lombardi secured commitments from Yanez and Diaz to become Ducks and take the pressure off Dail in the circle.

As soon as she found out, Dail contacted her future teammates with a message: I hope you're ready to be my best friends. Because I can't wait to have you as Ducks.

That set the tone: Version 2 of Oregon softball didn't shy way from internal competition. The Ducks were a team of rivals. They pushed and prodded each other in practice, and off the field they became fast friends — not that Dail gave them any other choice.

Dail_ND

"Jordan was huge in that aspect," Lombardi said. "By her opening up the door and welcoming them and telling them we need them, that allowed them to come in, relax, to be themselves and to just pitch."

The results speak for themselves. Yanez started nine games, going 9-1 with a 1.56 ERA. Diaz was surging just before the season came to a halt, and finished 8-0 with an ERA of 1.00. Dail ended up 5-1 with a 2.39 ERA, and an impressive 47 strikeouts against seven walks, improving her strikeout-to-walk ratio from 1.9-to-1 as a sophomore to 6.7-to-1 as a junior.

The pitching staff helped contribute to what was perhaps the 2020 team's signature trait: its ability to jump out to early leads. The Ducks allowed just three runs in the first two innings across their 24 games. The offense, meanwhile, put up 73 runs in the first two innings of those 24 games.

Cruse, the senior center fielder, set the pace offensively. Batting first in all 24 games, she hit .457 with an OPS of 1.135, and scored 30 runs while going a perfect 15-of-15 when attempting to steal a base.

After infielder Allee Bunker was briefly sidelined by injury early in the year, redshirt freshman catcher Terra McGowan moved into the No. 2 spot in the order. She ended up leading the Ducks in extra-base hits with 12, and was second in RBIs with 22.

"Haley would hit a double or steal second, and Terra did a great job driving her in," Lombardi said. "And it's the first inning, and we're already up 1-0."

Rachel Cid was generally the No. 3 hitter, and backed up that decision by driving in a team-high 29 runs. Cid missed time due to injury in the fall, and with every at-bat this spring sought to make up for those lost chances. Bunker, when she returned from injury, settled into the No. 4 hole. If she looked miscast as a wiry middle infielder in the cleanup spot, Bunker's numbers told a different story — she slugged .600, and was second behind Cruse with a .429 average.

Bunker_LMU

The development of Cid and Bunker spoke to their maturity, but also their physical growth under strength coach Courtney Walden, and the development coaxed by assistant Justin Shults.

"Every time we'd go into a game, we'd go in with a plan," Lombardi said. "It was cool to sit there and watch the plan unfold throughout the game. At times we knew our plan but we weren't getting to it as quick as we needed to. They'd get together in a huddle, and there was no panic. And they'd come out more decisive."

The bottom half of the order saw vets Shaye Bowden, Jasmine Sievers and Mya Felder complementing exciting freshmen Ariel Carlson, Deijah Pangilinan and Vallery Wong. Sophomores Lexi Wagner and Hannah Galey took advantage of their opportunities as well, with Wagner bashing her first collegiate home run against Idaho State, and Galey providing one of the defensive plays of the year, a back-to-the-wall catch in center field during a tournament hosted by Oklahoma State.

It truly felt like the Ducks had the right combination of pitching prowess and offensive output to make a long postseason run, especially given a mature approach that saw them take both the early winning streak and also the back-to-back losses in stride.

"They worked hard this year," Lombardi said. "They worked really hard to get what they wanted. And it stinks their season is done."

Like any good coach, though, Lombardi used the season's abrupt end as a teachable moment.

"It's a tough one to take," she said. "Because they were on track. But my biggest message to them was, through all this, what's going on right now is more important than softball, more important than this season. It's about people and our community and their lives, and getting people healthy. And understanding that, you know what? Sometimes, life isn't fair. That's part of it.

"I want them to become great softball players, but I also want to prepare them for life and things that are going to come their way, adversity. These guys are sad this had to come to an end. But they also understand, this is bigger than softball."