Grein Impresses Against No. 13 South Carolina

Friday, February 20

Cathedral City, CA

3:00 PM

University of Oregon

7-5

South Carolina

8-4

Oregon

South Carolina

02/20/26 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 #18 Oregon 2, #13 South Carolina 1 Cal State Fullerton 7, #18 Oregon 3

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. — Lyndsey Grein was nearly unhittable against another SEC school as No. 18 Oregon split a pair of games Friday at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.

Grein held No. 13 South Carolina hitless into the fifth inning of Oregon's 2-1 victory. Later in the evening, the Ducks dropped a 5-3 decision to Cal State Fullerton.

In four games against SEC opponents this season, Grein allowed just four runs on eight hits in 24.2 innings. That means her ERA versus the SEC was 1.16. What's more, she struck out 29 combined against Missouri, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 11 Texas A&M and No. 13 South Carolina. And no-hit the Tigers.

How It Happened – Game 1: The Ducks (7-6) scored two runs in the top of the second thanks to Katie Flannery's clutch two-out hit.

Ayanna Shaw chopped a single over third base. Briaesey Rosa reached on a fielder's choice that forced Shaw at second. Taryn Ho reached on an error that allowed Rosa to move around to third.

After Ho stole second, Flannery drove a 2-2 pitch down the left field line to score both runners.

From there, it was the Lyndsey Grein show. The only South Carolina runner to reach base in the first four innings was the second batter in the bottom of the first, Karley Shelton, who was hit by a pitch.

After that, Grein retired 11 in a row. She struck out two runners in the second and the fourth, recording her 500^th career strikeout in to end the second inning.

The no-hitter was broken up when Tori Ensley hit a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the fifth for the Gamecocks (8-3).

Grein pitched into the sixth inning, yielding to Maddie Milhorn with one on and one out. Milhorn got out of the inning on a fly out to center before Emma Cox picked a runner off second to end the inning.

Milhorn closed the game with a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh to earn her first career save.

Grein allowed one run on two hits in 5.1 innings and struck out six to improve to 4-3 on the season.

How It Happened – Game 2: The Ducks' bats were quiet early as Fullerton (6-7) put up a four-spot in the bottom of the third and hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth for a 5-0 lead.

But the Ducks mounted a rally that fell just short.

Fullerton walked three straight batters – Amari Harper, Elon Butler and Emma Cox – leading off the top of the fifth

Rylee McCoy then walked to force in a run that made it 5-1.

The next batter, Addison Amaral, nearly tied the game with a grand slam, but her fly ball to the warning track in center was deep enough for Butler to tag and score.

An out later, Braiesey Rosa's single brought Cox home to make it 5-3, but that was as close as the Ducks would get.

Notable: Addison Amaral's RBI in the fifth against Fullerton was the 100^th of her career … Elon Butler went 3-for-6 on Friday, raising her tournament batting average to .385 … Ayanna Shaw was 2-for-4 against South Carolina … Emma Cox has thrown out eight runners this season – four caught stealing and four picked off … Kaylynn Jones' career-best seven-game hitting streak came to an end against South Carolina … It was the first game between Oregon and South Carolina since 2008.

Up Next: Oregon wraps up its stay at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic with a single game against No. 20 Duke at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.