The Oregon Ducks softball team lost to UCLA 11-3 in five innings on May 3, but secured the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Big Ten Tournament. The game took place at Easton Stadium in Los Angeles.
Despite Sunday’s defeat, Oregon finished the regular season with a record of 41-10 overall and 20-4 in conference play, tying with UCLA atop the Big Ten standings. Oregon earned the tiebreaker over UCLA due to their earlier series win against the Bruins and will enter Thursday’s tournament as the second seed.
Coach Melyssa Lombardi said, “It’s hard to set aside today, but I like where we are at as a team heading into the Big Ten Tournament. I like what were doing offensively; we’re scoring a lot of runs and I like our depth and our approach on the mound. I think this team is in a really good place.”
During Sunday’s game, Elon Butler broke Oregon’s single-season record for total bases by reaching her 139th base in the first inning, surpassing Jenn Salling’s previous mark from 2007. Butler finished with two hits and now has accumulated 140 total bases this season.
Oregon will begin its postseason run Thursday at Maryland Softball Stadium in College Park against either Wisconsin or Purdue at 1:30 p.m., according to information provided by the university.
