No. 18 Oregon secured a narrow 2-1 win over No. 11 Texas A&M on Thursday at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California. The victory followed a loss to Auburn earlier in the day.
Pitcher Lyndsey Grein led the Ducks with 6.1 innings of work against Texas A&M, giving up one run on five hits while striking out four and walking three batters. Elise Sokolsky closed out the game, earning her first save of the season by retiring the final two hitters.
Elon Butler contributed a home run, and Rylee McCoy drove in the go-ahead run for Oregon in the bottom of the sixth inning.
“I think it just took all of us to come together and have that team chemistry,” said Butler. “We were not going to lose. We worked so hard to get to this point. We just all game together like ‘we’re going to do this’ and it was a great job by the offense.”
Earlier in the day, Oregon lost 10-5 to Auburn after Auburn hit two three-run home runs early in the game. Amari Harper responded for Oregon with a two-run homer, her third of the season, but Auburn continued their offensive momentum and eventually pulled away.
In that game, Oregon also scored on a throwing error that allowed both Stefini Ma’ake and Taryn Ho to cross home plate. Despite further efforts from Ma’ake and Harper later in the game, Oregon could not overcome Auburn’s lead.
Against Texas A&M, Grein allowed only one damaging play—a solo home run by Micaela Wark—while Butler answered with her own solo shot in the bottom half of the fourth inning.
“Honestly it felt great,” said Butler. “I’ve been struggling a little bit at the plate, not doing the best that I think I can, but I just saw something over the plate, trusted myself and swung.”
Grein held off any further Aggies’ advances for over two innings after Butler’s tying home run.
“My approach was just relax and have fun,” said Grein. “Softball is supposed to be fun. We work so hard on our craft, so just embracing that.”
The decisive moment came when Rylee McCoy brought Kaylynn Jones home with an RBI groundout following singles from Jones and Amari Harper along with Emma Cox loading up bases.
“They made it easy,” said McCoy. “They were on base and I knew I had one job and that was to score one run for my team and it felt amazing. Everyone worked so hard during the game and it happened to land on me and I’m so happy I got it done for them.”
In relief, Sokolsky finished off Texas A&M efficiently with two ground-ball outs on three pitches for her sixth career save—a total that ties her for tenth place on Oregon’s all-time list.
Among other notes: Grein has now won twice against SEC teams this year while allowing only three runs across nearly 20 innings pitched; freshman Taryn Ho made her first career start at shortstop versus Texas A&M; Jones extended her hitting streak to seven games; Sokolsky reached six career saves as a Duck.
Outfielder Elon Butler reflected on overcoming adversity from earlier: “Obviously were pretty upset after losing to Auburn and the way we lost but I think the biggest this is that we stayed together, doing our thing and playing our game of softball.”
Oregon will continue play at Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic against No. 13 South Carolina before facing Cal State Fullerton later Thursday.
