JB89

Nice win before heading home.

I enjoy the recruiting updates provided by all of you but I refuse to get too excited or disappointed this time of year. While it is preferred to keep verbal commitments we know that with Coach Lanning any great player leaving will be replaced with another great player.

Fantastic win today. Winning the series against UCLA is exactly what they needed to keep their hopes of getting a top 8 seed alive. The ability to forget about Saturday's loss and get the run rule victory today was very impressive.

Alex, thanks for the article. I agree that we do not need or want to have the ex Tennessee QB on our team. I will disagree with your comment that Moore needs to be the starter this year. The QB that needs to be the starter is the player that the coaches decide is the best to lead the team this fall. I think Novosad is in the mix to be the starting QB. I do not see practices but I thought Novosad looked like the best QB on the field in last years spring game. Whichever of the two QB's gets the starting job, I think we need to have the other QB stay with the team and not transfer. If we go into next fall with only Moore or Novosad then we will only be one injury away from not making the playoffs. I have confidence that we can make the playoffs with either player as our starting QB but we need the other player to be available if an unfortunate injury occurs.

I hate to see us drop in the polls this late in the year. I understand why it happened. The loss at home to LMU really hurt. LMU has a losing record 18-22. In early march UCLA beat them 11-1 & 12-0. LMU has been shut out in games versus Oklahoma, Utah, Cal., Long Beach State and San Diego. We also struggled to beat Minnesota in two of the three games this past weekend. Minnesota is 14-26 overall. I hate the SEC but with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas they are the top softball conference. They look like the old PAC12 when looking at the rankings. They are recruiting many of the top California players that used to stay in the PAC12. Maybe NIL is the reason for so much of the talent heading to the SEC. Since the Duck's opportunities to play against top 10 teams are limited a series win against UCLA is extremely important. That along with a strong showing in the conference tournament might be enough to get a coveted top 8 seed.

30Duck, I think you are a long time fan of the softball team as am I. I went back and looked at the 2017 roster just to refresh my aging memory. I would take the 2017 team to win the series against this 2025 team. I am very impressed with the talent that Lombardi has assemble for the 2025 team. The pitching talent has finally gotten the Ducks back to an elite level and the freshman class is unbelievably talented and productive. The 2017 team had Jenna Lilley, Nikki Udria, Shannon Rhodes, Alexis Mack, Gwen Svekis, Haley Cruse and pitcher Miranda Elish just to name a few. Those players are why I would choose the 2017 team. The Mike White era was a great time to be a Duck Softball fan. I hope Oregon can win the series against UCLA this weekend and make the title game of the Big Ten conference tournament. Unfortunately they will probably need to have that type of success to receive a top 8 seed. The non league wins over Tennessee and FSU will help in seeding but the home losses to OSU and LMU hurt just as much as those wins help. We must beat OSU tomorrow. Under Lombardi, I felt we deserved to host a regional a couple of times but we were relegated to a #2 regional seed instead. The year they sent us to Texas just to have a match up with Mike White's Texas team was very frustrating. Given the selection committees past history of over looking Coach Lombardi lead Duck teams they must continue to win because the committee will look for any reason to not give us a top 8 seed.

Ducks get the sweep. 5-4

Minnesota cuts the lead to 5-4.

The Ducks add to their lead in the 5th. 5-0 Ducks.

The Ducks start the scoring in the 3rd inning with a 2 run homerun by Kedre Luschar.

In a very close game today, Elise Sokolsky reenters the game in the 7th inning to close out the victory. Minnesota led the game thru 5 innings on a 2 run homerun in the 3rd inning. The Ducks scored 2 runs in the 6th and 3 runs in the 7th to take a 5-2 lead. Lyndsey Grein struggled with her control in the 7th. This lead to the reentry of Sokolsky. Fortunately, the Ducks held on for the victory. They look for a series sweep tomorrow with the game starting at 10:00 AM.

I do not believe Dana is too old school. My guess is we do not have enough NIL money to attract the top talent in the portal. I think the same thing is happening with our WBB program. It is simply a bidding war now. If you do not spend a ton of money you are not going to get the top transfer players. Also Oregon is probably spending the majority of their NIL money to keep the players currently on our roster

WBB adds multi year starter at Washington State. Former Washington State guard Astera Tuhina commits to transfer to Oregon women’s basketball WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM Oregon has landed its second transfer of the offseason.

WBB adds all Mountain West forward from Freson State. Former Fresno State forward Mia Jacobs commits to transfer to Oregon women’s basketball WWW.OREGONLIVE.COM Jacobs shot 40.8% from the field, including a career-high 38% from three, and 85% from the free throw line this season while starting all 34 games

The Ducks score seven in the 4th and five in the 5th inning to get the easy road victory. Lindsey Grein improves her season record to 20-1. Emma Cox who started the season at catcher but was injured a month ago finally returned to action today. Braiesey Rosa has been fantastic while taking over the starting catcher position. It will be interesting to see who gets the majority of starts now. This was a much needed win after the surprising loss to LMU on Monday. Hopefully the Ducks dominate the rest of the weekend with a series sweep over Minnesota.