New-look Oregon softball readying for first season in the Big Ten with confidence

EUGENE, Ore. — While the setting may look the same at Jane Sanders Stadium, the No. 23 Oregon Ducks are preparing for a new journey in their first season as members of the Big Ten.

With a new conference comes a new-look roster for head coach Melyssa Lombardi, who is now in her eighth season leading the Ducks. The 2025 season will look to be the start of a new era after Oregon saw nine seniors finish their college careers last year, including a member of Lombardi's first signing class, Ariel Carlson.

The Ducks have seven holes to fill from last year's lineup, with only outfielder Kai Luschar and shortstop Paige Sinicki set to return to their starting positions on the diamond. This has brought on new leadership roles, both on and off the field.

"She means a lot," Lombardi said of Luschar. "I think about how much she's grown as a freshman to now and just the leader that she has become in our locker room and how much these guys look to her. She does a really good job at helping them understand what it takes to be at that level and what each day requires."

Luschar, who spent a redshirt season at Arizona State before transferring to Oregon, has developed into one of the nation's best contact hitters. Utilizing her elite combination of speed and bat-to-ball skills to slap singles, Luschar has hit over .400 in each of the last two seasons. 

"It's electric," Sinicki said of her teammate. "Once you can get her on base, it just feels like all the energy is towards yourself."

Luschar enters her senior season third on the Ducks' all-time batting average leaderboard with a .391 mark for her career and only needs 10 stolen bases to enter the top 10 in Oregon history too. After being named to the All-Pac-12 first-team last season, Luschar was one of 53 players named to USA Softball's Player of the Year Watchlist this past week.

"Kai is constantly on," Lombardi said. "If Kai hits a single, it turns into a double because she's so fast she's able to steal, and then a base hit, we are up one to nothing. She allows us to start fast which is important to us, we want to be able to start games fast and finish fast and I think she gives us that opportunity."

The other returning starter in Oregon's lineup will be Sinicki, a slick-fielding middle infielder, who last season became the first Duck in program history to be awarded an NFCA Rawlings Gold Glove for her work at shortstop. While she gets most of her recognition for her defensive prowess, Sinicki saw massive improvements at the plate last season, raising her batting average by 50 points and more importantly, her on-base percentage by 75 points thanks to an 8.5 percent increase in her walk rate.

"I think this past year was just really kind of embracing the approach I want to go up there with," Sinicki said of her improvement in the batter's box last season. "That's just something that helped me increase my walks in the end of it, and I think overall, just being able to have better pitch selection will help me with my batting average and getting on base as well."

With an entirely new group of infielders, Sinicki is now the one setting the standard, which for her is gold. 

"The standard that she holds daily, she expects the others to hold the standard as well," Lombardi said of her shortstop. "She plays at a very fast pace, makes very quick decisions, and forces the others to do the same around her. What I love is the freshmen, they're having to play more like veterans and figure things out quicker because of who they're surrounded by."

Along with the seven freshmen joining the team as a part of the nation's No. 16 recruiting class, according to Extra Innings Softball, Lombardi also added three veterans in the transfer portal: infielder Dezianna Patmon, and pitchers Lyndsey Grein and Staci Chambers.

Patmon began her career at North Carolina A&T before transferring to New Mexico State where she was named the 2024 C-USA Newcomer of the Year after slashing .387/.457/.748. Her bat will add some much-needed pop to this Oregon lineup, as her 15 home runs last season would've only trailed Carlson for the team lead.

Chambers, formerly of Cal State Fullerton, will give the Ducks' pitching staff a dynamic it hasn't seen in years, a lefty. 

"I'm really excited to get that lefty. You need it," Lombardi said of Chambers. "The matchup is huge, you need to have all types of matchups and she gives us that lefty-lefty matchup."

Grein dominated the ACC last year to the tune of a 2.89 ERA and 138 strikeouts across 106.2 innings at Virginia Tech. Utilizing her rise-ball to blow pitches past her opponents at the top of the strike zone, Grein struck out batters at one of the highest rates in the country last season, ranking 13th with 8.8 strikeouts per seven innings. 

The additions of Chambers and Grein to the pitching staff have given the Ducks more versatility on top of the veteran leadership that the two transfers will provide.

"We're all so different in that everybody has their own specific talent," Grein said of Oregon's rotation. "I've learned so much from Taylour [Spencer], Elise [Sokolsky], Staci [Chambers], and Rowan [Thompson]. They're super welcoming and we just want to make each other better."

The road ahead of them may be long, and colder than it's ever been before in a new conference, but that hasn't changed the Ducks' mindset or the way that they prepare. 

"To sit and pretend like it's not cold, I don't think that does anything," Lombardi said. "It is cold. So are you prepared to handle the elements and still play great softball?"

Even with a young roster, Lombardi knows what her team is capable of. Last season, Oregon was eliminated by her former team, Oklahoma, which went on to claim its fourth-straight national championship. While the Ducks didn't end up with the result they were looking for, they gained valuable experience that will carry on into this year.

"I watched young girls on our team turn into women and just get the experience that they needed to take them into this year," Lombardi said. "I think we're young but I think we're experienced."

"What I like about this group is that I do think the outside world sees them a little young and it gives them the opportunity to fly under the radar a little bit, which I like. I'm fine with that."

Oregon begins its 2025 softball season on Feb. 7 at the UNLV Desert Classic, taking on Buffalo and Southern Utah for an opening-day doubleheader.