Ducks stay hot as Lyndsey Grein shuts out No. 8 Seminoles in dominant win

EUGENE, Ore. — Behind a dominant, complete-game shutout from starting pitcher Lyndsey Grein, the No. 12 Oregon Ducks took down the No. 8 Florida State Seminoles by a 2-0 score on Friday night at Jane Sanders Stadium. Grein, who struck out 11 in a complete-game shutout her last time out, absolutely dominated the Seminoles from the jump, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out five to lead the way for the Ducks.

Florida State came into the game fresh off a five-inning 8-0 win over Oregon State on Friday afternoon, and looked to pick up their 20th win of the season over the Ducks. While both teams were held to quiet days on offense, Oregon (21-1) got all it needed from Braiesey Rosa, who delivered her first career home run in the second inning for the only runs of the game.

Across the seven stellar innings, the only hit Grein surrendered came in the first inning, when Florida State center fielder Kennedy Harp sent the first pitch she saw into center field for a two-out single. It wouldn't take long for Grein to dial back in as she froze the next batter for her second looking strikeout of the inning, ending the frame and stranding Harp at first.

After a quiet bottom of the first that saw Rylee McCoy stranded on second after a single, Grein got back to work in the second, picking up her third strikeout on a nasty dropball, a pitch she spent this offseason working on under Lombardi's guidance.

"She's just been determined to get her dropball, and I'm very impressed with her work ethic and how hard she's worked to get that," Lombardi said of Grein. "It just opens things up for her. It allows her to start games a certain way and then to adjust and switch things up in an at-bat or halfway through the game."

"I'm super fortunate to have Coach Lombardi as a coach," Grein said. "She's in it with me, I think when she's in the dugout, it feels like she's right being me doing it with me. She's helped me a ton, both with the physicality of the game and the mental side of the game, and she's really bought in to what I want to accomplish."

With two outs in the bottom of the inning, Katie Flannery drove a single through the right side of the infield to spark a rally. Just two pitches later, Rosa took advantage, driving her first career home run into the centerfield bleachers to put the Ducks ahead.

"I kind of was shocked as I was going around first," said Rosa, who recorded her first career hit on an RBI double last weekend. "But it felt really good just knowing that I had my teammates' back today and just doing it for them."

Rosa got the nod behind the plate after filling in for starter Emma Cox last weekend, who went down in the first game of the Oregon Classic after taking a foul tip to the chest in the first inning. Cox was in the Oregon dugout on Friday with her right arm in a sling. Lombardi said that they're "taking it day-by-day and seeing what it looks like for her."

"I love how she just went about her business back there and then just to get an opportunity to hit a ball hard," Lombardi said of Rosa. "She's got the power, she's got a great arm, she receives really well, so I'm excited for you all to get to see her because she's very good at what she does."

Kaylynn Jones and Kai Luschar each followed Rosa's homer with singles, putting two more runners in scoring position before Dezianna Patmon's fly ball came up just short of the left field wall on the warning track for the third out.

Now working with a two-run lead, Grein continued to cook, working a one-two-three third inning before allowing a walk in the fourth that she would quickly mitigate with a popup to second base.

"I just like to take things one pitch at a time in my brain," Grein said. "I think when I look at the whole big picture, I can get overwhelmed, so looking at it one pitch at a time, one out at a time is what works good for me."

In the bottom of the inning, the Ducks threatened to add to their lead as Kai Luschar — who hit .714 last weekend — stayed hot, driving a double into the left-center gap. After Flannery bunted her over to third, Rosa was hit by a pitch and pinch run for by Regan Legg, who swiped second to give Oregon two in scoring position. With Jones at the plate and only one out, Luschar took a big lead at third but slipped trying to return to the base and was caught in a rundown for the second out. Even with Legg moving up to third, Jones struck out to end the inning, keeping Oregon's lead to just two.

Grein put one on in the sixth, mishandling a two-out grounder back to the circle, but worked around it with a grounder to Flannery, who played fantastic defense for the Ducks all night long at third.

"The inning where they got out of a jam with us, I felt like that was good momentum turning back over to them," Lombardi said. "I thought for us to go and just get a quick shutdown inning and then take that momentum back was huge. I feel like that was the biggest part of the game right there."

After Oregon went down quietly with three groundouts in the bottom of the inning, it set Grein up to finish things off in the seventh.

Grein battled Michaela Edenfield — a near-.400 hitter and All-ACC First-Team selection — for five pitches before freezing her for her fifth strikeout of the game. It would only take four more pitches from there, bringing her total to exactly 100 on the night, for Grein to close out the win with a foul popup and a groundout to second.

"When we got to the seventh, I was like, 'I just wanna do it for my team,'" Grein said. "They work so hard, and they played an amazing seven innings for me, so I just wanted to close it out, return the favor, and get everybody the win."

The Ducks are back in action on Saturday, looking to renew their in-state rivalry with the Oregon State Beavers. While no longer conference foes, the Ducks and Beavers will square off three times this season, first on Saturday before playing a pair of mid-week games in April. First pitch tomorrow is set for 3:30 PM as the second of five games Oregon will play this weekend in the Jane Sanders Classic.