Kedre Luschar
Late Sunday night, Oregon softball’s season hung in the balance as the Ducks trailed throughout the entirety of the winner-take-all final game against Stanford.
Oregon was behind for every single pitch, except the last one.
Senior transfer Dezianna Patmon launched a three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Ducks a spot in the super regional behind a 10-7 win.
The 16th-seeded Ducks will host the Super Regional after Liberty knocked off No. 1 Texas A&M Sunday afternoon. The Super Regional will be a best 2-of-3 series, beginning Friday evening at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
Oregon had to come from behind all day Sunday, needing to beat Stanford twice to advance.
In the first game, the Ducks blew out the Cardinal, 15-5, in six innings.
Carson High alumni, Kailee and Kedre Luschar, were influential in both wins.
Kai went 3-for-3 in the win with a walk, coming around to score a run all four times she reached base.
Kedre, who was moved to the No. 2 spot in the lineup, went 2-for-4 with four RBIs, a walk and three runs scored.
In the winner-take-all contest, Oregon trailed 4-0 and 7-3 after the Cardinal hit a grand slam and a three-run homer.
However, the Ducks battled back as Kedre scored Oregon’s sixth run in the fifth inning and Kai plated the game-tying run in the sixth on an RBI single.
It was Kai’s speed that allowed her to beat out a hit that traveled five feet at best.
The Luschar’s setup the Ducks to walk-it-off in the seventh.
Oregon lost to Stanford earlier in the regional, 14-1, in arguably the Ducks’ worst loss of the season.
Sunday served as quite the response for a team that is now two wins away from a College World Series appearance.
Over the course of the tournament, Kai stole several bases and took over Oregon softball’s record books. She is now the all-time career leader for stolen bases for the University of Oregon softball program. She is one stolen base shy (58) of the single-season Big Ten record of 59 stolen bases set in 1993 by Washington’s Angie Marzetta.
(Kailee Luschar)