No. 16 Oregon softball was walked-off by No. 9 UCLA in the pair’s first game at the 2025 Women’s College World Series on Friday, May 29, in Oklahoma City.

After two postseason walk-off wins of their own helped push them to the WCWS, the Ducks found themselves on the receiving end of the 4-2 loss at the hands of UCLA. Down to their last out and with the go-ahead run standing on first base, Bruins centerfielder Jessica Clements sent an 0-1 delivery from Oregon’s Elise Sokolsky over the centerfield fence for a two-run blast.

Oregon now sits one loss away from heading home empty-handed, with an elimination game against Ole Miss slated for Friday. UCLA will advance to face No. 12 Texas Tech on Saturday, who beat Ole Miss 1-0 on Thursday.

The final matchup of the WCWS’ opening day bled through to the early hours of Friday morning in Oklahoma City, with Clements’ homer coming just past midnight local time after inclement weather delayed prior games.

“I absolutely loved our fight tonight,” Oregon head coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “This group has been waiting all day, we have been waiting all year to be in this moment. And to walk on this field and watch these guys look up and see the crowd and see our fans, and to just know how hard they worked all year to get here was just an unbelievable feeling. I loved our fight throughout the entire game. It was a dogfight… (and) a total pitcher’s duel. I just look at two swings that were the difference maker.”

The Ducks notched just four hits and didn’t; draw a walk in the losing effort, with shortstop Paige Sinicki’s seventh-inning double being Oregon’s lone extra-base hit.

“We talk a lot about having the ability to start fast, stay fast and finish fast,” Lombardi said. “And I thought we started a little slow today.”

Second baseman Kaylynn Jones lead off the top of the third with a single, working her way to third base on a pair of ground balls before senior outfielder Kedre Luschar drove the freshman in for Oregon’s first run and only RBI. After her double and a sacrifice bunt from outfielder Dezianna Patmon moved her over 60 feet, Sinicki scored the tying run in the top of the seventh on a ground ball from catcher Emma Cox. Sinicki was initially called out by the home-plate umpire, but Lombardi challenged the call for catcher’s obstruction and was rewarded with a tie ballgame in the seventh inning.

“You never know what the reviews are going to come back to,” Lombardi said. “But seeing the play and looking at it from my vantage point, it looked like it was obstruction from the beginning to the end of the play.”

All four of UCLA’s runs came on two-out, two-RBI home runs. Clements’ swing ended the game, while catcher Alexis Rameriez’s blast gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning. In total, UCLA mustered seven hits and drew a pair of walks, stranding four base-runners.

Oregon’s pair of junior right-handed pitchers were each responsible for allowing one of the two homers. Lyndsey Grein made her sixth-straight start and worked into the sixth inning, tossing 96 total pitches. Grein surrendered five hits, two walks and struck out a pair, while her only allowed runs came off Rameriez’s go-ahead homer.

Sokolsky (17-5) gave up the homer and took the loss, tossing 16-total pitches over  1.2 innings of work and logging a strikeout.

The verge of elimination isn’t unfamiliar territory for Oregon, who were a loss against Stanford away from being eliminated in the Eugene regional. Sinicki, whose collegiate career would end alongside the Ducks season should they lose, says she’s confident in her team’s ability to bounce back against Ole Miss the same way they did it against the Cardinal.

“I think this group is so good at bouncing back (and) we’ve shown it all year,” Sinicki said. “So I’m excited to see what we’re able to do tomorrow. For us, when we can change our mindsets to being competitive, we’re so unbeatable. And I think that’s what we’re going to see tomorrow, just how can we relax and trust what we’ve been doing all year, and really just dive into each other and really buy into that because, once we have that, we’re so, so, so good… You’re going to see that type of fight show up every day.”

In Oregon’s eight prior trips to the WCWS, the Ducks have lost their first game five times (1976, 1989, 2012, 2015. 2017). They are, however, 4-1 all-time following a game-one loss, with 2015 being the Ducks’ lone 0-2 stint at The Greatest Show on Dirt.

No. 16 Oregon will face unseeded Ole Miss for an elimination game at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 30 at Devon Park in Oklahoma City. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.