Melyssa Lombardi is expected to be named the next head coach of Oregon, according to sources close to the situation.
Lombardi has spent twenty-one seasons as the Sooners’ pitching coach and top assistant under Patty Gasso, and was a part of four National Championship-winning teams during her tenure, most recently in 2016 and 2017. In 2017, Lombardi was named the Division I Assistant Coach of the Year.
During her tenure, Lombardi tutored numerous award-winning pitchers, including Keilani Ricketts; Paige Parker; Michelle Gascoigne; and Lauren Eckermann. She showed significant success with transfer pitchers, as well, shepherding Kelsey Stevens and Paige Lowary to record-breaking campaigns as they made Norman the second stop of their collegiate careers.
Under Lombardi’s tutelage, Ricketts earned back-to-back National Player of the Year awards in 2012, and both she and Parker were named an all-American in all four years of their college careers.
Oklahoma is the only place that Lombardi has coached, moving into a staff role following her graduation from OU. A former Sooners catcher, she led the Sooners with a .345 batting average in 1996 and was named to the all-Big 12 tournament team that same season.
She takes over the leadership of an Oregon squad that posted a 53-10 overall record in the 2018 campaign and earned the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. The reigning PAC-12 champions, the Ducks were eliminated in the second round of the Women’s College World Series.
The Ducks’ pitching staff, famously consisting of the ‘three-headed monster’ of Megan Kleist, Miranda Elish, and Maggie Balint, posted a 1.38 team ERA and 537 strikeouts on the season, while opponents hit just .179 against them. Kleist was named the PAC-12’s Pitcher of the Year.
Extra Inning SB was the first to report that Lombardi and the team had agreed to terms.
