Melyssa Lombardi made her first move as the Ducks’ head coach late last week, hiring Justin Shults as the program’s new hitting coach.
Shults spent the last two seasons as the hitting coach at Fresno State. The Bulldogs reached the NCAA tournament in 2017 and broke two program record offensively during the 2018 campaign.
Under Shults’ guidance, Fresno State hitters ranked fifth in the NCAA in 2018 with a .410 cumulative team on-base percentage and a program all-time best 213 walks.
Prior to his tenure at Fresno State, Shults’ coaching resume also includes time as an assistant coach at Miami (Ohio) and Southwestern Oklahoma State. A former baseball player, Shults played collegiately at UC-Riverside and a single season in the Houston Astros organization.
At Oregon, Shults joins a Ducks program that posted a 53-10 record in 2018 and won the PAC-12 conference title with a 21-3 showing in conference play. The Ducks posted a team batting average of .322 and hit seventy-eight home runs. Four offensive stars – including the squad’s top two home run hitters – graduated following the season.
Graphic via Oregon Softball
