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Melyssa Lombardi
Melyssa Lombardi enters her sixth season as Oregon's head coach in 2024. She was named the 12th head coach in program history on July 9, 2018, and brought an elite championship resume to Eugene after a highly successful 21-year tenure on the staff of Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso, including the final 11 seasons as associate head coach.
The 2023 season was Lombardi's most successful season to date as she led the Ducks to their first NCAA Super Regional appearance since 2018. Oregon was 38-17 overall and 14-10 in Pac-12 play in 2023 and spent every week of the season ranked in the NFCA and USA Softball polls. The Ducks ranked in the top four of the Pac-12 in batting average (.306), home runs (64), runs per game (5.78), slugging percentage (.494) and stolen bases (75). Oregon also ranked second in double plays (23) and led the league in runners caught stealing (14).
Lombardi added two more NFCA All-Americans to her impressive resume. Allee Bunker and Terra McGowan both earned the first All-America certificates of their careers, while McGowan was also named the Diamond Sports national catcher of the year. Hanna Delgado and Morgan Scott joined Bunker and McGowan on the 2023 all-Pac-12 teams. Bunker and McGowan were also members of the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team along with Paige Sinicki.
Bunker will go down as one of the all-time greats in program history. She finished her career ranked third in hits (285), second in doubles (46), fourth in RBI (169), fifth in runs (161) and seventh in batting average (.365). She was the No. 16 overall pick in the 2023 WPF Draft by the USSSA Pride.
The previous year, despite a lineup that was depleted by injuries for much of the first half of the season, Lombardi guided the Ducks to their second consecutive NCAA Regional final in 2022, going 33-19 overall. Oregon led the Pac-12 in fielding percentage (.977) and ranked 10th nationally. The Ducks scored nearly six runs a game as their run production improved 15 percent over the previous year. Oregon also led the league in stolen bases per game (1.69).
McGowan, Bunker, Delgado and Stevie Hansen were all named to the 2022 All-Pac-12 team, while Hansen, Sinicki and Allison Benning made the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. The Ducks led the conference with three Pac-12 All-Defensive Team selections - Bunker, McGowan and Sinicki.
Additionally, McGowan, Bunker, Delgado and Hansen were all named to the NFCA All-Pacific Region team for a Ducks' squad that was ranked in the top 25 for all 16 weeks of the season.
Individually in 2022, Ariel Carlson entered the school record book with 15 home runs (tied for sixth), while McGowan became the first catcher to lead the team in batting average (.375) since 2005. On the mound, Hansen ranked second among freshmen in the Pac-12 with 126 strike outs.
In 2021, Lombardi led Oregon to a third-place finish in the highly competitive Pac-12 and an NCAA Regional final appearance in her third season in Eugene, going 40-17 (14-10 Pac-12). The Ducks were ranked in the top 10 for the majority of the season, reaching as high as No. 3 in the NFCA Coaches Poll at the halfway point of the regular season.
A pair of Ducks earned All-America recognition in Lombardi’s third season, with outfielder Haley Cruse and lefty Brooke Yanez earning third-team honors. Additionally, Oregon placed seven players on the NFCA All-Pacific Region team and six on the Pac-12 All-Conference team. Lombardi also helped lead a pitching staff that finished seventh nationally with a 4.48 strikeout-to-walk ratio while the Ducks were the only team in the country with at least three pitchers in the top 50 in strikeouts per seven innings.
In Lombardi’s second season in 2020, Oregon got off to the second-best start in program history through 24 games, going 22-2 before the coronavirus pandemic cut the season short. The Ducks opened the season with a 16-game winning streak, the second-longest to start a season in school history, and finished ranked in the top 10 of both the NFCA Coaches’ Poll and USA Softball Poll.
Oregon excelled across the board, finishing as the only team in the nation to rank in the top 15 in batting average (8th - .350), ERA (11th - 1.62) and fielding percentage (2nd - .986). Additionally, the Ducks placed in the top 15 nationally in six other major statistical categories including finishing fourth in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 4.66 and ninth with 7.20 runs scored per game.
Three Ducks earned All-America honors from Softball America for the shortened season, with outfielder Haley Cruse and pitcher Brooke Yanez being named to the second team and pitcher Samaria Diaz receiving third-team recognition. Oregon also boasted tremendous depth in 2020, finishing with five starters hitting above .350 while three pitchers recorded at least five wins and 45 strikeouts in the circle.
In her first year at Oregon, the Ducks landed four players on the All-Pac-12 team and three on the all-freshman team. Working with a heavily depleted roster and just one scholarship pitcher for most of the season, Oregon finished Lombardi’s first season 22-30 and 5-19 in the Pac-12 headlined by wins over No. 1 UCLA and No. 8 LSU.
At Oklahoma (Assistant Coach – 1997-2007; Associate Head Coach – 2008-2018)
The 2017 NFCA NCAA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year, Lombardi was directly responsible for the Oklahoma pitchers and catchers throughout her 21-season stint in Norman that saw the Sooners win four national championships, including back-to-back in 2016 and 2017, and a total of 15 Big 12 regular season or postseason tournament titles.
Oklahoma played in the postseason every year during Lombardi’s 21 seasons, advancing to 17 Super Regionals and 12 Women’s College World Series appearances. The Sooners made Super Regionals each of the last nine seasons with Lombardi on staff, and the WCWS seven times in her last eight seasons.
A former all-conference catcher for the Sooners, Lombardi coached the Oklahoma battery to a combined 20 All-America honors, 37 All-Region accolades and 77 All-Big 12 honors over her 21 seasons at OU. Her pitchers racked up six Big-12 Pitcher of the Year awards, and she mentored OU aces such as Paige Parker, Pagie Lowary and Keilani Ricketts.
In addition to being named the nation’s top assistant in 2017, Lombardi was a part of four NFCA National Coaching Staffs of the Year (2000, 2013, 2016 and 2017), and 11 Regional Coaching Staffs of the Year (1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018).
Under Lombardi’s guidance, the Sooner pitchers led the nation in 2018 with a team ERA of 1.12, paced by four-time Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Paige Parker, who was a finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, and Paige Lowary, who led all active pitchers in the nation in career saves and was the first overall selection in the National Pro FastPitch League Draft. Parker ranked second in the country with a 0.82 ERA, while Lowary was sixth at 1.09.
The 2017 season featured one of the deepest staffs in program history as three pitchers threw at least 100 innings and all five members of the staff had ERAs at 2.08 or lower. The staff ERA was 1.55 on the season with 510 strikeouts in 482.2 innings and an opponents’ average of .177. Parker was tremendous for a third straight season, earning Big-12 Pitcher of the Year for the third time with a 1.43 ERA and 8.72 strikeouts per seven innings. Lombardi immediately took Lowary, who transferred from Missouri, under her wing and helped her become a dominant relief pitcher with 11 saves.
As a sophomore in 2016, Parker tied the school record and led the country with 38 wins while posting a 1.64 ERA and notching 269 strikeouts in 252.1 innings with 14 shutouts. The WCWS Most Outstanding Player for the national champion Sooners, Parker was a perfect 10-0 with a 2.13 ERA in the postseason. OU threw 22 total shutouts throughout the 2016 season. Catcher Lea Wodach earned second-team All-Region honors as she hit .315 with seven home runs and 32 runs batted in. Taking over primary catching duties in mid-March, she threw out 11 of the 16 stolen base attempts against her.
Parker burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2015, throwing four perfect games and nine solo shutouts with a 1.65 ERA. She became just the third pitcher in NCAA DI history to throw at least four perfect games in a career, and just the 16th to have four perfectos in a career. Behind the plate in 2015, catchers Whitney Ellis and Lea Wodach limited baserunners to just four stolen bases, the fewest in the nation. In addition, they threw out 8 of 12 would-be basestealers for a nation’s base caught stealing rate of 75 percent.
The 2014 season was one of Lombardi’s best coaching jobs as OU’s returning pitchers combined for three wins, one start, 13.2 innings and 13 strikeouts from 2013. Nevertheless, Stanford transfer Kelsey Stevens joined the squad and proceeded to tie for the nation’s lead in wins with 38 to earn All-Region and All-Conference honors. In addition, sophomore catcher Whitney Ellis, who had to replace three-time All-American Jessica Shults, threw out a nation’s best 61.5 percent (16 of 26) of would-be basestealers.
Lombardi also developed two-time USA Softball Player of the Year Keilani Ricketts, a four-time All-American who led the Sooners to the 2013 national title while finishing 35-1 and throwing six no-hitters. Ricketts finished her career in the NCAA top 12 in multiple categories, including ninth with 133 career victories and 11th with 1,605 career strikeouts.
In 2013, Ricketts and Michelle Gascoigne combined to give the Sooners one of the most dominant seasons in program history. Ricketts went 35-1 and Gascoigne was 18-3, while each had an ERA under 1.23 and held opponents’ batting averages under .160. Ricketts threw 16 shutouts, Gascoigne threw eight and the pair combined on three more. As a team, the Sooners led the country in earned run average at 1.16, the lowest by a staff since Florida’s 0.69 mark in 2009. It was also the second year in a row that OU boasted the country’s top ERA, the first time a program led in back-to-back years since 2005-06.
Ricketts earned the first of two straight USA Softball Player of the Year honors in 2012 after bettering her own program single-season strikeout record with 457. She was second nationally in strikeouts, strikeouts per seven innings (11.0), ERA (1.08) and wins (37), and was third with 15 shutouts. As a staff, the 2012 Sooners set program records for both strikeouts and strikeouts per seven innings.
Lombardi’s battery of Ricketts and Shults each earned All-American honors in 2011, with Ricketts striking out a then-school-record 452, including a OU single-game record 19 against Iona. Lombardi guided Ricketts to second team All-America honors as a freshman in 2010, while senior catcher Lindsey Vandever earned Big-12 Defensive Player of the year honors. With a pitching staff of two sophomores and two freshmen, Lombardi aided OU in producing a 1.39 ERA, a mark that was No. 2 in the nation.
Catcher Heather Scaglione earned two straight All-America first team honors in 2004 and 2005 under Lombardi’s tutelage. The only two-time first team All-American in school history was also named the Big 12’s Defensive Player of the Year in those same years. Scaglione remains the only player in Big 12 history to receive the honor twice.
During Oklahoma’s 2000 national championship run, Lombardi’s staff registered a 1.44 ERA to rank second in the Big-12 and 25th in the nation. The staff posted 24 shutouts and 301 strikeouts.
The Glendale, Ariz., native ended her two-year Sooner playing career with a spectacular senior season in 1996, when she hit .345 to lead OU during its Big 12 Conference championship run.
She was also instrumental in helping Jill Most and Jennifer Jaime record two of the best pitching seasons in school history. Lombardi caught all three of Most’s wins in OU’s conference tournament games and was named to the all-tournament team after going 3-for-8 (.375) at the plate with a triple, four RBIs, two runs scored and a stolen base.
Lombardi graduated from Oklahoma in 1997 with a degree in health and sports science. She and her husband, John, were married on Nov. 10, 2000. The couple has one son, Gianni.
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