Baseball and Softball alumni: where are they now?
By April Miller, UO Alumni Association assistant director of marketing and communications, and Peyton Hall, class of 2024 (media studies), communications student associate
Discover the paths that alumni have taken after their time playing baseball and softball for the University of Oregon
Oregon’s history of intercollegiate competition started with a baseball game against Monmouth College in 1877. Since then, Oregon Athletics has evolved to 14 teams in state-of-the-art facilities, including accomplished men’s baseball and women’s softball teams.
The baseball program was formally established in 1885 with the Ducks playing at Howe Field south of McArthur Court. After the 1981 season, baseball was dropped due to budget, and baseball became a club sport in March 1983. It wasn’t until 2009 that Oregon would have a varsity team again, with games played at PK Park.
Prior to Title IX being signed into law in 1972, women's softball along with other women's sports at Oregon received only limited funding. Finally, in 1976, Oregon softball saw its breakthrough. The team qualified for the Women's College World Series for the first time that year, and in 1979, they got their own field on campus. The team has appeared in the world series seven more times since then.
Throughout the decades, Oregon baseball and softball alumni have gone on to have careers beyond the diamond. Some have played Major League Baseball or Women’s Professional Fastpitch, while others run businesses, coach the next generation of baseball and softball players, and give back to their communities in meaningful ways.
These are just a few of the men and women of Oregon who have left their mark on and off the field. This list does not include all alumni, but we give a shout-out to all who have represented the Ducks.
Photo credit: Haley Cruse Mitchell Instagram
Haley Cruse Mitchell, BS ’20 (business administration)
Recently retired USSSA Pride softball player, content creator
Before becoming Oregon softball’s only player in program history to lead the team in hitting for four straight seasons, Haley Cruse Mitchell had nothing short of an outstanding high school softball career in her hometown of San Diego, California. The former Oregon outfielder started playing softball as a toddler, catching for her sister’s T-ball team. Twenty years later, Cruse Mitchell played her fifth and final season at the UO, earning First-Team All-Pac-12 and NFCA First Team All-Pacific Region honors.
During her junior season in 2019, Cruse Mitchell posted her first TikTok video, and the rest was history. Her TikTok videos have amassed millions of views and likes, and she now has more than 850,000 followers on the platform, where she predominately creates content around her softball career and her relationship with her husband, MLB player Garrett Mitchell.
After graduating from Oregon, the softball star spent two years playing for USSSA Pride, a Women’s Professional Fastpitch league in Viera, Florida. Cruse Mitchell is now an ambassador for USSSA Fastpitch, in addition to her social media career.
“I’ve made a strong brand for myself within the softball realm so I definitely want to stay involved with softball in any way I can,” Cruse Mitchell said in an interview with ESPN in 2021. “I think what people like to see is just me being myself, no matter what it is I’m doing—if it’s playing softball or with my boyfriend—just to find joy out of that. So I’m just going to continue doing what I’ve been doing and if any opportunities arise from that, then that’s a win-win for me."
Photo credit: Don Reynolds
Don Reynolds, BS ’75 (psychology)
Scout, Don Reynolds Baseball Group
Don Reynolds was one of the nation’s top two-sport athletes when he was recruited to the University of Oregon in the mid-1970s.
Reynolds, who grew up in Corvallis, paced Oregon football in rushing for three straight seasons. He was also a three-year starter and all-conference performer on the baseball team, where he had a career batting average of .315 and finished with seven career records.
After graduating from Oregon, Reynolds was drafted by the San Diego Padres in 1975 and had a seven-year run in major and minor league baseball.
He was inducted into the Oregon Hall of Fame in 1993 for both football and baseball, a part of just the second induction class.
Reynolds is now a scout for Don Reynolds Baseball Group and College Sports Evaluations.
Oregon’s first organized softball teams
The early history of the UO women’s softball program in the wake of Title IX legislation
Learn more about UO Softball’s evolution from interest group to varsity sport. Title IX regulations along with advocacy efforts by former Women’s Athletic Director Becky Sisley and others brought long-awaited scholarship funds and designated facilities.
Photo credit: Julie Cavanaugh
Julie Cavanaugh, BS ’92 (leisure studies & services)
Business Operations Manager, Unreal Digital Group
Julie Cavanaugh came to the University of Oregon from Salem, Oregon in 1987 to play on the UO softball team.
Cavanaugh’s four-season run at UO was a record book standout. She had the highest batting average on the team in both 1990 (.351) and 1991 (.389) and still holds a top ten spot in program history for number of hits (234). Cavanaugh, a two-time All-American, was inducted into the University of Oregon Hall of Fame twice—individually in 2006 and again in 2019 with the 1989 softball team for their outstanding season and appearances at the NCAA tournament and Women’s College World Series.
When she graduated in 1991, Cavanaugh held single season records in runs scored (44), stolen bases (24), and shared a record in hits (74). As a senior, her batting average, hits, runs, and stolen bases totals led the Pac-10 Conference.
After graduation, Cavanaugh moved to Bend and worked as the recreation coordinator for youth and adult programs at Bend Parks and Recreation District for more than seven years. Cavanaugh now works as a business operations manager for Unreal Digital Group.
Photo credit: Matt Kartozian–USA TODAY Sports
Tyler Anderson, BS ’12 (political science)
Pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels
Tyler Anderson came to the University of Oregon in 2008, joining the Ducks’ first baseball team since the program was discontinued in 1981.
He experienced great success at the UO and to this day, holds Oregon’s all-time records for career, single-season, and single-game strikeouts. His three years with the Ducks prepared Anderson for the 2011 Major League Baseball Draft, where he was selected in the first round by the Colorado Rockies.
After several years in the minor leagues, he was added to the Rockies’ 40-man roster in 2014. However, a stress fracture meant it’d be nearly two more years until Anderson would make his MLB debut.
After stints with the San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, and Los Angeles Dodgers, he signed a three-year deal last fall with the Los Angeles Angels, where he is now one of the starting pitchers. This new deal allows Anderson to stay on the West Coast, close to his family in Arizona, including his three kids.
“For me, a chance to come here for a few years [is a chance to] have some security for my family,” Anderson said in his Angels introductory Zoom call. “But really, to be a part of a team that I think is going to be really good. I think we have a lot of good players.”
Last year, Anderson was named to the National League All-Star team. He said that twenty years into competitive baseball, he’s always looking to challenge and push himself to continue growing.
“It’s that wipeout mentality in karate that there’s always somebody you can learn from,” Anderson said in an interview with the Mighty Oregon Podcast. “There’s always something you can learn. There are always ways to get better, whatever that is. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first day of high school, your first day in college, your tenth year in the big leagues—I’m sure guys are, you know, continuing to learn all the time. And if not, then you end up having probably a short career.”
Listen to Tyler Anderson’s full interview on the Mighty Oregon Podcast.
Mighty Oregon Podcast: Interviews with Legends
Tune in to the official podcast of the Oregon Ducks. In these select interviews, host Rob Moseley, BA ’99 (news editorial), connects with several alumnae from Oregon in a way that’s equal parts entertaining and interesting, giving insight to their journey to greatness.
Credit: NCATA Twitter
Janell Bergstrom Cook, BA ’03 (family and human services), MS ’05 (educational leadership)
Executive Director of the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association
Janell Bergstrom Cook is a UO softball alum, Double Duck, and now a leader in collegiate athletics.
Cook was an outfielder for the Ducks from 2000 to 2003. As a student-athlete, she earned Pac-10 First Team All-Academic honors, as well as the Cooper Tire Leadership Award and Postgraduate Scholarship Award.
After graduating with her master’s degree and a stint at Dartmouth College, she returned to Eugene in 2006 to work for the UO. For more than eight years, she served in several roles—academic advisor to student athletes, special assistant to senior athletics administrators, director of operations for women’s basketball, and assistant director of the Duck Athletic Fund.
In her role with the Duck Athletic Fund, Bergstrom Cook launched the Women in Flight initiative, which seeks to raise awareness and financial support to achieve and maintain excellence across all Oregon women’s programs. Since Women in Flight’s inception, nearly 1,920 female student-athletes have benefitted from the program. The program raised more than $15 million in its recent “Go Do Anything” campaign.
“The success of Women in Flight reflects the passion in the community that supports University of Oregon athletics. As the first director of the program, it’s been exhilarating to see the original goals of the program realized, and then to see Callie [Wagner Kaminskas] and Lexi [Cross Smith] dream up and execute even bigger goals,” Cook told GoDucks.com.
Today, Cook serves as the executive director of the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association, a role she has held since 2014. She has overseen the growing profile of the sport, stewarding its status as an NCAA emerging sport and quest for NCAA championship status.
Photo credit: Star Tribune
Ray Smith, BS ’76 (leisure studies and services)
Former manager for the Elizabethton, Tennessee Twins
During the 1975 and 1976 seasons, Ray Smith was a top hitter for the Ducks. He led the team in homeruns and bases held during both seasons, and carried the highest batting average in 1976.
After graduation, Smith built upon his momentum at Oregon, creating a career in professional baseball spanning more than four decades—first as a player and then a manager and coach.
He was signed by the Minnesota Twins as a free agent in 1977 and after climbing the ladder in the Twins’ system for several years, made his MLB debut in 1981. For the next three seasons, he played catcher for the pro team and appeared in 83 games, before spending brief stints with the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics organizations.
In 1987, Smith began a new career with the Twins organization at their rookie-level Elizabethton, Tennessee Twins team. There he’d spend 33 seasons, 26 of them as manager, teaching and raising up the next generations of pro baseball hopefuls. In addition to this role, he worked as an associate athletic director and baseball coach for Milligan College.
“I always tried to have a positive attitude, because guys are young and trying to figure things out,” Smith said in a story published by the Minnesota-based Star Tribune. “Whatever skills they were blessed with, I tried to teach them how to keep improving, offensively, defensively, running the bases. And being good men in the community, because there’s more to it than baseball.”
The Appalachian League, which the Elizabethton Twins belonged to, was dropped by MLB as an affiliated league in 2020 and brought the end of Smith’s tenure with the team. In 2020, he told the Star Tribune he would be interested in continuing his career with another major league team if the right opportunity presented itself.
Oregon's 1954 College World Series Run
Led by the legendary Coach Don Kirsch, BS ’43 (physical education), the Ducks made their first, and to date, only trip to the College World Series in 1954.
The 1954 Oregon baseball team was inducted into the Oregon Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. Players like George Shaw, Neal Marlett, and Pete Williams helped the Ducks secure their spot in the World Series.
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