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STANFORD, CA - MARCH 12: Oregon Ducks Head Coach Mark Wasikowski (44) watches his pitcher during the second inning of the game between the Oregon Ducks and the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday, March 12, 2022 at Klein Field in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by Douglas Stringer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
At the conclusion of the Diamond Ducks’ seasons, we have become accustomed to player movement through the portal. That said, the loss of so many promising players in baseball was rather startling.
That should not distract us from some significant coaching changes in Oregon baseball and softball. Seismic movement has been happening in both programs, and we’ll take a look at what exactly has transpired.
Baseball
After serving seven seasons as Oregon’s hitting coach and recruiting coordinator, Jack Marder was hired by Texas on July 1st in a similar capacity.
Head coach Mark Wasikowski moved quickly to find a replacement, and hired Ryan Fineman to fill the void left by Marder’s departure.
Fineman has been at Troy the past two seasons. This last season, the Trojans upset Florida in the Gators’ regional and beat Little Rock to advance to the CWS, ending 2026 ranked 8th in the nation.
Fineman was a recruiting coordinator at Troy and worked with the catchers. While recruiting will likely not be impacted significantly, the loss of Marder as a hitting coach is a big hole to fill. Between Marder’s departure and the loss of so many key players to the transfer portal, the Ducks will be fielding a very different team in 2027.
Softball
On May 29th, it was announced that associate head coach Sam Marder would not be returning for the 2027 season. On July 23rd, it was announced that Marder has been hired as Oklahoma’s Director of Player Development.
Oregon has announced the promotion of Sydney Romero as Associate Head Coach. Romero has been coaching the defense at Oregon, and the excellent defense of the Ducks should continue.
On June 15th, Oregon announced that Shannon Saile has joined the Ducks staff as a pitching coach. Saile comes from the University of Central Florida, where she coached in a similar capacity. This last season, UCF upset Florida State in FSU’s regional before ending their own season in LA at the hands of UCLA.
Losing Marder is huge for Oregon coaching, as she was arguably the best associate head coach in the nation. Promoting Romero appears to be a logical step, and hopefully there isn’t much falloff in coaching from the loss of Sam Marder.
Saile’s hiring as pitching coach is intriguing. Anyone who has followed our softball coverage at Addicted To Quack knows of our exasperation with the state of Oregon pitching over the last five seasons. I’m certainly quite interested in how Oregon’s pitching is impacted in the 2027 season under her leadership.
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