EUGENE, Ore. – Karlie Charles and Ariel Carlson have been added to the softball staff, head coach Melyssa Lombardi announced Wednesday. Carlson recently completed her playing career at Oregon, while Charles wrapped up her collegiate career at Iowa State last month.
Charles will be the Ducks’ new graduate manager, replacing Mariah Lopez who was hired as the pitching coach at Cal Baptist earlier this month after earning her Master’s degree from Oregon.
Carlson will take over as the team’s director of player development & analytics. Duck All-American Terra McGowan, who held that position last season, was recently hired as an assistant coach at Boise State.
“We are looking forward to welcoming Karlie to the staff as well as having Ariel take on a new role for us,” said Lombardi. “We couldn’t be more happy for Mariah and Terra who are both joining the coaching ranks, but we are just as excited to add Karlie and Ariel with the experience that they are going to bring to the program.”
Charles, from The Colony Texas, was a three-time academic all-Big 12 pitcher for the Cyclones. She went 33-30 with five saves in five seasons with Iowa State. She had a 3.39 career earned run average and struck out 277 while walking 84 in 439.2 innings.
She was an academic all-Big 12 first team selection as a sophomore in 2021 after going 14-8 with a team-low 3.41 ERA in 137.2 innings. Charles struck out 80 batters and walked just 34. She threw seven complete games, including a shutout in a win over Illinois-Chicago at the 2021 NCAA Columbia Regional.
As a junior in 2022, Charles struck out 77 and only walked 11 to lead the Big 12 and rank 10th nationally with a 7-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. She earned Big 12 all-academic second team honors in 2022 and 2023.
Carlson wrapped up her playing career with the Ducks this spring after putting together one of the most extraordinary seasons in program history. She became the first Duck to post a 15-home run/15-stolen base season and was one of two players in Division I with 15 doubles, 15 homers and 15 stolen bases in 2024, joining Florida All-American Skylar Wallace.
She was named to the all-Pac-12 first team after ranking third in the Pac-12 in doubles (15) and slugging percentage (.766), fourth in home runs (16) and RBI (55), and fifth in steals (18). She ranked in the top 10 of the Pac-12 in eight statistical categories (doubles, home runs, RBI, runs, sacrifice flies, slugging percentage, steals and total bases). She hit .373 in Pac-12 play (28-75) with 10 home runs and 24 RBI.
Carlson started all 51 games in 2024 and led the Ducks in doubles, home runs, RBI, total bases, extra base hits and slugging. The 16 homers are fourth on the UO single-season season list, while 55 RBI is fifth and the 15 doubles are eighth. Carlson’s slugging percentage of .766 is No. 6 on the UO single-season list. She tied the program season record with 31 extra base hits and ended the season on a career-best 10-game hitting streak.
The Eugene, Ore., native ranks fourth in program history with 44 career home runs and sixth with 159 career RBI.
– www.GoDucks.com –
