Oregon’s Cheridan Hawkins, Janelle Lindvall and Mike White sat at the podium Saturday night inside the Yamanaka room at Jane Sanders Stadium and could likely see the group of smiling kids pressing their noses against the sliding glass doors to their left. They got so close their breath left fog marks. They all stared intently as the trio took questions in a room filled with NCAA logos and cameras.
Perhaps they wanted to see Hawkins, who had just wrapped up another one of her masterful complete games. Or maybe Lindvall, who set the program’s career home run total against the Bruins. Or maybe they hoped for a glimpse of White, who has transformed Oregon into a national power. All three boasted the same kinds of smiles as their young admirers.
The Ducks (48-8) downed UCLA 8-1 in the opening game of the NCAA Super Regionals before a raucous crowd of 2,517.
“We overcame mistakes,” White said. “We made some mistakes and we didn’t let it get us down. … We just kept on playing forward.”
Hawkins went the distance, striking out five and allowing four hits and no earned runs. Lindvall was 3-for-3 with two home runs. Her sister, Lauren, was 2-for-3 at the plate, helping the Ducks overpower the visitors.
UCLA’s Johanna Grauer started in the circle, but Bruins coach Kelly Inouye-Perez brought in Paige McDuffee, after both Lindvall sisters had base hits in the second.
“We knew it was going to be a night of adjustments,” Inouye-Perez said. “We knew it would be a good fight. I credit Oregon more than anything for being able to come out and execute.”
Oregon later exploded for six runs (five earned) in the third inning. Alyssa Gillespie lead off the scoring with a bunt single. Jenna Lilley walked, then Nikki Udria lined up the middle to McDuffee, who threw the ball over the first basemen’s head, scoring scoring Gillespie.
“We’ve been working hard on hitting a different style of pitching,” White said.
With still nobody out and runners on second and third, Koral Costa doubled to score Lilley. Geri Ann Glasco singled to left field, and advanced to second on a fielding error, which scored Costa and Udria.
Janelle Lindvall then lifted her 47th career home run, forcing McDuffee out of the game.
“That’s always cool,” Janelle Lindvall said of the record. “It was nice to get it out of the way. I wasn’t trying to think about it. My whole thing was Kylie [Cuico] is the one who held it before and Kylie is the one who was talking to me in the dugout.”
UCLA got on the board in the fourth inning when a bizarre double play ended the inning, but a Bruin runner scored.
The Ducks tacked on two more runs when Janelle Lindvall homered again, this time to deep center field.
Even after Friday night’s win, the Ducks aren’t getting ready to celebrate yet. The series, best two of three, will start back up on Saturday at 4 p.m.
“We have this mantra, keep it real,” White said. “Basically, keep it grounded. We have to keep our feet on the ground and we know UCLA is a tremendous club.”
White added: “We’re not feeling too comfortable with anything we’ve got right now. We know we have a lot of softball ahead of us. We’ve got to play really well to beat this team one more time tomorrow.”
UCLA and Oregon will play again Saturday in game two at 4 p.m. A game three, if necessary, will be 30 minutes following the first game.
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne
