Cheridan Hawkins had a game plan and stuck to it.
Hawkins’ goal was to attack the Oregon State batters and she did so. By mixing up her pitches and commanding the strike zone, Hawkins threw a no-hitter, leading Oregon (21-3, 1-0) to a 10-0 victory over Oregon State (19-1, 0-1).
“We talk about being aggressive and that’s just what I tried to do,” Hawkins said. “Be aggressive, control what I can control, throw my pitches and just attack.”
The Beavers entered the game with only 23 of their 721 at-bats coming against a left-handed pitcher this season. Hawkins used the Beavers’ inexperience against left-handers to her advantage. She faced 17 batters, two over the minimum, while adding two walks and two strikeouts in her five innings pitched.
“She set the tone for us,” Oregon coach Mike White said, “no doubt about that.”
Oregon only scored in two of its four frames but really made it count.
The Ducks batted through the order in the second inning, scoring six runs. Oregon added four more runs in the fourth inning.
Janie Takeda and Koral Costa each had three RBIs for Oregon while seven different batters got a hit.
Oregon capitalized on six walks in the inning and needed just three hits to score its runs. Takeda had the big hit in the second inning when she lined a bases-clearing triple to left center to make the score 4-0.
Hawkins had her perfect game broken up in the fourth inning when she walked the first batter of the inning. After consecutive outs, Hawkins walked another batter but got herself out of the jam by inducing a flyout to centerfield.
“I was trying to overthrow a bit so it was more about ‘calm down a bit’,” Hawkins said about White visiting her at the mound during the inning.
The Ducks used two hits, a hit-by-pitch and an error to make the score 10-0 and get the run-rule victory.
Costa hit her team-leading sixth homerun of the season when she connected on an 0-2 pitch and hit the ball over the left field fence for a three-run bomb.
Oregon returns to action tomorrow when they face the Beavers at 2 p.m. at Howe Field.
Follow Ryan Kostecka on Twitter: @Ryan_Kostecka