It’s only the second weekend of the season but Cheridan Hawkins is quickly finding her form.
After struggling during most of last week’s tournament, Hawkins finished the weekend by throwing 10.0 innings and surrendering no runs with three hits and 13 strikeouts.
Hawkins continued her hot streak and avenged No. 6 Oregon’s earlier loss in the day by throwing a complete-game to set up Saturday’s winner-take-all series finale with No. 7 Louisiana-Lafayette.
Game 1: LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE 3 — Oregon 2
Out of the 14 half innings that were played during the game, only two of them provided runs. The bad news is that the Ducks came out on the bottom end of that battle, suffering a 3-2 defeat in the series opener against the Ragin’ Cajuns. Although the Ducks outhit Louisiana-Lafayette 10-9, the Ducks were unable to push more runners across the plate.
Instead of sending Hawkins to the pitcher’s circle to start the opener, Oregon sent freshman Megan Kleist out against the Ragin’ Cajuns power-hitting offense. Kleist was great through the first three innings, not allowing a run before giving up a three-spot in the fourth inning.
She finished the game by throwing 4.1 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits with two strikeouts.
Geri Ann Glasco replaced Kleist in the pitcher’s circle and threw the final 2.2 innings, giving up no runs on one hit, arguably her best outing of the young season.
Offensively, Oregon’s early game woes continued as the Ducks failed to get on the board until the bottom of the fifth inning when they scored their only two runs of the game.
Hailey Decker and Glasco started off the frame with back-to-back singles before being pinch ran for by Danica Mercado and Sammie Puentes, respectively.
After a foul out saw both runners on second and third, Nikki Udria lined out to left field to score Mercado and put Oregon on the board. Puentes came around to score when Alyssa Gillespie doubled down the left field line. With two outs, Gillespie advanced to third on a wild pitch but a Jenna Lilley fly out to right center ended the rally.
Oregon had a chance in the sixth and seventh innings but stranded three runners on base during those innings to end the game.
Gillespie and Decker each had three hits while Koral Costa added two hits.
Game 2: OREGON 6 — Louisiana-Lafayette 1
The combination of Hawkins in the pitcher’s circle and Oregon’s offense proved to be the winning recipe.
Gillespie started Oregon’s rally in the bottom of the first inning when she led off with a bunt single and found her way to third on a throwing error. After two outs were recorded, Decker doubled to center field to score Gillespie before she came around to score on a Jenna Lilley single.
After another scoreless top half of the inning for Hawkins, Janelle Lindvall added to the lead with a solo blast over the left center field fence.
The score would stay 3-0 in favor of Oregon because Hawkins continued to mow down the Ragin’ Cajun offense until the bottom of the fifth inning.
Udria started the inning with a single before coming around to score as Costa, the next batter, hammered a 2-1 pitch over the left field fence for a 5-0 lead. Decker followed suit with a single before being pinch ran for by Mercado, who promptly stile second base. After two outs were recorded, Glasco singled up the middle to score Mercado for the 6-0 lead.
Hawkins kept cruising until the seventh inning when she seemed to grow tired and struggled. She gave up three runs on three hits in the frame with two of those hits coming via homerun. However, Hawkins got the final out of the game on a strikeout, her ninth of the day.
Her final stat line was 7.0 innings pitched and three runs given up on five hits.
Four different batters had two hits for the Ducks, who totaled 11 in the game. Oregon first four batters in the lineup went a combined 7-for-14 and four runs scored to help get the offense back on track.
Oregon faces Louisiana-Lafayette at 11 a.m. in the series finale before facing Central Arkansas at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Follow Ryan Kostecka on Twitter @Ryan_Kostecka