Oregon Softball Sweeps Easton Desert Classic, Hawkins Tosses No Hitter vs Ohio State

Oregon Softball is on a nice run to start the 2014 season. This past weekend in the Easton Classic in Las Vegas the Ducks went 5-0 and are now 9-1 on the season. The Ducks took care of business beating Toledo(11-2), UNLV(3-1), Chattanooga(6-4), Ohio State(9-0) in a no hitter from Sophomore Cheridan Hawkins, and Cal State Northridge 9-1. The Ducks domination started on the mound with two pitchers.

Cheridan Hawkins was a workhorse pitching two of the five games and earning victories against UNLV striking out 18 Runnin’ Rebels en route to a 3-1 win. Her dominance continued against Ohio State where the Sophomore tossed a no hitter over the Buckeyes in a 9-0 Oregon win. Pitcher Karissa Hovinga also had a solid weekend for the Ducks picking up three wins over Toledo, Chattanooga and Cal State Northridge. The Junior on the season is 4-0 with a 1.68 ERA. She has thrown 25 innings with 18 strikeouts in the year. Hawkins on the young season is 5-1 with a 1.98 ERA pitching 35 1/3 innings with 48 strikeouts. Opponents are batting 0.88 against her so far this season.

Howe Field, University of Oregon, KPNW Sports

The Ducks also showed some power on Offense in the Easton Classic as Courtney Ceo, who has been dominant so far this season on the basepads continued to increase her batting average with a grand slam against Chattanooga on Saturday. The Senior Infielder is hitting .594 on the year and leads Oregon in several other categories including runs scored(11), hits(19) and Runs Batted In(13). Senior Catcher Alexa Peterson is also having a nice start through the first 10 games of the season hitting .400

Oregon(9-1) continues Tournament play to begin the season this week in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California. The Tournament features 35 of the Top Programs in Division I including the Ducks.

The schedule for Mike White’s team includes LSU(Friday, 6pm PT) followed by doubleheaders for the weekend. Oregon Saturday slate is Fordam(9:30am PT) and Virginia(2:30pm PT). The finale on Sunday includes Notre Dame(9am PT) and UC Davis(11:30am PT).

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