Oregon Softball: Hawkins Has Help In The Circle As Ducks Enter Pac-12 Play
The Oregon Ducks Softball team watched Pitcher Cheridan Hawkins throw a no-hitter last weekend and gave Mike White his 300th Career win and are 20-4 through the non-conference portion of the 2016 season.
More from Autzen Zoo
- Oregon football: Ducks and Coach Prime playing it cordial leading up to Saturday
- Oregon Basketball: Non-conference slate features Michigan coming to Eugene
- Oregon football: Ducks find complete game effort in win vs Hawaii
- Oregon Ducks must get run game going against Hawaii
- 8 Pac-12 teams represented in Associated Press Top 25 after Week 2
Oregon, as it has done in years past, began the year on the road. They met and took out opponents and only lost four games over the first month and a half of the season. Cheridan Hawkins has shown power as the workhorse once again and has thrown in 12 games this season. She has a 3.12 ERA, but has thrown six shutouts to go with a no hitter last Friday against Pacific where the Oregon Ducks put up 15 runs in the win over the Tigers. Hawkins also has three shutouts and 107 strikeouts so far in 2015. This season, it appears she won’t be the only one on the mound in big games.
Hawkins (7-2) will get some relief with stellar Freshman Megan Kleist(8-2) who has shown she too can get it done on the mound. Kleist is second to Hawkins with three shutouts and one more win this season. She also has an impressive four complete games and three shutouts. Offensively, the Oregon Ducks also have some new blood to go with solid experience to run the basepads, and so far this season, they have.
DYK @CheridanH11 has 55 strikeouts over her last 24.2 innings? #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/7aN8xZASaq
— Oregon Softball (@OregonSB) March 15, 2016
Eight of the Nine Oregon Starters are hitting over .300 this season. Alyssa Gillespie who has replaced Janie Takeda at the top of the lineup is hitting .456 with 48 total bases. She has just two steals on the basepads. What is more impressive is how Senior Leadership has taken over. Nikki Udria and Koral Costa both have over 60 total bases each. Costa is leading the team hitting .522 entering Pac-12 play this week.
Next: WNIT: Oregon Ducks Host Long Beach State Thursday
The Oregon Ducks enter this weekend’s matchup with Washington. The three games series in Seattle will begin on Saturday. Oregon will open Jane Sanders Stadium next Thursday with their home opening series against Stanford.