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Michele Tafoya was a 28-year-old sports talk radio host in the heart of college basketball country , embarking on a long-desired vocation in an unforgiving field when she felt her first career boost from a bold on-air prediction.

Cal will beat Duke.

That’s what Tafoya told her listeners that defining March day in 1993 on WAQS-AM in Charlotte, North Carolina, a place with an abundance of ardent NCAA Tournament followers and, naturally, self-appointed experts.

The Blue Devils were the two-time defending national champions and an established power from a haven state of hoops.

The Golden Bears, despite the presence of star point guard Jason Kidd and a no-slouch No. 6 seed in the Midwest Region, had no such pedigree. They also happened to be the team from Tafoya’s alma mater, prompting predictable howls of foolish bias.

Well, guess who won that second-round game?

Cal 82, Duke 77, was the final score. Apologies were the star of the show the following day.

”I give the fans credit. They all called in. The phones were lit for hours. Everybody was saying, `We’re sorry we doubted you. Clearly, you knew what you were talking about. You weren’t picking with your heart,”’ Tafoya said. ”My stature as a person with some knowledge shot up that day in a 24-hour period.”

Making sure she knows what she’s talking about has been the driving force behind Tafoya’s rise to sideline reporter for the NFL’s showcase Sunday night games on NBC .

She’ll work her fourth Super Bowl on Sunday in Minnesota, where this Southern California native first moved in 1994 for a job with KFAN-AM as a sports talk host and Vikings sideline reporter.

She continues to call the Twin Cities area home , with her husband, Mark, 12-year-old son, Tyler, and 9-year-old daughter, Olivia.

”She usually knows more than what’s going on more than we do, because she talks with so many different players through the course of the week,” NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth said.

”You can tell the respect level that the players have and the coaches have for her. It’s a difficult job.”

Asking questions of coaches and players in real time on the field amid the intense NFL atmosphere with millions of viewers critiquing word choice, speaking style and wardrobe is a daunting assignment.

As is working in the professional sports environment as a woman, a glass ceiling that Tafoya has helped smash with predecessors such as Lesley Visser and contemporaries such as Suzy Kolber.

”I don’t think I have to fight it anymore. I’ve been doing this long enough. I’m old now ,” Tafoya said Wednesday at the Mall of America, the media headquarters for Super Bowl week.

”You do this long enough, and people start to trust you. It was tough for quite a while the first few years, but that’s why I always felt like I had to prepare like crazy.”

Tafoya has been doing promotional work for Secret deodorant, with a campaign spotlighting women in the football world who’ve overcome the catcalls, prejudice and machismo to stand out in the field.

”I’ve never been one of those `I am woman, hear me roar’ kind of people. I’m more about being a professional. I’m going to do my job. I’m going to do it to the best of my ability,” she said. ”I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman.”

With NBA finals and Olympic Games also standing out on her football-centric resume, Tafoya has been nominated six times for a Sports Emmy award. Her proudest moment, she said, actually came when the sports part of her reporter responsibilities was sidelined by a health emergency when then-Houston Texans head coach Gary Kubiak suffered a mini-stroke at halftime of a game in 2013 .

Tafoya was interviewing Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Caldwell at the time, trying to ignore the shouts of her producer in her earpiece. Once finished and informed of Kubiak’s collapse, she sprinted across the field to try to see what was going on and fill in the concerned viewers.

”I was a journalist covering an emergency situation, and it was the story of the week, and we covered it really, really well,” Tafoya said, ”all of us as a team.”

The NBC crew wouldn’t have it any other way.

”I don’t think a lot of people understand and say, `What do you need sideline reporters for?”’ said play by play announcer Al Michaels.

”She can get information to us that we can’t get. She sees things. She understands the game as well as anybody, and for my money she’s as good as any reporter as there is in the country.”

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Kole Calhoun has come a long way since getting a needed break on the disabled list last month, and Garrett Richards looked pretty sharp after his own DL stint.

Calhoun hit a two-run homer, Richards pitched effectively into the sixth inning and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Mariners 7-4 on Wednesday to snap Seattle’s eight-game winning streak.

Batting in the leadoff spot for only the fourth time this season, Calhoun had three hits and drove in three runs to help lift Richards (5-4) in his return.

Calhoun’s towering homer in the sixth gave the Angels a 6-2 lead. He also had a single in the fourth inning for his first RBI. Calhoun is batting .306 with four homers and eight RBIs since coming off the DL on June 18. He was hitting .145 before that break.

”Kole did his job today,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ”That’s what we need from the guys at the top of the order. It gave us a lot of opportunities today.”

Richards, who went on the DL on June 15 with a left hamstring strain , allowed three runs, including back-to-back homers to Kyle Seager and Ryon Healy, over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out eight.

”I just overthrew a couple of heaters there,” Richards said of the home runs. ”But I felt good. The hamstring felt good. I knew I would be on a leash (80 pitches), so I just tried to execute pitches.”

Richards retired 10 of the next 11 hitters he faced after the home runs.

”Garrett just exhaled (after the homers) and made some really good pitches,” Scioscia said. ”He gave us a chance to win the game.”

Blake Parker pitched out of trouble in the ninth for his 10th save. Mike Zunino singled and Denard Span doubled to put runners at second and third, but Dee Gordon flied out to center and Zunino was thrown out at the plate on Jean Segura’s grounder to Albert Pujols at first. Mitch Haniger ended it with a groundout to third.

Parker failed to cover first on the grounder to Pujols, so Pujols had no choice but to throw home.

”Pujols getting that guy at the plate was a huge out,” Scioscia said. ”The pitcher didn’t cover there, so Albert made a great decision and threw a strike to the plate.”

The Mariners had their chances, including a bases-loaded, no-outs situation in the seventh inning when trailing 6-3. After Gordon and Span struck out, Segura hit a broken-bat flare that looked like it might drop behind second base and score two runs, but Angels second baseman David Fletcher made a leaping catch to end the inning.

”I got a pretty good read off the bat,” Fletcher said. ”I kind of felt I had a bead on it all the way. It was a nice feeling to save those runs from scoring.”

The Mariners struck out 15 times and left eight men on base.

Mike Leake (8-5) allowed four runs and nine hits before leaving with no one out in the fifth. He had allowed two runs or less in seven of his previous eight starts.

”They were battling me, fouling balls off today,” Leake said. ”Trying to get them to go down, but they found some holes and that’s about it.”

Luis Valbuena drove in two runs for the Angels and Shohei Ohtani and two hits and scored two runs.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Angels: OF Chris Young was placed on the 10-day DL a day after straining his hamstring. LHP Tyler Skaggs was also placed on the DL with a thigh strain. Skaggs said hopes to miss only one start. OF Jabari Blash and RHP Deck McGuire were recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake, with INF Kaleb Cowart also optioned to Triple-A. … LHP John Lamb will undergo Tommy John surgery on his left elbow early next week. He’ll become the fourth Angels pitcher to have the procedure this season.

Mariners: Manager Scott Servais said RHP Erasmo Ramirez could begin a rehab assignment soon. Ramirez has been on the DL since May 1 because of a right teres major muscle strain in his pitching shoulder. Ramirez said is willing to pitch in relief if that’s where he’s needed.

UP NEXT

Angels RHP Jaime Barria (5-4, 3.40) will start Thursday’s series finale in place of Skaggs. Barria is making his 12th start of the season and has given up two earned runs or fewer in four of his last five starts. LHP Marco Gonzales (8-5, 3.77) will make his 18th start for Seattle. Gonzales pitched the first complete game of his career in his last start, a 4-1 victory over Kansas City when he allowed six hits and didn’t walk a batter.

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