Softball Fights for First Tournament Berth
April 30, 1998
UP NEXT: The Beavers (26-21, 7-13) will play four games in what could be their most important weekend of the season as OSU continues its quest for its first ever NCAA Tournament berth. The Beavers will host No. 4 Washington (39-10, 14-6) in a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader matchup on Saturday, May 2, and UCLA (15-22, 5-13) will face OSU in a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader on Sunday, May 3.
BEAVERS ON TV: OSU's first game against UCLA will be televised by FOX Sports Northwest on a tape-delay basis at 3:00 p.m., Monday, May 4. The April 29 OSU win over Oregon also will be televised; that tape-delayed game will be aired Friday, May 1 at 1:00 p.m. on FOX Sports Northwest.
A QUICK LOOK AT OREGON STATE: OSU's offense is led by two Beavers hitting above .300. Sophomore Tarrah Beyster has raised her average to .396 (.425 in league action) with 27 RBI, 19 runs and 11 home runs -- all team highs. Beyster also leads the pitching staff with a 21-12 record to go along with a 1.31 ERA. Junior Courtney Stewart is hitting .308 overall and .345 in Pac-10 play.
TWO MORE GETS FIRST SINCE 84: Oregon State needs to win two of its last eight games to finish the regular season with a winning record for the first time since 1984. Oregon State must finish at .500 to be considered for one of 16 at-large bids to the NCAA Championship, and two more wins would put OSU one game above that mark. Oregon State's 26 wins tie for the fifth most in school history. OSU finished the 84 campaign at 40-17, and the closest the Beavers have come to a winning season since then was in 1985 when they finished 22-24. The 97 squad finished at 29-34-1 for OSU's first 20-win season since 1985; those 29 wins were third most in school history.
LOOKING FOR BEYSTER? CHANCES ARE SHE'S TAKING A WALK: Sophomore Tarrah Beyster walked six times -- five intentionally -- against Oregon on April 29 to bring her season total to 41 and raise her OSU career record total to 89. In OSU's last eight games, Beyster has been walked 16 times, and eight were intentional. In those eight games, she has hit .455 (5-for-11) with seven runs, five RBI and three home runs. Her 48 walks last year led the nation, and that total ranked eighth best all-time. Her career bases on balls record is one of eight OSU records that she holds (two career, four single-season and two single-game). She is also nearing several other records. She is tied for second in career RBI (62) and ranks fourth in career wins (36), career shutouts (12) and tied for third in career strikeouts (302).
CIVIL WAR, PART THREE: Oregon State and Oregon split the final of three Civil War doubleheaders on April 29. The Beavers tied their season-high with 14 hits to win game one, 7-4. Every OSU starter had at least one hit, with four players collecting two or more. Oregon came back to win the second game, 7-1, after OSU left 10 runners stranded. The Beavers left the bases loaded in the sixth and seventh innings.
BEYSTER RANKED NATIONALLY: In games through April 26, sophomore Tarrah Beyster is ranked ninth in the nation in home runs. She is averaging 0.25 homers per game, or 11 total.
BEAVERS SET SCHOOL RECORD FOR PAC-10 WINS: Oregon State's 7-4 victory over Oregon on April 29 gave the Beavers their seventh Pacific-10 win of the season, the most ever for an OSU softball squad. Oregon State had six league wins in 1997 and 1993.
OSU VS. UW: Oregon State was swept at Washington two weeks ago, boosting the Huskies' all-time record against OSU to 20-1. UW claimed a 1-0 win in the opening game of a doubleheader. The Huskies had just five hits on the game, but two came in the sixth inning allowing the game's only run to score. OSU had six hits in that first game, but Washington's Jennifer Spediacci held the Beavers hitless in a 4-0 game two loss.
A LOOK AT THE HUSKIES: Washington (39-10, 14-6) has the top pitching staff in the Pacific-10, with a collective 0.94 ERA. Jamie Graves boasts a 0.76 ERA and 16-4 record, while Jennifer Spediacci is 17-5 with a 1.01 ERA. Offensively, the Dawgs are hitting .280 as a team, led by Rosie Leutzinger's .366 average and team-high 39 runs. UW has outscored its opponents 206-60.
OSU VS. UCLA: The Beavers captured their first ever win over UCLA when the two teams split a doubleheader April 19. UCLA is now 49-1 against OSU. Oregon State opened this year's action with a 4-2 win, but three errors cost the Beavers a 6-5 game in the nightcap.
A LOOK AT THE BRUINS: UCLA (15-22, 5-13) has won two of its last four cames, coming off splits with both No. 9 Stanford and No. 4 Washington. The Bruins are led by two seniors hitting above .300 -- Kim Wuest (.374, 26 RBI, 11 HR) and Laurie Fritz (.316, 16 runs). Stephanie Swenson leads the pitching staff with a 6-8 record and 2.37 ERA.
PLANT A TRUE UTILITY PLAYER: Sophomore Parisa Plant is one of only two Beavers to start all 47 games this season, but there's no telling where she'll be. Plant has started at five different positions this season. She has played 25 games at third base, then played 12 games at second base while senior Denise Brown was out with an injury. She has also played five games in leftfield, three in centerfield and two games at shortstop. Junior Jodi Chmielewski, the only other player to start all 47 games, has started every game in rightfield.
BROWN STELLAR SINCE RETURN: Senior second baseman Denise Brown, who missed 12 games with a bicep injury, returned to her starting spot at second base against Arizona State on April 24 and has played at that spot since then. In those six games, Brown has hit .412 (7-for-17), second best on the team during that span.
BEYSTER ONE OF FOUR WITH 300: Sophomore Tarrah Beyster struck out five Ducks on April 29 to boost her career total to 302, making her one of only four Beaver pitchers to record 300 career strikeouts. Her total ties for third on the all-time list, and she needs 24 more to move into a tie with Denise Small (326Ks, 1976-79) more the second spot. Joan Harvey (1982-85) struckout 355 Beaver opponents during her career. Beyster has 157 strikeouts on the season, which ranks second only Lori Davis' 245 Ks in 1980. Beyster and Davis are the only two Beavers ever to strike out more than 150 batters in a single season.
HEAD COACH KIRK WALKER: Kirk Walker is in his fourth season as head coach of the Oregon State softball program. His 1997 squad compiled a 29-34-1 record, and those 29 wins were third most in school history and the most since 1984. His overall record at Oregon State stands at 83-133-1. With those 83 wins, Walker is the second winningest softball coach at OSU. Ellen Margolis led the Beavers to 145 wins from 1981-85. Walker came to OSU from UCLA, where he spent 11 years as a manager and assistant coach.
BEAVER BLASTS: Sophomore Tarrah Beyster homered in her first three at-bats against Arizona on April 25 to lift her season total to 11, one shy of her school record 12 from last year. She had two home runs in the first game, marking her second two-homer game of the year and third of her career. Junior Kim Herman hit her third home run of the season in OSU's 2-1 loss to Arizona State on April 24. WIth that third homer, Herman boosted her career totals to six round-trippers, which ties for third on OSU's all-time list. In addition, Herman now ranks third on the single-season chart; Beyster holds the number one and two spots, and seven players are tied for third with three. Seven different Beavers have homered this season, and the team needs just two more homers to tie the single-season home run record of 22 set last season.
CHMIELEWSKI TIES DOUBLES RECORD: Junior Jodi Chmielewski doubled against Oregon on April 29, giving her 21 career doubles to tie Andrea Talcott (1991-95) for Oregon State's all-time doubles record. Chmielewski has four doubles this season, but the two-base hit against the Ducks was her first since March 1. Junior Kim Herman is tied for third on that same list with 18 career doubles.
INJURY REPORT: Junior outfielder Heather Chinn has still not played defensively after breaking the ring finger on her right hand in the second game against Stanford on April 4. She has played as a pinch runner, pinch hitter and designated player since then but has yet to collect a hit since the injury.
OREGON STATE AND THE TOP 25 POLL: Oregon State dropped out of the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Poll for the first time this season. The Beavers received votes in the preseason poll and had been ranked in the Top 25 in every regular season poll until the April 29 poll, when OSU received 22 votes to rank 28th. Thirteen of OSU's 1998 opponents -- including five Pac-10 teams -- are currently ranked, and three others earned votes. OSU is 12-17 against teams that are or have been ranked in 1998. With Oregon State as well as Oregon, the Pacific-10 now has just five teams ranked, marking the first time this season that another conference has more Top 25 teams than the Pac. The Big-12 Conference, with six ranked teams, now has the most. Polls are released each Wednesday morning.
OSU'S HONORS: Oregon State has been recognized by the Pac-10 office four times this year. Sophomore Tarrah Beyster was named both the Pac-10 Softball Pitcher and Player of the Week after leading OSU to a doubleheader sweep of Oregon on April 11, and she also was named Player of the Week on March 24. She became the first student-athlete to claim both honors in the same week since former UCLA All-American and U.S. Olympian Lisa Fernandez did so in 1993. Junior Jodi Chmielewski earned Pac-10 Player of the Week recognition on March 10.
