Softball Heads South for Doubleheaders against Arizona Schools
April 22, 1998
UP NEXT: The No. 22 ranked Oregon State softball team (25-16, 6-8) continues its Pac-10 road stint with a trip to the desert to take on the Arizona schools. The Beavers open the weekend at No. 13 Arizona State (32-16, 4-10) with a 6:00 p.m. doubleheader on Friday, April 24, before heading to Tucson for a 6:00 p.m. twinbill with No. 1 Arizona on April 25.
SERIES NOTES: Oregon State is just 11-42 all-time against Arizona State, but the Beavers have won four of the last six. The two teams split a doubleheader earlier this season, with OSU winning a 2-0 opener before dropping a 1-0 decision in the eight-inning nightcap. Oregon State is just 7-47 against Arizona after losing two games to the top-ranked Wildcats last month.
A LOOK AT OREGON STATE: OSU will look to return to its winning ways after dropping three of four league games last weekend. The Beaver offense is led by three players hitting above .300 -- sophomore Tarrah Beyster (.391 avg., 22 RBI, 8 HR), junior Courtney Stewart (.311, five RBI) and junior Jodi Chmielewski (.301 avg., 15 RBI, 16 runs). Against Pac-10 opponents, Beyster is hitting a team-best .419, followed by Stewart's .364 average. Only one other Beaver (junior Kim Herman) is hitting above .250 in Pac-10 play. Beyster leads the Beaver pitching staff with a 1.09 ERA to go along with her 20-9 record.
THREE MORE GETS FIRST SINCE '84: Oregon State needs to win three of its last 14 games to finish the regular season with a winning record for the first time since 1984. 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. Last year's squad finished at 29-34-1 for the program's first 20-win season since 1985; those 29 wins were third most in school history.
BEYSTER WALKING RIGHT INTO RECORD: Sophomore Tarrah Beyster is just one base on balls away from tying the OSU record for career walks. She has drawn 79 bases on balls in her two-year career so far, just one shy of Denise Small's 80 walks from 1976-79. Beyster was walked six times, twice intentionally, in two games against UCLA on April 19 and has now been walked three times in three different games this year (also against ASU on March 28). She has walked 31 times this season to rank second on the single-season charts, only behind her own 48 walks from her rookie season last year. Those 48 walks were eighth best in the nation all-time, and she was fourth in the nation in walks per game last year.
LAST WEEKEND'S ACTION: Oregon State went 1-3 in league action last weekend. OSU opened up the weekend at Washington, where they dropped a close 1-0 contest when the Huskies scored in the sixth inning. In the second game at UW, the Beavers found themselves getting no-hit for the second time in two weeks (also April 5 in a 1-0 loss to Cal) as they lost, 4-0. Oregon State then traveled to UCLA, where the Beavers captured their first ever win over the Bruins, 4-2. OSU was up, 5-3, in game two before a Bruin homer tied it up, and then UCLA scored with two outs in the seventh inning for a 6-5 win.
A LOOK AT ARIZONA STATE: The No. 12 Sun Devils had a tough weekend against the Bay Area teams, splitting with No. 12 Stanford (0-1, 1-0) and dropping two games to No. 21 California (2-5, 3-4 in 10 inn.). ASU has three players hitting above .300: Christina Gill (.321, 48 RBI, 28 runs), Raja Woods (.319, 32 runs, 16 RBI) and Erin Hull (.311, 24 runs). Roxanne Tsosie leads the pitchers with a 1.18 ERA and 19-6 record, while Carrie Breedlove is 13-10 with a 1.52 ERA.
A LOOK AT ARIZONA: The Wildcats have won nine straight after sweeping California and Stanford last weekend. However, the Bears took Arizona into extra extra innings for the first time this year in UA's 8-4, nine-inning win.The Wildcats are hitting .388 as a team and boast the league's top five hittersand are outscoring their opponents, 419-93. Arizona's 1.64 team ERA is fifth in the league.
TWO EQUALS THREE, IF KRANZ IS DOING THE MATH: Sophomore Kelli Kranz hit her second double of the season in OSU's loss to UCLA on April 19. She also doubled in a win over Notre Dame on March 7. The bases were loaded both times, and both times all three runners scored. She also had a sacrifice fly against UCLA and added an RBI on a fielder's choice against the Irish for four RBI in both those games. She is the only player to have a four-RBI game this year. Her 15 total RBI this season ties for second on the team.
STEWART'S STREAK: Junior Courtney Stewart has tied the team's longest hitting streak of the season at six games (based on games she has played in). She has hit .500 (8-for-16) during that streak. It started on April 5 as a pinch hitter against California and has continued through the first game against UCLA on April 19. She did not play the second games of doubleheaders against Portland State, Washington (a no-hitter) and UCLA. Junior Jodi Chmielewski opened the season with a six-game hitting streak, while sophomore Tarrah Beyster had her six-game hitting streak snapped when Washington no-hit the Beavers on April 18.
CHMIELEWSKI AT NO. THREE, BEYSTER GETS 100: Junior Jodi Chmielewski moved into the No. 3 spot on OSU's career hits list after collecting four hits last week to push her total to 137 all-time. Earlier this season, she became the ninth Beaver to record 100 career hits, and sophomore Tarrah Beyster recently became the 10th Beaver to do so. Beyster picked up three hits over the weekend to lift her total to 102 hits in two seasons at OSU. She had two at Washington and one against UCLA.
TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM: Oregon State had two batters hit by pitches in the win over UCLA on April 19. After those two, OSU batters had been hit a total of 15 times this season, breaking the school record of 13 hit batsmen in 1980. Tarrah Beyster has been hit three times, while Kelli Kranz, Tasha Heddinger and Brooke Rutschman have each been hit twice. Six others have been hit once. OSU has had two batters hit by pitches in the same game only two other times in school history -- vs. Notre Dame this season and Arizona in 1994.
BEYSTER FIRST TO WIN 20: Sophomore Tarrah Beyster picked up her 20th win of the season with a 4-2 victory over UCLA on April 19, making her the first Beaver pitcher ever to win 20 games in one season, surpassing Joan Harvey's longstanding school record of 19 wins in 1984. Beyster also holds the single-season records for RBI (35), home runs (12) and bases on balls (48), all set last year, and she also is the school's all-time home run leader (20). She is also fourth in career wins (35), career shutouts (12) and career strikeouts (289). Her 145 Ks last season were second on the single-season strikeout list, and her 144 Ks so far this season are third on that same list.
INJURY REPORT: Senior second baseman Denise Brown and junior outfielder Heather Chinn will be available to play in this weekend's games if needed. Brown suffered a bicep injury in practice on April 3 and has seen limited action since then. She was used as a pinch runner in games against Portland State and Washington last week and came in to pinch hit with the bases loaded against UCLA, when she walked to bring home a run. Chinn broke the ring finger on her right hand in the second game against Stanford on April 4, and she has not participated in any games other than as a pinch runner in three contests.
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 82-128-1. With those 82 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.
BEYSTER RANKED NATIONALLY: In games through April19, sophomore Tarrah Beyster ranked among the nation's best in two categories. She is tied for 20th in home runs with .20 HR/game (eight total) and also is tied for 17th in wins (20).
HERMAN HELPS HER CAUSE FOR CAREER DOUBLES RECORD: Two juniors are looking to break Oregon State's career doubles record. Jodi Chmielewski has 20 career doubles and needs just one more to share the No. 1 spot with Andrea Talcott (1991-95), while Kim Herman is tied for third with 18 doubles. Herman moved up to the third spot after doubling in both games against UCLA on Apirl 19, while Chmielewski has three doubles this season but none since March 1. Sophomore Tarrah Beyster has 11 doubles in her first two seasons as a Beaver, and sophomore Parisa Plant has hit 10 doubles so far.
THIRD TIME'S A CHARM: The third inning has proven to be the best for the Beavers this season. Oregon State has scored 29 of its 123 runs in the third inning while limiting the opposition to just two runs in that same inning. OSU is outscoring its opponents, 123-98.
OREGON STATE AND THE TOP 25 POLL: Oregon State is ranked No. 18 in the April 22 USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Poll. Thirteen of OSU's 1998 opponents -- including six Pac-10 teams -- are currently ranked, and two other opponents earned votes. OSU is 12-13 against teams that are or have been ranked in 1998. The Pac-10 remains the nation's premiere softball conference, with seven Top 25 teams. The Big 12 is second with six ranked teams. Polls are released each Wednesday morning.
OSU'S HONORS: Oregon State has been recognized by the Pac-10 office four times this season. Sophomore Tarrah Beyster was named both the Pac-10 Softball Pitcher and Player of the Week after leading OSU to a doubleheader sweep of then-No. 17 Oregon on April 11, and she was named Player of the Week on March 24 as well. She becomes 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.
