Softball to Host Oregon in Second of Three Civil War Doubleheaders
THIS WEEK'S ACTION: The No. 22 ranked Oregon State softball team (20-13, 3-5) will play the second of three Civil War doubleheaders this season when No. 21 Oregon (31-14, 4-4) heads to Corvallis for a 1:00 p.m. matchup on Saturday, April 11.
A LOOK AT THE BEAVERS: Strong competition over the last three weeks has taken its toll on the Oregon State offense. OSU's last 16 games have been against Top 25 opponents, and Beaver hitting has dropped during that span. Just two players are hitting above .300, with sophomore Tarrah Beyster leading the team with a .370 average to go along with her team-high 19 RBI and six home runs. Junior Jodi Chmielewski is hitting .303 with 12 RBI and a team-high 14 runs. The Beavers are now hitting .249 as a team; three weeks ago five OSU players were at .300 or better and the squad was at .269 collectively. On the mound, Beyster leads Oregon State with 1.19 ERA and 16-7 record.
A LOOK AT THE DUCKS: Oregon may be the biggest surprise of the league this season. After Pac-10 coaches picked the Ducks to finish last in the conference this year, the Ducks have put together a 31-14 record overall and stand fourth in the league standings at 4-4. Freshman Triawn Custer leads the Duck offense with a .418 average and 29 RBI, while sophomore Jill Robinson is second at .364 with 25 RBI and 25 runs scored. The Ducks are hitting .306 as a team, which ranks second in the Pac-10, and their 255 runs scored also is second in the league. However, Oregon's pitching is last in the conference; junior Jennie Cook leads the Ducks with a 17-9 record and 1.92 ERA.
THE CIVIL WAR RIVALRY: Oregon leads the Civil War series, 68-53-1, after sweeping the Beavers in a doubleheader in Eugene earlier this season. In the first game between the two teams this year, Oregon came away with a 2-0 win as Jennie Cook threw a three-hit shutout. Tarrah Beyster struck out 10 Ducks in the loss. In the second game, OSU led, 3-1, but Cook came in as a relief pitcher and Oregon came back to win, 5-3. Only sophomores Kelli Kranz and Parisa Plant had two hits for OSU in the two games, while five Ducks had at least two hits.
LAST WEEK'S ACTION: Oregon State split doubleheaders with Stanford and California last weekend. On Saturday, April 4, the Beavers opened up with a 3-2 come-from-behind win over Stanford before dropping the second game, 1-0. On Sunday, Oregon State suffered a 1-0 loss to Cal in 10 innings as Whitney Floyd threw a no-hitter against the Beavers, marking the first time that OSU had been no-hit since a 13-0 loss to Washington in 1996. Oregon State came back to win the second game, 4-3. Only two Beavers hit above .300 on the weekend, with freshman Brooke Rutschman and junior Courtney Stewart each going 2-for-6 to hit .333.
BEAVERS HIT TWO FOR FOURTH TIME: Sophomore Tarrah Beyster and junior Kim Herman hit back-to-back home runs to lift the Beavers to a 4-3 come-from-behind win over California on Sunday, April 5. Beyster's homer was her sixth this season and 18th on her career, while Herman's was her second in 1998 and fifth overall. It was just the fourth time in the program's history that OSU has hit two homers in one game. It was also the second time this season that the Beavers have accomplished that feat. OSU set a school record when it hit three roundtrippers against Florida on March 19. The Beavers also hit two home runs in a game against Santa Clara last year and also hit two against Wichita State in 1994.
HEDDINGER HEADING UP THE PACK AGAINST THE PAC: Junior Tasha Heddinger is hitting .375 (3-for-8) in Pac-10 games to lead the Beavers in league games. She has also scored three runs, which ties for first on the team in conference games. After hitting .167 for the first two and a half years of her career, Heddinger has come through offensively and has hit .316 in the last three weeks of action. That average is second best on the team during that three-week span. She has scored 10 runs this season, a career high for her after six runs in each of her first two seasons with the Beavers.
BEYSTER REACHES ONE CENTURY MARK, NEARING ANOTHER: Sophomore Tarrah Beyster has already struck out 100 batters this season, and she's now looking for her 100th career hit. Beyster has 93 hits in one and a half years at Oregon State, and with seven more she'll become the 10th Beaver to reach the 100-hit mark. Junior Jodi Chmielewski became the ninth Beaver to reach the milestone earlier this season and currently ranks fifth all-time. As far as Beyster's work on the mound goes, she struck out six batters last weekend to lift her season total to 109 Ks. That total is fifth on OSU's single-season strikeout list, and she needs just seven more to move into a tie for the fourth spot. Beyster, who struck out 145 batters as a freshman, is one of only three Beaver pitchers to record more than 100 strikeouts in two different seasons. Her 254 career strikeouts to date place her fifth all-time, and she needs 27 more to surpass Amy Warner (280, 1994-97) for the fourth spot. Joan Harvey struck out 355 batters from 1982-85 to claim the longstanding record.
LET'S GO FOR A RUN... OR A WALK: Saturday's contest with Oregon could have a lot of running involved since the Ducks are one of only two Pac-10 schools to have scored more than 250 runs, but there could be a lot of walking involved too. Oregon batters havebeen walked a league-high 145 times (3.22 per game) this season. Duck pitchers are also walking the oppostition quite frequently -- a league-high 115 times. For Oregon State, sophomore Tarrah Beyster has been walked 24 times in 32 games, and has given up only 17 bases on balls when she has been on the mound.
INJURY REPORT: Junior outfielder Heather Chinn and senior second baseman Denise Brown are both questionable for Saturday's games with Oregon, and neither played against California on Sunday. Chinn broke the ring finger on her right hand in the second game against Stanford on Saturday, while Brown suffered a torn bicep in practice on Friday. Brown did not play in any of the four games last weekend, and she has not practiced since the injury. Sophomore outfielder Amber Anderson, who had been out since March 6 after rupturing a tendon in her right hand, has been cleared to play and returned to the lineup against Stanford last weekend.
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 77-122-1. With those 77 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.
TEAM RECORDS CONTINUE TO FALL: After breaking or tying 16 school records last season, the Beavers are continuing where they left off. So far this season, Oregon State has tied two OSU single-game offensive records. Sophomore Tarrah Beyster hit two home runs and junior Tasha Heddinger hit one as well against Florida on March 19 to break the single-game record for home runs in a game (two against Wichita State in `94 and Santa Clara in `97). OSU also hit three doubles in a win over Northwestern in February to tie the school record for doubles in a game, set against Stanford in 1993.
STEWART NOTCHES FIRST EXTRA-BASE HIT: Junior Courtney Stewart came up with a double in OSU's win over Stanford on Saturday to pick up her first career extra base hit. She also came up big in OSU's win over Cal with a pinch hit single with runners on first and second in the sixth inning. She was 2-for-6 in three games and two starts on the weekend.
BEAVERS SHOOTING 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 ranks fifth with 16. Chmielewski has three doubles this season but none since March 1, while Herman's only two-base hit this season came against Simon Fraser on February 13. Sophomores Tarrah Beyster and Parisa Plant both have hit 10 doubles in their first two seasons as Beavers.
OREGON STATE AND THE TOP 25 POLL: Oregon State is ranked No. 22 in the April 1 USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Poll. Twelve of OSU's 1998 opponents -- including six Pac-10 teams -- are currently ranked, and an additional five opponents earned votes. OSU is 10-11 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 PAC-10 HONORS THIS SEASON: Oregon State has had two players named Pac-10 Player of the Week this season. Sophomore Tarrah Beyster was named the March 24 Pac-10 Player of the Week after hitting .500 with three home runs, six RBI and four runs scored at the Kia Klassic in Fullerton, CA. Junior Jodi Chmielewski earned league recognition on March 10 after hitting .462 with four runs and three RBI en route to guiding Oregon State to a share of the Fresno State Classic title. Beyster has been named Pac-10 Player of the Week twice in her career, while Chmielewski received league recognition for the first time.
