Softball Returns To Action At KIA Klassic
March 14, 2000
THIS WEEK: The No. 10 Oregon State softball team (18-4-1) travels to Fullerton, Calif., for the KIA Klassic from March 16-19. OSU, which is riding a 12-game winning streak, will at least play five games at the tournament. The Beavers open up the tourney against No. 5 Oklahoma at 11 a.m. on Thursday before playing UNLV at 3 p.m. later that day. OSU concludes pool play with a 1 p.m. game against DePaul on Friday, and bracket play begins Friday evening. The field features 16 teams, and 12 are ranked among the nation's top 25.
WALKER LOOKING FOR WIN NO. 150: Kirk Walker, in his sixth year as head coach at OSU, is looking for career win No. 150 when his team competes at the KIA Klassic. He became OSU's all-time winningest coach two weeks ago. His career record at OSU now stands at 149-169-2, to surpass Ellen Margolis, who was 145-76-1 in five years at OSU (1981-85). Walker was named Pac-10 Co-Coach of the Year in 1999, and the entire Beaver coaching staff was voted the Speedline Pacific Region Co-Coaching Staff of the Year that same season. He is the only coach in Oregon State history to lead the Beavers to three consecutive 27-win seasons, OSU had 29 wins in 1997, 27 in 1998 and 47 in 1999. Walker's record from 1997-present stands at 121-91-2. He came to OSU from his alma mater UCLA, where he spent 11 years as a manager and assistant coach.
DRAPER THROWS FIRST CAREER NO-HITTER: Crystal Draper threw the first no-hitter of her college career in a 13-0 OSU win over St. Peter's on March 4. She struck out seven batters, although one of those seven managed to reach base on a wild pitch -- the only thing that kept Draper from a perfect game. Her no-hitter was the seventh in OSU history, and the first for the Beavers since Heather Reynolds no-hit George Fox in 1994. Draper is a perfect 7-0 with a 2.09 ERA on the season. She had 71 strikeouts in 63.2 innings of work, and she's limiting batters to a .207 average.
BEAVERS REMAIN IN TOP 10: OSU has been ranked No. 10 in the last two USA Today/NFCA top 25 polls. All eight Paciifc-10 teams are ranked, and seven of them are in the top 10. A total of 12 of OSU's opponents are ranked in the latest top 25 poll, and an additional three opponents received votes in the poll. Polls are released each Wednesday. The Beavers have played five games against teams that were ranked at game time or are currently ranked. OSU is 4-1 in those games.
SERIES RECORDS: The Beavers are 2-3 against Oklahoma, 1-3 against DePaul and 1-9 against UNLV. OSU and UNLV met earlier this season (Feb. 18) in Las Vegas, where the Runnin' Rebels came away with a 1-0 win. OSU had just one hit in that game. The Beavers defeated DePaul 4-0 last season. OSU posted a 3-1 win over the Sooners at the 1998 KIA Klassic, the last time the two faced each other.
A LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS: DePaul is 5-7 on the year, but has played a difficult schedule thus far. Ten of DePaul's games have been against ranked opponents, and the Blue Demons went 3-7 in those games. UNLV is 13-9, although seven of its losses were against ranked teams. Oklahoma is 28-4, with all four losses coming against top 10 teams. The Beavers will play either No. 2 Arizona, No. 11 CS Fullerton, No. 21 Hawaii or unranked Northeast Louisiana in the first round of bracket play.
BEAVERS DOMINATE LAST TIME OUT: Oregon State did not play last week, but the Beavers put together some impressive numbers at the Hillenbrand Classic in Tucson, Ariz., from March 3-5. The Beavers went 5-0 and outscored the opposition 33-2. OSU posted shutouts over Indiana, St. Peter's and Tulsa and gave up just one run in games against Northwestern State and Northwestern. OSU hit .325 as a team and held its opponents to a .153 average. Tarrah Beyster hit an impressive .800 (8-for-10) with eight RBI, two home runs and three runs. Brynnen Guthrie hit .583 (7-for-12) with seven runs and two doubles, while Jenni Jodoin hit .438 (7-for-16) and scored three runs as well. OSU's pitchers combined for a 0.23 ERA on the weekend. Beyster posted a 0.32 ERA after giving up just two runs (only one earned) in 21.2 innings of work. Crystal Draper, who threw a no-hitter against St. Peter's, did not allow a run in 9.1 innings.
HOMER HAPPY BEAVERS: Oregon State players have combined for 20 home runs already this season - just seven shy of the school record set last year. Eight players have already hit at least one home run this year, in 1999, just five players hit a home run. Tarrah Beyster leads OSU with seven home runs this season. Jenni Jodoin and Steph Adams are tied for second on the squad with three home runs apiece, and Parisa Plant and Shawna Feldt each have two. Cara Maxey, Jessica King, and Shannon Sorg each have one apiece. Maxey and Sorg's HRs were both grand slams, and Jodoin also has one grand slam this season. Beyster is OSU's all-time leader for home runs with 43, and Jodoin is second all-time with 12.
BEAVERS MOVING UP THE RECORD BOOKS: Two Beavers are making their way up the OSU career books for various categories. Tarrah Beyster has 27 hits this season, giving her 191 for her career - good for second all-time at OSU and 34 away from the record. She also has scored 15 runs this year, giving her 80 career runs to rank third all-time (18 away from the record). Beyster also picked up career save No. 8 this season, one away from tying the school's all-time record. Jenni Jodoin has a 19 RBI this season, lifting her career numbers to 71, which ranks third all-time.
TWO BEAVERS REACH CENTURY MARK, ANOTHER SEARCHING FOR 200: Shawna Feldt and Jenni Jodoin both reached the 100 career hits milestone earlier this year, and Tarrah Beyster is edging in a becoming just the second Beaver to collect 200 career hits. Feldt has a team-best 32 hits this season, giving her 107 hits in her two-year career at OSU. As a sophomore in 1999, she had 75 hits, just one shy of the OSU's single-season record. Jodoin has 22 hits this year, for 101 career hits. Beyster's 27 hits this year lifts her career totals to 191. Only Jodi Chmielewski has finished her OSU with 200 hits (225 from 1996-1999).
BEAVER PITCHERS `STRIKE' AGAIN: A year after setting an OSU record for strikeouts in a season, the Beaver pitchers are at it again with impressive strikeout numbers. The pitching duo of Tarrah Beyster and Crystal Draper has struck out 148 batters in 23 games, an average of 6.8 K's per seven innings. Beyster leads the Beavers with 78 K's, while Draper has 71. Draper's season-high for strikeouts in a gamecame against Utah State on Feb. 11 when she struck out 11 batters for her sixth career game with 10+ K's. Beyster's season-high is nine, twice. In addition, Beyster has walked just 11 batters this year, an strikeout-to-walk ratio of 7:1. Beyster is OSU's career leader for strikeouts with 591, while Draper ranks fourth all-time at 288 and needs 15 more to move into third place.
ROOKIES MAKING AN IMPACT EARLY ON: OSU's six freshmen have made an impact on the team early on in their careers. The rookies have accounted for 35 percent of the team's hits (62 of 179), 41 percent of the team's runs (52 of 127) and 33 percent of the team's RBI (35 of 105). The rookies also have 16 of OSU's 29 doubles and six of the team's 20 home runs. Steph Adams leads the Beavers with six doubles, ranks second with three home runs, is fourth for RBI (10), fourth for hits (15) and fifth for runs (10). Shannon Sorg is fourth on the team with 12 runs and fifth with 12 hits. Cara Maxey and Shelly Prochaska have 11 hits apiece.
COMING UP BIG WITH RUNNERS ON: Oregon State has three players who are batting .333 or better when they come to the plate with runners in scoring position. Shawna Feldt, the team's lead-off batter, is hitting .455 (10-for-22) when she gets a chance to hit with runners waiting to score. Tarrah Beyster is hitting .400 with runners in scoring position, while Jenni Jodoin is hitting .382 and Shelly Prochaska at .333 in that situation.
BEAVERS JUMP AHEAD EARLY: OSU has a tendency to score its runs early in the game, as the Beavers have scored 78 of their 127 runs in the first three innings of their games. In fact, the Beavers have outscored their opponents, 55-3, in the first two innings. OSU has outscored its opposition in every inning and has limited its opponents to 52 runs for the year.
RUTSCHMAN COULD BE BACK THIS WEEK: Junior Brooke Rutschman suffered a broken arm when she was hit by a pitch in OSU's game against Wisconsin on February 13, but she could see action at the KIA Klassic this week. Rutschman had a seven-game hitting streak going prior to the injury, with at least one hit in each of OSU's first seven games. Her career-best is an eight-game streak, coming in the 1999 season. She is hitting .524 with 11 hits and a team-high 10 runs. She set a new OSU single-game record with four stolen bases against Utah State, and she also tied the school record for runs scored in a game with three against both Utah State and Utah at the Fiesta Bowl Classic. She has had multiple hits in four games.
ROAD WARRIORS: The Beavers will be on the road for the first seven weeks of the season before playing a single game against Southern Utah at Ropes-Fetrow Field in Corvallis on March 28. OSU will have played at least 31 games before playing at home.
OSU/ASU GAME TO BE TELEVISED LIVE: Oregon State's game against Arizona State on Saturday, April 29 is slated to be aired live on FOX Sports Net. The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at OSU's Ropes-Fetrow Field.
