Softball Hosts Arizona Schools This Weekend
April 25, 2000
THIS WEEK: The No. 13 Oregon State softball team (33-13-1, 3-7 Pacific-10) looks to keep its strong play going as the Beavers host No. 2 Arizona (45-7, 8-4 Pac-10) and No. 4 Arizona State (38-11, 6-6). OSU, which has won seven of its last eight games, will face off with the Wildcats at 2 p.m., Friday, April 28. The Beavers and Sun Devils will meet at 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, April 29-30.
OSU-ASU GAME TO BE TELEVISED: Oregon State's game against Arizona State on Saturday, April 29 is slated to be aired live on FOX Sports Net. Jim Watson will handle the play-by-play, and Angie Arlati will serve as the color commentator.
CIVIL WAR GAMES RAINED OUT, RESCHEDULED FOR MAY 2: The doubleheader between No. 13 Oregon State and No. 18 Oregon that was scheduled for April 22 was rained out. The games have been rescheduled for Tuesday, May 2 at 2 p.m. at Oregon State
BEAVERS GUARANTEED A WINNING REGULAR SEASON RECORD: Oregon State has assured itself of a winning record in the regular season for the second year in a row. Teams must have a winning regular season record to be considered for an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament. The Beavers are 33-13-1 entering the week, with 13 regular season games remaining on the schedule, with t11 Pacific-10 games and two non-conference games against Portland State left to play before the post-season. OSU had a 47-25 record in 1999 for its first winning season since 1984. This also marks the first time OSU has had back-to-back 30-win seasons.
APRIL BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN JODOIN, PROCHASKA: Jenni Jodoin and Shelly Prochaska have been having an outstanding month of April so far. In 13 games this month, Jodoin is batting .378 (14-for-37), well above her season average of .294. Prochaska has batted .366 (15-for-41) in April to up her season average to .317. Jodoin has two doubles, a home run, nine runs scored and seven RBI this month, while Prochaska has five doubles, a home run, five RBI and six runs scored.
DOUBLE THE PLEASURE: OSU has hit 57 doubles this year and needs just six more to break the single-season record of 62 set just last season. And the Beavers are doing it without the help of Jodi Chmielewski, who finished her career last season by becoming OSU's career and single-season leader for doubles. OSU's six freshmen are making up for the loss. Of OSU's 57 doubles, 35 of them have been hit by freshmen. Steph Adams leads OSU with 11 doubles, which ranks third on the single-season list. Fellow rookie Shelly Prochaska is second on the team with nine doubles, which ranks sixth on the single-season charts. Freshman Brynnen Guthrie has seven doubles. In addition, two juniors are a big reason why the Beavers are closing in on the record. Junior Shawna Feldt has eight, while Jenni Jodoin has six. The Beavers have tied the school record for doubles in a game twice this season, with four doubles in contests against Central Michigan and Saint Peter's. Three freshmen have also tied the individual single-game record with two doubles in one game. Prochaska had two doubles against Cal last week, while Cara Maxey also had two in a game against Saint Mary's last week. Guthrie had two in a game against Arizona State in March. In the history of the program, 10 players have had two doubles in 11 games. Current Beavers Parisa Plant, Tarrah Beyster and S. Feldt are among those 10 players.
TWO'S COMPANY FOR BEYSTER: When Tarrah Beyster hit two home runs in the second game of a doubleheader against Portland State on Wednesday, it marked the eighth time in her career and the third time this season that she hit two homers in the same game. With those two homers, she upped her season total to 13, breaking her own school record after hitting 12 homers each of her first three seasons at OSU. She is the school's career home run leader as well, with 49 round-trippers to her name. Beyster is batting .438 (46-for-105) on the year, which ranks fourth in the Pac-10. She also leads the Beavers with a school-record 39 RBI and has scored 25 runs as well. Opposing pitchers have walked her 38 times, giving her an on-base percentage of .587. Beyster has been named Pac-10 Player of the Week twice this season, earning the honor on March 28 and Feb. 29. She was named the MVP at the Troy Cox Classic earlier this year, and she also earned All-Tournament team honors at the Bank of Hawaii Invitational.
HOMER HAPPY BEAVERS: Oregon State players have combined for a school-record 35 home runs in 47 games this season - breaking the previous record of 27 home runs in 72 games last year. Ten players have already hit at least one home run this year, in 1999, just five players hit a home run. Tarrah Beyster leads the squad with 13 home runs this year, which breaks her own single-season school record. Steph Adams ranks second on the team with seven, while Jenni Jodoin is third with four. Shelly Prochaska, Shawna Feldt, Parisa Plant and Shannon Sorg each have two. Crystal Draper, Cara Maxey and Jessica King have one apiece. Beyster, Maxey, Sorg and Jodoin have all hit one grand slam this season. Beyster is OSU's all-time leader for home runs with 47, and Jodoin is second with 12.
WALKER OSU'S WINNINGEST COACH: Kirk Walker, in his sixth year as head coach at OSU, is Oregon State's all-time winningest softball coach. Walker's career record now stands at 163-178-2, and he picked up his 150th career win this year after OSU defeated UNLV, 3-0, at the Kia Klassic on March 16. Walker was named Pacific-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. With OSU's 33 wins this season, Walker becomes the first OSU softball coach to guide the Beavers to back-to-back 30-win seasons. OSU had a school record 47 wins last season. Walker came to OSU from his alma mater UCLA, where he spent 11 years as a manager and assistant coach.
SERIES RECORDS: OSU is 7-56 all-time against Arizona after the Wildcats won both games (11-0, 4-1) in Tucson earlier this year. OSU is 14-48 all-time against Arizona State. The two teams have played twice this season, with each team winning once. OSU defeated ASU, 3-2, in eight innings at the KIA Klassic, and ASU came away with a 6-1 Pac-10 victory in Tempe earlier this month.
A LOOK AT ARIZONA: No. 2 Arizona (45-7, 8-4 Pac-10) snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-0 win over No. 4 ASU on Saturday. That three-game losing streak was UA's longest of the year. UA is batting .344 as a team, led by Nicole Giordano at .452. Five players are hitting above .350. The pitchers have a collective ERA of 0.99, highlighted by Jennie Finch's 21-2 record and 0.74 ERA.
A LOOK AT ARIZONA STATE: No. 4 Arizona State (38-11, 6-6 Pac-10) split a two-game series with Arizona last weekend, with ASU winning a 3-1 contest on Friday before dropping a 3-0 decision on Saturday. The Sun Devils are led by pitcher Kirsten Voak, who boasts a 0.93 ERA with a 26-5 record and 249 strikeouts. Voak is also batting .349 with 18 RBI and 26 runs scored. ASU's other pitcher, Erica Beach, is also putting up strong numbers both in the circle and offensively. She's batting .357 with a team-high 42 RBI, and she also has a 1.69 ERA with a 12-6 record.
ROOKIES MAKING AN IMPACT EARLY ON: OSU's six freshmen have already made a big impact at Oregon State early on in their careers. The rookies have accounted for 39 percent of the team's hits (138 of 355), 42 percent of the team's runs (93 of 219) and 38 percent of the team's RBI (70 of 186). The rookies also have 35 of OSU's 57 doubles (61 percent) and 11 of the team's 35 home runs. Steph Adams leads the Beavers with 11 doubles, is second with seven home runs, third for RBI (27) and fifth for runs (21) and hits (34). Brynnen Guthrie is second on the team with a .367 batting average and fourth for runs (22), while Shelly Prochaska is fifth on the team with a .317 average. Prochaska is also fourth on the team with 38 hits, and she's second on the team with nine doubles.
BEAVERS MOVING UP THE CAREER RECORD BOOKS: Two Beavers are making their way up the OSU career record books for various categories. Tarrah Beyster has 46 hits this season, giving her 210 career hits - good for second all-time at OSU and 15 away from the record (225, set by Jodi Chmielewski - 1996-99). Beyster has scored 25 runs this year, giving her 90 career runs - which is second all-time, just eight 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 30 RBI this season, lifting her career numbers to 82, which ranks second all-time, behind Beyster.
SINGLE-SEASON RECORDS STARTING TO FALL: Tarrah Beyster has set two single-season school records this season. She hit two home runs against Portland State last week, giving her 13 HRs for the year. That breaks her own school record of 12 in a year, which she set in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Beyster also had four RBI against the Vikings to lift her season total to 39 RBI, which ties the single-season record set by Jenni Jodoin in 1999. Jodoin could set the single-season record for runs scored this year. She leads the Beavers with 29 runs, which ranks seventh on the season charts and is 10 away from the record. Brooke Rutschman is four stolen bases away from tying the season record for steals, Rutschman is 9-for-11 in stolen bases this year.
BEYSTER GETS 20 FOR THIRD STRAIGHT SEASON: Tarrah Beyster, the only Beaver pitcher to win 20 games in a season, accomplished the feat for the third time in three years when she earned both victories in a doubleheader sweep of Portland State last week. Beyster improved her season record to 21-9 with the two wins. She had a school record 28 wins as a junior last season, and she also had 21 wins as a sophomore in 1998. No other OSU pitchers have ever won more than 19 games in one season.
BEAVER PITCHERS `STRIKE' AGAIN: After setting an OSU record for strikeouts in a season last year, the Beaver pitchers are at it again with impressive numbers. Tarrah Beyster and Crystal Draper have struck out 278 batters in 47 games, an average of 5.9 K's per seven innings. Beyster has a team-high 140 K's, while Draper has 138. Draper's season-high for a game is 11 versus Utah State on Feb. 11, good for her sixth career game with 10+ K's. Beyster's season-high is 10, twice - against Oregon on April 11 and Portland State on April 19. Beyster is OSU's career leader for strikeouts with 654, while Draper is tied for second with 355.
BEAVERS RANKED 13TH: OSU moved up a spot to No. 13 in the latest USA Today/NFCA top 25 poll (includes games through April 16). All eight Pacific-10 teams are ranked, and five of them are in the top 10. A total of nine of OSU's opponents are ranked in the latest top 25 poll, and an additional five opponents received votes. Polls are released each Wednesday. The Beavers have played 19 games against teams that were ranked at game time or are currently ranked. OSU is 9-10 in those games.
SCORE EARLY, SCORE LATE: OSU has a tendency to score its runs early in the game, as the Beavers have scored 118 of their 219 runs in the first three innings of their games. In fact, the Beavers have outscored their opponents, 88-21, in the first two innings. The Beavers have also shown they can come back late in the game if need be. The Beavers have outscored the opposition, 30-16, in the seventh inning and beyond. OSU has played six extra inning games and is 4-2 in those contests.
PAC-10 TAKING ITS TOLL ON THE BEAVER OFFENSE: The Beavers are 3-7 in league play, and their statistics are well below those for non-conference play. That's to be expected though, since all eight Pac-10 teams are ranked among the nation's top 25 teams. OSU is hitting .221 in league games, compared to a .277 average for the entire season. Only Shelly Prochaska has a higher batting average in conference play than for the whole year. She is batting a team-best .367 (11-for-30) in Pac-10 games and .317 for the season. No other Beavers are hitting above .280 in league play, although a total of five players are batting over .300 for the year.
