Softball Plays Full Slate Over Spring Break
March 21, 2011
Complete Release in PDF Format 
CORVALLIS, Ore. -
THE GAMES - The Oregon State softball team (12-8 overall) will play eight games in six days this week starting with a home doubleheader against Portland State (12-8) Tuesday, March 22 with games starting at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. at the OSU Softball Complex. The Beavers then head out on the road for a Thursday meeting with Sacramento State (7-11) in Sacramento, Calif. starting at 12 p.m.
Oregon State then travels the short distance to Davis, Calif. to take part in the Aggie Stampede hosted by UC Davis. At the Stampede, the Beavers will face Saint Mary's College (4-7) twice. The first meeting will be on Friday starting at 9 a.m. and the second will be on Saturday starting at 1:30 p.m. The Beavers will also play Santa Clara (4-10) on Friday at 11:15 a.m. They then close out the tournament with two games against host UC Davis, the first being Saturday at 3:45 p.m. and the second on Sunday at 9 a.m.
FOLLOWING THE BEAVS - All games this upcoming weekend can be followed live online via GameTracker at www.osubeavers.com.
TRACK THE TEAM ON TWITTER - Get frequent updates on the Oregon State softball team throughout the season by following @OregonStateSB on Twitter. Links to stories, pictures from the road and much more will be tweeted through the official Oregon State softball Twitter.
GAMES 21 & 22: PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS - Tuesday's games against Portland State will be the first two games out of four on the schedule this season. The Vikings enter the weekend with an overall record of 12-8. They are hitting .280 as a team and are led by Lacey Holm who is hitting .442 with three home runs and a team best 20 RBIs. Nichole Latham leads the team in ERA with a mark of 1.50 having surrendered only 15 earned runs in 70 innings. The pitching staff has a team ERA of 2.51 while holding their opponents to a .234 batting average.
GAME 23: SACRAMENTO STATE HORNETS - The Hornets come into the Thursday meeting with a 7-11 overall record. They are led by Kelly Shepard who has a .333 batting average on the season in 24 at bats. Marissa Navarro leads the team in home runs with three, while Emily McCormick leads the team in runs batted in with 10. Taylor Stroud leads the pitching staff in innings pitched with 56.1 and has allowed only 11 earned runs this season for a team leading 1.37 earned run average. The staff as a whole posts a 2.63 ERA while holding their opponents to a .259 batting average.
GAMES 24 & 26: SAINT MARY'S GAELS - The Gaels come into this weekend at the Aggie Stampede with an overall record of 4-7. As a team, they are hitting a mere .216 as a team with Kayla Gonzalez leading the way with a .323 average. They have hit just two home runs and have been outscored by their opponents 56-26. Britany Linton has started seven out of the teams 11 games and has a 2.83 ERA in 42.0 innings pitched. Opponents are hitting .302 on the season against the Gaels.
GAME 25: SANTA CLARA BRONCOS - Santa Clara comes into the weekend with a 4-10 overall record. They are hitting just .222 as a team and are led by Briana Knight who is the only player on the team with double-digit hits with 14. She also leads the team in runs batted in with nine and is second in home runs with three. Jenna Fong leads the pitching staff with an ERA of 8.05 while the staff as a whole posts a mark of 9.92.
GAMES 26 & 27: UC DAVIS AGGIES - The Aggies have an overall record of 12-10 this season. Alex Holmes leads the team with a .414 batting average with 29 hits on the season. Kelly Schulze leads the team in home runs with two and runs batted in with 11. The team is hitting .250 on the season while its opponents are hitting .232. Holmes has also pitched the majority of the innings this season for the Aggies and posts a team best 2.41 ERA.
STELLAR PITCHING CONTINUED - After a weekend at the Husky Classic in Seattle, Wash. where the Beavers' starting pitcher, Marina Demore and Tina Andreana combined for 14.2 innings pitched, three hits, and only one earned run, the Oregon State pitching staff came to play this past weekend when it hosted Utah State and Weber State for two games apiece. The Beavers' pitchers allowed only one earned run in 25 innings of work combining for a 0.28 ERA on the weekend. They allowed 15 total hits while walking only eight and striking out 30 batters.
WINNING WAYS - The Beavers are currently enjoying a five game winning streak, their longest of the season. Over the course of the five game winning streak, the team is hitting .315 and have outscored their opponents 35-3. The pitching staff has allowed only three earned runs over 33 innings during the streak. They have struck out 39 batters and walked 10 for a 3.9 strikeout to walk ratio. Hitters are hitting just .159 in the past five games.
MC HAMMER - Junior outfielder Mary Claire Brenner has come on off late at the plate and leads the team with a batting average of .400 this season. She is currently in the middle of a five game hitting streak during which she has racked up eight hits in 12 at bats, she has scored three times and has driven in 10 batters. Six of her 10 RBIs in the past five games came in the second game of a doubleheader against Utah State on March 19. She drove in four runs on one swing of the bat in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and drove in the game-ending run with an RBI single down the left field line.
SCHEDULE CHANGES - The game against Fresno State that was to be played at the Cathedral City Classic will not be made up. The game against Portland State that was rained out in Seattle will now be played as a doubleheader in Portland on Tuesday, May 10. The doubleheader will be played at 5 p.m. and a time to be determined. The Sacramento State game on Thursday, March 24 will now be played at 12 p.m. and the game at Santa Clara on Thursday, April 14 will also be played at 12 p.m.
TOUGH COMPETITION - The Oregon State softball team will take on 9 teams ranked in both the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll and the USA Today/NFCA Division I Poll. Seven Pac-10 teams are included in that list in Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon and California. Other teams the Beavers will face are Georgia and Nebraska.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE BEAVERS - Following this weekend on the road, the Beavers travel back to southern California to open Pacific-10 Conference play against the Bruins of UCLA. They play Friday, April 1 at 7 p.m., Saturday at 6 p.m. and then again on Sunday at 12 p.m.
Support Oregon State University Athletics by making your tax deductible donation to the Beaver Athletic Student Fund. For more information follow this LINK OR CALL 541-737-2370. FOLLOW BEAVER ATHLETICS ON Facebook, TWITTER AND YouTube. Follow Oregon State Softball on FACEBOOK AND Twitter . Former Former Student-Athletes are invited to join the Varsity O Facebook Page for upcoming Alumni events.
