Beavers Return Home For Tussle With Cal
Let’s Play Ball: The Oregon State softball team returns home this week to take on California in its second home series of the season. The three-game set is slated to begin on Friday with a 1 p.m. first pitch, before the series continues with games at 1 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday. Admission to all Oregon State home softball games is free.
Follow Along: You can find live updates for all Oregon State games this season on twitter @OregonStateSB. Live stats will also be available at osubeavers.com.
The Matchup: California is coming off a string of seven consecutive nonconference matchups, after it face Stanford to open league play two weeks ago. The Bears hold an 18-11 record on the year, and are led by Danielle Henderson, who is hitting .352 this season with nine home runs, 23 runs and 26 RBIs. In the circle, Nisa Ontiveros has a 3.17 ERA with 39 strikeouts.
Kori Comes Through: Kori Nishitomi has started her Pac-12 career on fire, batting .500 in the first six games of the conference slate. The Kaneohe, Hawaii, native is 9-for-18 since the start of league play, with three runs, a triple, a home run and two RBIs. Overall, Nishitomi is batting .388 on the year, leads the team with 33 hits and is tied for tops on the squad with five steals. Her season has been highlighted by a 4-for-4 performance against Arizona State on March 16, which included a triple.
Going, Going, Gonzalez: Freshman Alexis Gonzalez has made the cleanup spot her own in just her first season with the Beavers. The OSU designated player hit her third career home run last week in the second game of the Beavers’ series against Arizona. The freshman also hit .333 in Oregon State’s series against Arizona State last week, and her two-RBI double helped carry the Beavers to victory in the series’ opening game.
Give Me Gilmore: Junior Dani Gilmore has opened the 2014 campaign on a tear, hitting .395 with five home runs, 21 runs and 17 RBIs. The West Hills, Calif., native played the majority of her first two seasons in the leadoff spot, but has transitioned into the third position this year. Gilmore is a career .321 hitter, and has proven to be a wizard on the base-paths as well, stealing a team-best 27 bases on just 30 attempts since 2012. Gilmore also led the Beavers with 36 walks last season, placing her 14th in the NCAA in walks per game with 0.82, and is on a similar pace this season with 16 walks already in the 2014 campaign.
More Gilmore: Gilmore is already making her way into the Oregon State career record books. She is currently sixth in Beaver history with a .321 batting average, and is third with 91 walks. Her 107 runs are good for fifth in the Oregon State record book, while she is tied for 10th all-time with 27 steals and is one home run short of tying Vanessa Iapala for 10th with 23 in her career.
This is Aarhus: Freshman Amee Aarhus has made an immediate impact on the Beaver lineup since being inserted as a starter a few weeks ago. The Camas High School graduate is hitting .306 on the year, and is tied for the team lead with five stolen bases.
Triple Up: The Beavers are fourth in the NCAA with .41 triples per game this season. Oregon State has tallied a total of 11 triples this year, with Christie Langlois, Kylie Padilla, Dani Gilmore and CJ Chirichigno leading the way with two apiece. The Beavers are on pace to finish the campaign with just under 22 total triples, five short of the school record of 27, set back in 1984. Oregon State matched a school record with three triples against Penn State on Feb. 7. Chirichigno, Isabelle Batayola and Padilla each tallied a three-bagger to help the Beavers reach the mark for the fourth time in school history. Prior to this season, the last time Oregon State had three triples in a game was in 2010, when it faced Seattle U.
Bouska Goes For The Century: Senior Hannah Bouska could reach a career milestone with some solid work at the plate this weekend, as she is just five hits away from 100 in her career. Bouska has been a fixture in the Beaver lineup since joining the program in 2011, starting 139 games and scoring 72 runs in her career.
The Amanda Show: Amanda Najdek earned her first Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week honor on March 18, after shutting down a high-powered Arizona State offense to help the Beavers to a pair of wins and a series victory over the No. 5/7 Sun Devils. The senior threw complete games in both of her starts in the series, holding ASU to just a single earned run in each outing. She opened the weekend by allowing just six hits and recording six strikeouts in the first game, a 3-2 victory for the Beavers. Najdek then came back with another gem on Sunday, allowing just one run on seven hits for a 3-1 win. Overall, she held a Sun Devil offense that entered the series averaging nearly seven runs per game to just three total runs over the course of her two starts.
Going for 3: This year’s Oregon State recruiting class was ranked third in the nation by StudentSports.com, and includes four of the site’s top 40 recruits. Alysha Everett is Student Sports’ 23rd-ranked recruit, following an impressive display at PGF Nationals over the summer, as she hit .409 in bracket play. 27th-ranked Gina Bond is considered to be one of the top home-run hitters in the country, and has earned 6A Three Rivers first team honors three times. McKenna Arriola is StudentSports.com’s 33rd-rated recruit. She hit .541, with 33 runs, 23 RBIs and 12 steals at Camino Real High School last season, en-route to All-City honors. 40th-ranked Lovie Lopez batted .449 with five home runs as a junior for St. Paul High School last season. Pitcher Rainey Dyreson rounds out the class. She was named Great Basin (West) Conference Pitcher of the Year in her freshman and sophomore years, and has competed in the PGF Nationals.
Going for 3: This year’s Oregon State recruiting class was ranked third in the nation by StudentSports.com, and includes four of the site’s top 40 recruits. Alysha Everett is Student Sports’ 23rd-ranked recruit, following an impressive display at PGF Nationals over the summer, as she hit .409 in bracket play. 27th-ranked Gina Bond is considered to be one of the top home-run hitters in the country, and has earned 6A Three Rivers first team honors three times. McKenna Arriola is StudentSports.com’s 33rd-rated recruit. She hit .541, with 33 runs, 23 RBIs and 12 steals at Camino Real High School last season, en-route to All-City honors. 40th-ranked Lovie Lopez batted .449 with five home runs as a junior for St. Paul High School last season. Pitcher Rainey Dyreson rounds out the class. She was named Great Basin (West) Conference Pitcher of the Year in her freshman and sophomore years, and has competed in the PGF Nationals.
