Beavers Hit The Road to Face UCLA
Let’s Play Ball: The Oregon State softball team hits the road this week for a three-game series against No. 2/2 UCLA. The series will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, and will continue with games at 6 p.m. on Friday and 12 p.m. on Saturday.
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: UCLA is 36-4 on the season (9-3 Pac-12) and is ranked second in both polls. The Bruins are led by Ally Carda, who is hitting .395 with six home runs, 36 runs and 32 RBIs, while Mysha Sataraka is batting .339 with 11 homers and 37 RBIs. Carda also paces UCLA in the circle, holding a 21-2 record on the season with a 1.27 ERA and 154 strikeouts. The Bruins will feature a familiar face in the dugout for Beaver fans, as former Oregon State head coach Kirk Walker is one of the UCLA assistants. Walker led the Beavers from 1995-2012.
Series History: One of the biggest wins in Oregon State history came against UCLA, as the Beavers upset the then-No. 1 Bruins in 2006, on their way to a Women’s College World Series appearance. The Bruins hold a lead in the all-time series, however, as UCLA has won 88 of the teams’ 100 meetings.
Kori Comes Through: Kori Nishitomi has proven she can compete at the Pac-12 level, after transferring from Longwood in the summer. Nishitomi is batting .390 through 13 games of conference play, and leads the team with seven runs scored. She showed over the weekend that she can hit for power as well as average, as she launched a homer over the fence in right center in game one of the Civil War series. Overall, Nishitomi is batting .375 on the year, leads the team with 42 hits and is tops on the squad with seven steals. Her season has been highlighted by a 4-for-4 performance against Arizona State on March 16, which included a triple. Nishitomi has also shown a penchant for teeing off against some of the nation’s best pitchers, as her two home runs this season have come against Arizona State’s Dallas Escobedo and Oregon’s Cheridan Hawkins.
Give Me Gilmore: Junior Dani Gilmore has continued her fantastic collegiate career this season, hitting .406 with seven home runs, 27 runs and 22 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 .328 hitter, and has proven to be a wizard on the base-paths as well, stealing a team-best 28 bases on just 31 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 leads the team againthis season with 17 walks 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 .328 batting average, and is third with 92 walks. Her 113 runs are good for fifth in the Oregon State record book, while she is tied for ninth all-time with 28 steals and is tied with Lea Cavestany for 9th with 24 career home runs. With a .713 slugging percentage through the first 36 games of the season, Gilmore is also on pace to finish the year second on Oregon State’s single season list for slugging percentage.
Triple Up: After hitting a pair of three-baggers in its series against Utah, Oregon State is second in the NCAA with .37 triples per game this season. Oregon State has tallied a total of 13 triples this year, with Kylie Padilla leading the way with three, good for 47th in the nation. Christie Langlois, Dani Gilmore and CJ Chirichigno each have two triples apiece. The Beavers are on pace to finish the campaign with just under 20 total triples, seven 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.
Cheer on Chirichigno: Junior transfer CJ Chirichigno has made an impact in her first forray into Pac-12 action. Chirichigno is batting .300 through the first 10 games of conference play, and is tied for the team lead with six RBIs. Chirichigno hit the first home run of her Oregon State career in the Beavers’ second game against Utah, when she smoked a frozen rope to dead center, clearing the 235-foot fence at Utah Softball Stadium. Chirichigno then capped-off her weekend by making an incredible play in the field, diving to catch a line-drive to rob Kate Dickman of a hit. And after waiting 31 games to hit her first homer in Black and Orange, Chirichigno wasted little time before launching her second, as she blasted on out of the park in the opening game of the Civil War Series this weekend.
Bouska Reaches a Century: Senior Hannah Bouska reached the 100 hit milestone in style against Utah. The Keizer, Ore., native got to the century mark by hitting an opposite-field home run in the largest park in the conference. The blast was Bouska’s first since she homered on April 12, 2013, also against Utah.
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.
