Beavers Travel to Eugene for Civil War Series
Let’s Play Ball:
The team will jump into Pac-12 play this week with a short trip south to Eugene, Oregon. The Civil War series is presented by PacificSource Health Plans, The Oregon 529 College Savings Network, McDonalds, Spirit Mountain Casino and Your Local Ford Stores. The games are also part of the Northwest Rivalry Series presented by Alaska.
Beavers Go 3-1 in Hawaii:
The Beavers are coming off a week that saw them earn their 19th win of the season, going 3-1 with a win over Longwood and a pair of wins over East Carolina. The Beavers started the week with a 7-3 win over Longwood, but then had a game against Hawaii enter a rain delay and subsequently cancelled. The Beavers returned to the field the next day, earning a 2-1 win over East Carolina in 8 innings. Friday night saw OSU get a rematch against Hawaii, but the Rainbow Wahine took the game 4-1. The Beavers finished the week off with an 8-5 win over East Carolina.
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.
TV/Radio:
The second and third games of the series on Saturday and Sunday will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks. All three games will be available on 88.1 KWVA and online at kwvaradio.org/listen-live.
A Look at the Ducks:
Entering the weekend, Oregon ranks as the No. 2 and No. 3 team in the nation in the two major polls. They have three losses on the season, two to the top ranked Florida and one to then No. 7 Baylor. The Ducks have impressive numbers entering conference play. They are hitting .357 as a team, while opponents have hit .193 against them. Oregon has outscored opponents 154-to-57 with 50 steals compared to 12 for opponents. As a pitching staff the Ducks have a 2.00 ERA in 147 innings. They have 163 strikeouts and 44 walks while allowing only 106 hits. The Ducks have a four game winning streak, with wins over Pacific and Fresno State, two teams that the Beavers have defeated in 2015 also, as well as wins against Iowa and Long Beach State. They will be playing for the first time at home this season, having a 5-1 record on the road and a 15-2 record on neutral sites.
Know Your History:
The Beavers have a 91-83-1 record against the Ducks, The 2014 series went 3-0 in favor of the Ducks. The teams have been playing each other since the middle of the 1970’s.
Give Me Gilmore:
Senior Dani Gilmore looks to continue her fantastic collegiate career this season after hitting .409 with 8 home runs, 38 runs and 40 RBIs and had a team-best 12-game hitting streak in 2014. The .409 average is the fourth highest single season total in school history. The West Hills, Calif., native played the majority of her first two seasons in the leadoff spot, but has transitioned into the third position in 2014.
Gilmore in Oregon State’s Career Records:
GilMORE:
Gilmore is already making her way into the Oregon State career record books. She entered the season with a .336 career batting average, good for fifth in school history, but has already improved that number. With 124 career runs to begin the 2015 season, Gilmore needed 29 run to take sole possession of the top spot, passing Cambria Miranda (2005-08) at 152, Gilmore has already scored 31 runs on the years and now holds the top spot. Gilmore hit 27 homers in her first three seasons, putting her tied for eighth all time at OSU, She also has 30 stolen bases in her career, putting her tied for 8th all time.
Miller In the Circle:
Bev Miller has been the go to arm for the Beavers in 2015, appearing in 18 games, starting 15 and completing every game she started. She holds a 2.55 ERA and an 11-5 record, while throwing 107 of the total 161.1 innings pitched for the Beavers. She has 73 strikeouts while holding opponents to a .238 batting average. She’s thrown two shutouts on the year, including a no-hitter Feb. 26 against UC Santa Barbara. She’s earned 188 ground outs while getting 57 fly outs.
It’s Hampton Time: Redshirt sophomore Natalie Hampton is looking to pick up where she left off in 2013, after missing the 2014 season. The Antelope, Calif., native made a historic start to her Oregon State career in 2013, setting a school record with 50 RBIs and tallying 15 home runs, one short of the OSU mark held by Cambria Miranda and Tarrah Beyster. Hampton started all 58 games at first base, hitting .329, second on the team. Her 13 doubles led the Beavers, and for her efforts, Hampton earned Pac-12 Second Team honors.
Big Inning
When OSU is able to put a runner on third and less than 2 outs they have 47 RBI in 81 chances. The team is 102-for-288 with runners in scoring position. The team has a .329 batting average (81-for-246) with two outs to go along with 69 2-out-RBI. Sammi Noland leads the team with 15 2-out-RBI while Hannah Akamine and Dani Gilmore each have 11. They also start the inning strong, holding a .403 on base percentage (64-for-159) with the lead off batter of an inning.
Akamine Named Pac-12 Player of the Week: Hannah Akamine has been named Pac-12 player of the week after spearheading the offensive efforts over the past weekend as the Oregon State softball team earned a 5-0 sweep at the Fresno State Louisville Slugger Bash. The senior batted 8-for-14 for a .571 batting average, scoring seven runs and driving in nine with two doubles and a home run. Akamine is hitting .368 with a .561 slugging percentage in her first year with Oregon State. The transfer from Tennessee has now been named a player of the week for the SEC and the Pac-12.
Quick Start: The Beavers are slated to play 54 games during the 2015 season. The team played nearly half of those games (25) in the first five weeks of the season. They had six games during the opening weekend at Kajikawa and then five games a week for the following three weeks while playing at San Diego State, Mary Nutter, and Fresno State. The team then played four games at Hawaii. The Beavers finished the 25 game non-conference schedule with a 19-6 record. The Beavers scored 187 runs while holding opponents to 106. The Beavers slugged .509, with 48 doubles, 4 triples and 23 home runs while opponents were held to a .366 slugging percentage.
It Aint Easy: Oregon State faces a tough slate yet again in 2015. The Beavers will play 24 games against 11 opponents that played in the 2014 tournament, including Wisconsin in the first week of the season, two games against North Dakota State and facing Pac-12 foes Arizona, and UCLA in Corvallis and ASU, Oregon and Washington on the road.
Do Some (Pac-12) Networking: Oregon State will have 13 games televised on Pac-12 Networks this season, the same number that they had a year ago. Oregon State will make its 2015 TV debut on March 14, when it takes on Oregon in Eugene. The second two games in the series will be televised, as the two squads will go head-to-head March 13-15
Transferring In: The Beavers welcome a number of transfer for the 2015 season. Junior college transfers Bev Miller and Mikela Manewa have both already made an impact on the team. Along with Miller and Manewa the team also adds Hannah Akamine and Sammi Noland. The team has had back-to-back years of successful transfers, with the 2014 season bringing CJ Chirichigno, Kori Nishitomi and Melanie Dembinski, who all played significant roles for the Beavers that year.
Keep it Fresh: Oregon State welcomes 6 freshmen to the team, with hitters Alysha Everett, McKenna Arriola, Lovie Lopez and Gina Bond, along with utility player Heidi Hall and pitcher Rainey Dyreson. Arriola and Lopez have played every game for the Beavers in the first 3 weeks with Arriola batting either first or second in the order and playing shortstop.
Leading It Off: Oregon State improved to 20-21 all-time in the first game of a season with the 2-1 victory over Ole Miss to start the 2015 Kajikawa Classic. The Beavers have won their last four games, doing so in spectacular fashion, outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 39-8. All of the wins have come at the Kajikawa Classic as OSU topped BYU 22-5 in 2012’s season opener, before shutting out Stephen F. Austin 9-0 to start of 2013 and then topping NC State 6-2 to start the 2014 season.
