OSU Starts Week in Hawaii with Two Games Wednesday
Let’s Play Ball: The team will play a quartet of games in Hawaii this week, with a double header against Longwood and the host University of Hawaii on Wednesday, March 4. They will play East Carolina Thursday, March 5, followed by another game against Hawaii on Friday, March 6. The Beavers will finish the weekend of action with another game against East Carolina Saturday, March 7.
Beavers Sweep Weekend at Fresno State: The Beavers are coming off a weekend that saw them score 64 runs while earning a 5-0 record. The Beavers started the weekend defeating Saint Mary’s and UC Santa Barbara, scoring 13 runs in each of the games, winning 13-8 over SMC and 13-0 over UCSB. The Beavers continued the hot bats on Saturday, defeating UCSB again, by 14-5 this time and then outslugging Fresno State 16-12 in the night cap. The Beavers defeated Rutgers 8-3 to end the weekend. The game against the Knights snapped a streak of 5 games that the Beavers had put up double-digit runs.
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.
Game 1: Oregon State will open the weekend against the Longwood Lancers. The Beavers and Lancers have never faced each other. Longwood enters the second week of playing in University of Hawaii hosted tournaments and have a 2-8 record on the season. Casey Lifsey and Megan Baltzell lead the Longwood bats with .348 and .346 batting averages. Lifsey is slugging .565 while Baltzell leads the team with .615. Elizabeth McCarthy has a 2.88 ERA with a 1-3 record. She has 3 starts with 5 appearances and 24.1 innings pitched. Libby Morris has 29 innings pitched with a 4.10 ERA. She has started 5 games and completed 3 with 1 shutout.
Games 2/4: The Beavers will complete the double header on Wednesday with a game against the host university of Hawaii. They will play Hawaii Friday evening also. The Rainbow Wahine enter the weekend 12-8 on the season. Kayla Wartner leads the team with a .400 batting average and six home runs. She has a .515 OBP and is slugging .855. Kanan Aina Cabrales and Brittany Hitchcock have 59.2 and 49.1 innings respectively. Ain Cabrales has 2.82 ERA with a 7-5 record. she has completed 5 of the 9 games she has started and has 3 shutouts. Hitchcock has an ERA of 3.55 with a 4-3 record. She has started 10 games, finishing 2 of them.
Game 3/5: The Beavers will face East Carolina in the lone game for OSU on Thursday and will face the Pirates against on Saturday. ECU enters the weekend with a 6-11 record. Kacie Oshiro leads the team with a .400 batting average. Seven ECU batters are hitting over .300, while 3 are slugging over .500. Casey Alcorn is hitting .362 and leads the team with a .702 slugging percentage. She is tied with the team lead of 3 home runs and second with 13 RBI. The Pirates have 18 stolen bases in 19 attempts and have only allowed 9 steals in 16 attempts by opponents. Sarah Christian has a 1.95 ERA with a 3-3 record. She has 43 innings pitched in 12 appearances and 8 starts. Carolina Umphlett and Ashley Cruise have 34.1 and 31.2 innings pitched respectively. Umphlett has an ERA of 7.54 while Cruise sits at 4.86.
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.
Know Your History: The Beavers are just 5-10 against opponents this weekend, with the only prior history being a 5-10 series history against Hawaii. OSU has never played East Carolina or Longwood.
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.
More 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 possesion of the top spot, passing Cambria Miranda (2005-08) at 152, Gilmore has already scored 28 runs on the years and needs just 2 runs to take possession of 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 at OSU.
Big Inning :When OSU is able to put a runner on third and less than 2 outs they have 39 RBI in 67 chances. The team is 87-for-240 with runners in scoring position. The team has a .332 batting average (68-for-205) with two outs to go along with 66 2-out-RBI. Sammi Noland leads the team with 14 2-out-RBI while Hannah Akamine and Dani Gilmore each have 11.
Quick Start: The Beavers are slated to play 54 games during the 2015 season. The team will play nearly half of those games (26) in the first five weeks of the season. They will have six games during the opening weekend at Kajikawa and then five games a week for the following four weeks while playing at San Diego State, Mary Nutter, Fresno State and Hawaii.
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 uility 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.
