Last Week: The Lumberjacks finished their regular season series against Chico State, taking three of the four games, with two shutouts and a mercy rule on Saturday. HSU enters the conference tournament with a 47-15 overall record, while posting a 14-4 record on its home turf. Natalie Galletly had a big weekend batting .500 with one home run and double, along with five RBIs. Ashley Oltjenbruns went big in the final game of the series, hitting a three-run homer to conclude the six-run third inning. Newcomers Jessica Haayer, a former HSU women’s basketball player, and Meghan Kobler, previously a soccer player at HSU, made their first appearances as pinch runners in the series. Haayer collected a run and Kobler went three-for-three in stolen bases this past weekend. Lizzy Prescott picked up three more wins, striking out 30 batters, giving up three earned runs, two doubles and walking only two batters in 24 innings pitched.
Live Stats: Home games this year feature LiveStats provided online. Play-by-play and boxscore statistics will available in real time on the hsujacks.com web site. Visit the softball page and click on the LiveStats link in the right menu to access the service free of charge.
Lumberjacks Notes: HSU has four athletes hitting over .300, led by Natalie Galletly’s .405 batting average. Galletly also leads in home runs, with 11 after last weekend’s solo homer in the final game of the series, and RBIs, with 56. Caitlin Klug and Marissa Slattery are now tied for the second spot on the team’s RBI list with 36 each. Prescott enters the conference tournament with a 38-8 record and a 1.19 ERA, with 43 games started and 34 compete games.
Big news for the Lumberjacks is expected this week in the form of awards and the selection of the regional host. After the Jacks captured their second straight CCAA regular season title, a number of players should garner attention when the league announces its all-conference team. The NCAA will announce the site selected for the regional tournament on Wednesday, and as the current No. 1 team in the regional poll, HSU should get the nod. HSU third baseman Francesca West has gradually improved her productivity as she continues to make her way back from last year’s knee surgery. The junior is hitting .281 after a .333 performance in last weekend’s four-game series. “Before her injury she was one of our big hitters and is finally starting to work her way back up there,” Cheek said. “After you get hurt it’s hard to get back up there, especially with a knee injury.”
Opponents’ Notes: No. 4 seed Cal State Monterey Bay enters the CCAA tournament with a 34-22 overall and 18-14 CCAA record to finish the regular season in fourth. The Otters have four athletes batting .300, led by Kristen Rasmussen’s .357 batting average. Angela Cabral leads the team with a 17-8 pitching record and a 2.41 ERA. Cabral has struck out 99 batters and completed 18 games.
With a 32-28-1 overall and final regular season 17-13 CCAA record, Cal State San Bernardino enters this weekend’s tournament at the third slot. The top hitting team in the league with seven athletes batting .300, the Coyotes are led by Jordan Dahl’s .375 batting average. The Coyotes have collectively amassed 57 homers and 80 doubles. Nicole Camarena is one the Coyote’s big hitters, leading the team with 13 home runs.
CSUSB rotates between four pitchers for a team 3.17 ERA. Jackie Jacob holds an 11-8 record, while Tawni Baker leads the team with 94 strikeouts.
Cal State Stanislaus enters the tournament at the No. 2 seed with a 27-21 overall and 20-12 CCAA record. Meghan Franksen is the Warriors’ lone batter holding an average better than .300 at .338. She also leads with a eight doubles and four triples, and ties for the team lead with Casey Stephenson and Jessica Scholl with five home runs each.
In the circle the Warriors rotate primarily between Jessica Gaumnitz and Jennifer Arnold with a 1.96 and 2.36 ERA, respectively. Gaumnitz holds a 14-7 record, collecting 102 strikeouts in 164.1 innings. Arnold has 46 strikeouts and a 13-11 record.
Head-to-Head: HSU first takes on Cal State San Bernardino in game two of the tournament. The Jacks hold a 27-8 all-time series record with the Coyotes. The teams played a four-game series on April 4-5, each winning twice. The Jacks lead Cal State Monterey Bay with a 10-2 overall record. This season HSU and CSUMB met seven times, with the Jacks taking five of the seven games.
HSU leads Cal State Stanislaus 84-7 in the all-time series. The two teams have met five times this season and HSU took all five games.
Cheek’s Thoughts: “Anyone can win this tournament and anyone can beat you. We don’t want to lose momentum this weekend, because we will see these teams in the West Region tournament.”