Palm Springs Classic, Ranked Opponents Await Ohio State This Weekend – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 21, 2006
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State softball team travels to the Palm Springs Classic in Palm Springs, Calif., this weekend where the Buckeyes (5-4) will take on two Top 5 teams among its five opponents. OSU will face No. 3 UCLA at 10:30 a.m. Friday followed by a 5:30 p.m. game against UC-Santa Barbara. Saturday the Buckeyes will take on Oregon at 10 a.m. and No. 1 Arizona at 5:30 p.m. The Classic will conclude Sunday when OSU meets UNLV at 9 a.m.
GameTracker will be available for the first, second, fourth and fifth games of the tournament (all but the Oregon game Saturday morning).
Four of those opponents were in the NCAA tournament last year (all but UCSB) and UCLA was the national runner-up. In addition to Arizona (also was in 2005 College World Series) and UCLA, Oregon appears in the national polls as receiving votes after being ranked No. 24 last week. A total of 10 players on the 2006 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Watch List will line up against the Buckeyes this weekend.
Ohio State went 4-1 at its season opening tournament in New Mexico two weeks ago but dropped three of four games at the Stetson Tournament last weekend. A win for the Buckeyes over No. 1 Arizona this weekend would mark the first for OSU over the nation’s top ranked team and the highest ranked opponent to fall to Ohio State since Feb. 18, 1996, when the Buckeyes beat No. 2 Arizona at the Arizona State Coca-Cola Classic.
Following their stay in Palm Springs, the Buckeyes will have two more road tournaments left on their schedule, which will take them to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Evansville, Ind. before hosting the Buckeye Invitational March 17-18.
ABOUT THE PALM SPRINGS CLASSIC
The Palm Springs Classic is hosted annually by Oregon State at Big League Dreams Park in Cathedral City, Calif., just outside Palm Springs. This year the event features 10 teams that are currently ranked in the Top 25. Three of the Sunday games will be televised nationally on ESPNU, including LSU vs. Stanford, UCLA vs. Oklahoma and Arizona vs. Texas. More information about the tournament can be found on the softball page at www.osubeavers.com
OHIO STATE AT A GLANCE
Ohio State (5-4) won its first four games of the season in Las Cruces, N.M., which equaled the best four-game start in program history (1979), before a four-game skid that carried over into the Stetson Tournament last weekend put OSU’s record at .500. A win over Stetson in the tournament finale, however, got the Buckeyes back into the win column heading into Palm Springs.
After batting .321 as a team last year, which ranked No. 3 in the nation, Ohio State batted .340 in Las Cruces and averaged nine runs per game. The Buckeye bats were held in check on the first day of the Stetson Tournament, however, before OSU responded with 13 hits and nine hits, respectively, in two games Sunday.
Junior Jamee Juarez (3-3) won her first three games of the season and leads the OSU pitching staff with 28 strikeouts in 32.1 innings of work. Freshman Kim Reeder (2-1) is coming off a seven-strikeout effort in OSU’s 5-2 win over Stetson last Sunday. Reliever Courtney Pruner is tops on the staff with a 1.17 ERA.
Senior catcher Stacy Hibma was named the Big Ten Player of the week two weeks ago when she batted .421 in Las Cruces, and despite OSU’s slow start offensively last weekend at Stetson she still batted .571 in the event to raise her team-leading average to .462 with eight RBI. Junior Megan Schwab, a first-team all-region pick a year ago, owns a .400 average, three homers and 10 RBI.
OSU returns 11 letterwinners and welcomes four newcomers in 2006 for head coach Linda Kalafatis, who is in her tenth season. The Buckeyes were 32-17 overall in 2005 and finished fourth in the Big Ten with a 9-7 league mark. OSU ranked among the NCAA’s Top 13 in six categories, including scoring (8th, 5.8 runs/game).
KALAFATIS WINS NO. 300 AT OSU
OSU head coach Linda Kalafatis won her 300th game at the helm of the Buckeye program with a 5-2 win over Stetson last Sunday. Kalafatis is already Ohio State’s all-time wins leader and owns a mark of 300-213-0 in Columbus. She is one of four Big Ten coaches with over 500 career wins and is 573-328-2 in her 18th year as a collegiate head coach.
A LOOK AT THE COMPETITION
UCLA was 40-20 a year ago and came up just short on its bid for an eighth national championship, falling to Michigan. Head coach Sue Enquist, now in her 18th year, returns 16 letterwinners and nine starters in 2006 and has the Bruins off to a 7-1 start, which includes a two-game sweep of No. 23 Fresno State last week. UCLA’s lone loss was at Long Beach State, which will host Ohio State March 24. Senior Emily Zaplatosch, which led the Bruins with 41 RBI last year, is batting .483 with a team-high 14 hits and five doubles. She, along with teammates Caitlin Benyi, Andrea Duran, Jodie Legaspi and Anjelica Seldon are on the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Watch List.
UC-Santa Barbara returns nine starters from its 2005 team, which finished 26-22 overall and fifth in the Big West Conference. The Gauchos are 5-2 in 2006 under fifth-year head coach Kristy Schroeder, who played for Enquist at UCLA. Junior Kendra Singley leads UCSB with a .500 average (12-for-24).
Oregon and fifth-year head coach Kathy Anderson are off to a 6-4 start. The Ducks were 36-25 a year ago and return 13 letterwinners and eight starters. Senior Breanne Sabol leads Oregon with a .433 average, while Amy Harris owns a 4-2 record in the circle with 38 strikeouts.
Defending Pac-10 champion Arizona returns eight letterwinners and five starters in 2006 for head coach Mike Candrea, who has won 1,038 games in 22 seasons at Arizona. The Wildcats, 45-12 a year ago and a College World Series participant, enter the Palm Springs Classic undefeated at 11-0 and are led by Caitlin Lowe (.486) and Kristie Fox (.452) at the plate. Alicia Hollowell, the national player of the week two weeks ago, is 6-0 in the circle and has yet to allow a run in 39 innings. Those three players are on the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Watch List.
UNLV finished second in the Mountain West Conference last year and was 44-19 overall, which included a win over Ohio State. The Rebels, led by fourth-year head coach Lonni Alameda, return 11 letterwinners and five starters in 2006 and are off to a 6-5 start. Marissa Nichols, on the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Watch List, is batting a team-best .405 and is 8-for-9 in the stolen base department.
ALL-TIME SERIES NOTES
Ohio State is 0-5 all-time against UCLA, with their last meeting coming in 1996 at UCLA. OSU and UC-Santa Barbara have never met. The Buckeyes and Oregon have met seven times, with OSU winning four of those contests, including Feb. 14, 2004, at the ASU Fiesta Bowl Tournament when OSU knocked off the No. 20-ranked Ducks, 3-1. Megan Schwab, then a freshman, hit a two-out, three-run home run in the top of the seventh to give the Buckeyes the win.
Arizona holds a 9-2 record against Ohio State, with their last meeting coming in 1996. The Buckeyes and UNLV have met just once, that coming last year in Palm Springs when the Rebels won, 4-1.
OSU-OPPONENT CONNECTIONS
Ohio State’s Nycole Koyano (Walnut), Jamee Juarez (La Puente), Liz Caputo (Riverside) and Stacy Hibma (Buena Park) are all from eastern suburbs of Los Angeles, as are Oregon’s Breanne Sabol (Buena Park) and Ann Marie Topps (Costa Mesa), Arizona’s Autumn Champion (Tustin), Taryne Mowatt (Corona) and Kelly Nelson (Lakewood), UNLV’s Brittany Freight (Placentia) and Marissa Nichols (Diamond Bar) and UCLA’s Alissa Eno (El Segundo), Tara Henry (Orange), Jodie Legaspi (Garden Grove), Celina Rubalcaba (Anaheim), Jen Schroeder (Yorba Linda) and Kristen Dedmon (Yorba Linda).
UC-Santa Barbara’s entire roster is from California, including 17 from the Los Angeles area. OSU assistant coach Kristi DeVries and UCSB freshman Tiffany Wright are both natives of Corona, Calif.
Ohio State’s Megan Schwab and Oregon’s Courtney Shlee both attended Sunrise Mountain High School in Glendale, Ariz. Arizona’s Laine Roth is also from Glendale. Along with Schwab, OSU’s Christina Douglas is from the Phoenix area, as are Arizona’s Jill Malina and Leslie Wolf (Scottsdale), UCLA’s Emily Zaplatosch and Caitlin Benyi (Scottsdale) and UNLV’s Jaci Hull (Scottsdale), Becky McDonald (Chandler) and Jen Newman (Phoenix).
OHIO STATE QUICK HITS
Ohio State went into extra-innings in four of its first six games of the season and went 2-2 in those contests. The Buckeyes won back-to-back games in extra-innings Feb. 11 for the first time among available records. The last time OSU played consecutive extra-inning games was when the Buckeyes played three straight extended contests in March of 2002 (2-1). OSU was 3-3 in extra-inning games last year.
The Buckeyes have hit two grand slams this season after hitting three all of last season and one in 2004. OSU leadoff hitter Nycole Koyano has walked to begin the game in all five contests in which she has played thus far and has scored following three of those free passes. She has missed the last four games because of injury. Sophomore center fielder Liz Caputo suffered a broken tibia at Stetson Sunday and will be evaluated by the OSU medical staff this week.
Freshman Courtney Pruner’s first collegiate hit was a home run and she now has two homers on the season. She is the all-time home run leader in Ohio high school history. Koyano, Jamee Juarez and Megan Schwab all have moved up in the career record book this season (see later note). Billie Carder’s five-game hitting streak to open the season tied her career best hitting streak.
BUCKEYES IN THE BIG TEN
Ohio State ranks third in the Big Ten in batting (.313 avg.), eighth in pitching (3.45 ERA) and eighth in fielding (.955 pct.). The Buckeyes lead the Big Ten in runs (57), hits (88), home runs (12) and stolen bases (20). Stacy Hibma is tied for seventh in batting average (.462), while Megan Schwab is tied for second in runs (9), tied for third in home runs (3) and is third in total bases (24). Nycole Koyano and Brittany Vanderink rank second and third, respectively, in stolen bases with six and five apiece. Chelsea Baker is tied for second in runs (9), tied for third in homers (3) and fourth in total bases (22). Jamee Juarez ranks fifth in strikeouts (28).
JUNIORS MOVE UP IN RECORD BOOK
Junior Jamee Juarez has three wins this season to increase her career total to 41 and move past current OSU assistant coach Belinda Quisenberry, who had 38 wins, and former Buckeye Genice Turley, who had 39, on the career wins list. Juarez is now tied for third all-time in wins with Jodi Dolan and ranks 10th on the innings pitched list with 392.2.
Junior Megan Schwab has hit three home runs to increase her career total to 13, which ranks tied for fifth in OSU history. Ashley Cutcliff, a senior last year, ranks fourth with 14. Chelsea Baker has three homers this year to give her 10 for her career, which is tied for eighth with Wendy Allen.
Junior Nycole Koyano ranks seventh in OSU history with 63 walks, tied for seventh with 38 stolen bases and tied for 12th in runs scored with 82. She is already tied for ninth in career triples with seven and her next triple will tie her for fourth.
BUCKEYES 4-1 IN LAS CRUCES
Ohio State opened the season at the Hilton Las Cruces Invitational in Las Cruces, N.M., Feb. 10-12. The Buckeyes opened the event with four consecutive wins, beating host New Mexico State 11-1 before topping Colorado State, 8-7, and Portland State, 7-6, in extra-innings. OSU then knocked off Utah, 11-9, before falling in the tournament championship game, 9-8, to Texas-San Antonio, in extra-innings.
7+ RUNS IN FIVE STRAIGHT A FIRST
The Buckeyes scored at least seven runs in all five games in Las Cruces Feb. 10-12, marking the first time in program history OSU has scored at least seven runs in five consecutive games. Ohio State had scored six or more runs in five consecutive games on two occasions previously (2002 and 2003) but during both streaks scored exactly six runs in at least one game. Ohio State’s 9.0 run average over the five-game tournament is among the best in program history. The 1994 Buckeyes, who finished 40-20, averaged 10.4 runs per game over two five-game spans during a 17 game winning streak.
KALAFATIS IN 10TH YEAR AT OSU
Ohio State head coach Linda Kalafatis is in her 10th season at the helm of the Buckeyes’ softball program in 2006. She is already OSU’s all-time wins leader with 300 victories in Columbus (300-213-0, .583), and her overall record stands at 573-328-2 (.639) in 18 years as a collegiate head coach. Kalafatis has guided Ohio State to the NCAA tournament twice and was named the 2002 Big Ten Coach of the Year. She is assisted by former Buckeyes Belinda Quisenberry and Kristi DeVries and former Nebraska All-American Ali Viola.
### GO BUCKS! ###
