Final Week of Regular Season Begins with Oakland Wednesday – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 2, 2006
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SETTING THE SCENE
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The final week of the regular season is upon the Ohio State softball team, which hosts Oakland at 5 p.m. Wednesday before traveling to Penn State this weekend. The Buckeyes (35-18, 11-5 Big Ten) can finish as high as second or as low as fourth in the league when play concludes Sunday.
But first, Ohio State plays its final games at Buckeye Field Wednesday in a doubleheader against the Golden Grizzlies (25-24, 11-9 Mid-Continent Conference). GameTracker will have the games live at www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
Wednesday will be Buck-a-Brat night, courtesy of Johnsonville Brats, in conjunction with the OSU baseball game vs. Eastern Michigan at 6:35 p.m. The Buckeyes boast the Big Ten’s best offense with a .286 average overall and a .318 average in Big Ten games only. This weekend, they will put those averages up against a Penn State pitching staff that ranks second in the conference with a 1.16 ERA. Single games against the Nittany Lions begin at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The Big Ten tournament will be hosted May 11-13 by Northwestern or Michigan.
OHIO STATE AT A GLANCE
Ohio State went 10-5 in March and hit only .216, but in April the Buckeyes had a 12-game winning streak, went 19-5 overall and batted .333 to rise to the top of the Big Ten in that department. That momentum has put OSU in position to finish no worse than fourth in the Big Ten standings, where it finished last year. The difference is that last season the Buckeyes were 9-7 in the league but did not play Northwestern and Michigan, while this season OSU is 11-5 and swept league-leader Northwestern. Ohio State’s offensive leaders include Megan Schwab (.344, 4 HR, 27 RBI), Brittany Vanderink (.336, team-best .481 Big Ten average) and Billie Carder (.301, 31 RBI). Nycole Koyano (.290) leads the Big Ten in stolen bases (24), while Courtney Pruner (.250) is tied for the Big Ten lead in triples (4) and shares the team-lead in home runs (7) with Chelsea Baker (.250).
The pitching staff includes Jamee Juarez (15-9, 2.76 ERA), Kim Reeder (15-8, 1.76 ERA) and Pruner (5-1, 2.95 ERA). Juarez threw her 17th career shutout April 23 in OSU’s 4-0 win over Michigan State, while Reeder is closing in on several OSU freshman pitching records.
OSU returns 11 letterwinners and welcomes four newcomers in 2006 for 600-game winner 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).
AROUND THE BIG TEN
No. 14 Northwestern, which lost twice at Ohio State April 9, remains atop the Big Ten standings with a 14-3 league mark. No. 13 Michigan is 12-4, followed by Ohio State (11-5) and Iowa (11-6). A Northwestern split or sweep at Illinois this weekend will put the Big Ten tournament in Evanston, Ill., May 11-13, though the Wolverines still have a chance to host if they sweep Michigan State and Illinois sweeps Northwestern. Elsewhere, Purdue (7-10) is at Indiana (6-9), Iowa is at Wisconsin (5-10) and Michigan is at Michigan State (9-9). Minnesota (1-17) has concluded its league schedule and, along with Wisconsin, will not qualify for the league tournament.
OSU SEEKING ANOTHER PERFECT HOME NON-CONFERENCE RECORD
Should the Buckeyes be fortunate enough to take two games from Oakland Wednesday, they will notch back-to-back undefeated home non-conference records, which would stand as the only two at Buckeye Field since the facility opened in 1988. Ohio State was 7-0 in home non-conference games last year and is 11-0 in that department thus far in 2006. OSU went 14-2 in non-conference home games in 2001 for the most wins in that department. Ohio State is 94-10 in non-conference games at Buckeye Field under 10th-year head coach Linda Kalafatis.
OHIO STATE AT BUCKEYE FIELD
Ohio State is 19-2 at Buckeye Field this season, which stands as the sixth-highest win total since the facility opened in 1988. The Top 5 win totals at Buckeye Field are 25 in both 2001 and 1995, 21 in 1994 and 20 in both 2002 and 1998. The Buckeyes are hitting .344 in their home park with 15 home runs and a .416 on-base percentage. OSU pitchers own a 1.66 ERA and have held the opposition to a .220 average.
BUCKEYES-OPPONENTS CONNECTIONS
Oakland senior Laura Chomokos (Gilbert, Ariz.) and Ohio State junior Christina Douglas (Mesa, Ariz.) were teammates in club softball for the Arizona Sun Cats. OU senior Lisa Colores is also from Gilbert. This weekend the Buckeyes travel to the home state of head coach Linda Kalafatis, who is from Bethel Park, outside Pittsburgh. On the field, OSU sophomore Liz Caputo and Penn State sophomore Hollee Haines are both from Riverside Calif. Caputo is graduate of Riverside Poly H.S. and Haines is graduate of Martin Luther King H.S.
VANDERINK PLAYER OF THE WEEK
After a weekend in which she upped her batting average in league games to a Big Ten-best .481, sophomore Brittany Vanderink was named the conference’s Player of the Week Monday. Vanderink went 9-for-15 overall in OSU’s four games last week, including a 6-for-8 performance in two Big Ten road games. She extended her career-best hitting streak to eight games, during which she is hitting .567 (17-for-30). The player of the week honor is the first for Vanderink, who joins teammates Stacy Hibma Feb. 14 and Megan Schwab April 10 as Buckeyes to earn conference weekly honors this year.
OSU-OAKLAND ALL-TIME SERIES NOTES
Ohio State leads the all-time series with Oakland, 6-1, with all seven of those games being played this decade at Buckeye Field. OSU and OU last met in 2003, with the Buckeyes sweeping the Grizzlies, 7-1 and 4-2 in the Buckeye Invitational.
Year Location Winner Scores 2003 Columbus OSU 7-1, 4-2 2002 Columbus OSU 10-0 2001 Columbus split 4-0, 2-4
A GLANCE AT THE GRIZZLIES
Oakland (25-24, 11-9 Mid-Continent Conference) is 11-3 in its last 14 games. The Golden Grizzlies are 1-1 against the Big Ten this year (split doubleheader at Michigan State April 4) and are led at the plate by senior Stephanie Zellner (.350, 26 RBI). Six OU pitchers have seen time in the circle this spring, with senior Laura Chomokos (17-11, 1.52 ERA) getting the majority of the work. She was named the Mid-Con Pitcher of the Week April 24. Glenn MacDonald is in his first season as head coach at Oakland after serving as an assistant for four years, during which time he helped lead OU to Mid-Con championships in 2002 and 2003. The Grizzlies were 12-41 last year but with MacDonald and 14 returning letterwinners, OU is aiming for a return to Mid-Con title contention when the league tournament begins next weekend in Cedar City, Utah.
A PREVIEW OF PENN STATE
Penn State got off to its best start in program history, owning an 18-4 record up until Big Ten games started. A seven-game skid halted that fast start, however, and the Nittany Lions are now 8-10 in the Big Ten and 35-14 overall. PSU has the best fielding team in the Big Ten (.979 fielding pct.) and one of the best pitching staffs in the league, ranking second overall (1.16 ERA) and third in Big Ten games (2.13 ERA). Senior pitcher Missy Beseres was a fourth-round pick of the Chicago Bandits during the National Pro Fastpitch League annual draft in February. In national statistical rankings as of April 23, Beseres was 14th in ERA (0.90), while Penn State ranked ninth in team ERA (1.10) and seventh in fielding percentage (.978).
Updated information on Penn State will be included in game notes released Thursday.
OSU-PENN STATE SERIES NOTES
Ohio State leads the all-time series against Penn State, 34-23, and is 11-9 at Nittany Lion Field. The Buckeyes swept PSU by 3-0 scores last year in Columbus to improve to 7-3 in their last 10 games against the Nittany Lions.
Year Location Winner Scores 2005 Columbus OSU 3-0, 3-0 2004 University Park split 4-1, 2-4 2003 Columbus split 4-1, 2-6 2002 University Park split 0-1, 4-1
SHORT HOPS… Ohio State has not been shut out in its last 25 games. The school record for consecutive games without being shutout is 26, from March 3-April 6, 2002. OSU has had double-digit hits in 10 of its last 19 games. The Buckeyes are 28-1 when leading after four innings and 22-0 when taking a lead into the seventh inning. When OSU scores at least three runs, it owns a 29-4 record.
Ohio State is hitting .404 (21-for-52) with the bases loaded with five grand slams. OSU owns a .588 average with a runner on third and less than two outs.
Brittany Vanderink, the current Big Ten Player of the Week, owns an eight-game hitting streak, which is tied with Megan Schwab for best on the team this season. Schwab owns a team-best 15 multiple-hit games and is hitting .462 in her last eight games, while Vanderink is hitting .567 in her last eight games.
Billie Carder (.405 in last 13 games) is next behind Schwab with 14 multiple-hit games, seven of which have come in Big Ten contests. Nycole Koyano has nine multiple-hit games in her last 15 outings (.420 average in those 15 games).
See page 4 of this release for player bios.
BUCKEYES IN THE BIG TEN
In Big Ten statistics as of May 1, Ohio State ranked first in the Big Ten in batting (.286 avg.), fifth in pitching (2.34 ERA) and 10th in fielding (.955 pct.). OSU ranked third in the conference in scoring (4.64 runs/game), first in hits per game (7.57), first in triples (.26 per game), fourth in home runs (.70 per game), second in stolen bases (1.34 sb/game) and was the second-toughest team to strikeout (4.92 k/game).
Individually, Megan Schwab ranked eighth in batting (.344) and 10th in on-base percentage (.430), while Brittany Vanderink ranked 10th in batting (.336). Nycole Koyano ranked first in stolen bases (24) and tied for sixth in walks (24) with Courtney Pruner, who is tied for the league lead in triples (4). Billie Carder ranked third (tie) in triples (3) and fourth (tie) in sacrifice flies (3). Among Big Ten pitchers, Kim Reeder ranked eighth in ERA (1.76) and ninth in strikeouts (139), while Jamee Juarez ranked 10th in innings pitched (160.0), seventh in strikeouts (166) and fifth in games started (26).
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 330 victories in Columbus (330-227-0, .591), and her overall record stands at 603-342-2 (.637) in 18 years as a collegiate head coach. She is assisted by former Buckeyes Belinda Quisenberry and Kristi DeVries and former Nebraska All-American Ali Viola.
IN THE OSU CAREER RECORD BOOK
Junior Jamee Juarez has 15 wins this season to increase her career total to 53, which ranks third all-time. She ranks seventh on the career innings pitched list (531.1) and third on the strikeouts list (477). Junior Megan Schwab and senior Chelsea Baker have 14 career home runs, which ranks tied for fourth-most in OSU history with Ashley Cutcliff (2003-05).
Junior Nycole Koyano ranks second in OSU history with 81 walks, fourth in stolen bases with 56 and tied for fifth in runs scored with 110. She is tied for fourth in career triples with eight.
### GO BUCKS! ###
