Ohio State Heads to Penn State for Regular Season Finale – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 4, 2006
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SETTING THE SCENE
The regular season comes to an end this weekend for the Ohio State softball team, which travels to Penn State for 1 p.m. games Saturday and Sunday. The Buckeyes (37-18, 11-5 Big Ten) can finish second, third or fourth in the league standings when play concludes Sunday, while the Nittany Lions (35-14, 8-10) could finish anywhere from fifth to ninth.
GameTracker will have the games live at www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
The Big Ten tournament, which takes the league’s Top 8 teams, will be hosted next weekend by either Northwestern or Michigan.
The Buckeyes are coming off a sweep of Oakland Wednesday and have not been shut out in a school-record 27-consecutive games. OSU boasts the Big Ten’s best offense with a .291 average overall and a .318 average in Big Ten games. The Buckeyes, 10-7 on opponent’s home fields this season, will put that streak and those averages up against a Penn State pitching staff that ranks second in the conference and No. 10 in the nation with a 1.16 ERA.
RESULTS TO AFFECT TOURNEY FIELD
Ohio State has guaranteed itself either a No. 2, 3 or 4 seed in the Big Ten tournament next week, but Penn State, currently the No. 7 team in the conference, knows that if it gets swept by the Buckeyes and there is a split in the Indiana-Purdue series, the Nittany Lions will fall to the No. 9 spot and out of the tournament. If either the Hoosiers or the Boilermakers sweep their series, PSU cannot fall lower than the No. 8 seed.
No. 12 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 third-place Ohio State and fourth-place 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, 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.
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 current Big Ten Player of the Week Brittany Vanderink (.353, league-best .481 in Big Ten games), Megan Schwab (.346, 4 HR, 28 RBI), and Billie Carder (.302, 34 RBI). Nycole Koyano (.294) leads the Big Ten in stolen bases (25), while Courtney Pruner (.248) 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 (16-9, 2.67 ERA), Kim Reeder (16-8, 1.74 ERA) and Pruner (5-1, 2.88 ERA). Juarez threw her 18th career shutout Wednesday in OSU’s 8-0 win over Oakland, while Reeder is closing in on most 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 10th 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).
BUCKEYES-LIONS CONNECTIONS
This weekend the Buckeyes travel to the home state of head coach Linda Kalafatis, who is from Bethel Park, outside Pittsburgh. 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 upping her batting average in league games to a Big Ten-best .481, soph. 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 hit .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.
BUCKEYES VS. PENN STATE
Three Buckeyes are hitting over .300 in their careers against Penn State, led by junior Christina Douglas, who owns a .667 (4-for-6) average in three games played against the Nittany Lions. Junior Nycole Koyano owns a .417 (5-for-12) average against PSU and junior Megan Schwab is hitting .375 (3-for-8). Junior Jamee Juarez (.231, 3-for-13) owns a team-best four RBI vs. Penn State.
In the circle, Juarez has three career appearances against the Nittany Lions, owning a 2-1 record with a 0.74 ERA and 15 strikeouts. She threw a pair of shutouts in the series last year (nine hits, 12 strikeouts).
A LOOK AT PENN STATE
Penn State got off to its best start in program history, owning an 18-4 record up until Big Ten games began when a seven-game skid halted that fast start. 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, 10th in nation) 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. She leads the PSU staff with an 18-7 record and 1.09 ERA. Sophomores Ashley Esparza (9-4, 1.23 ERA) and Jenn Reynolds (8-3, 1.24 ERA) round out the staff.
Offensive leaders include Esparza (.328, 3 HR, 16 RBI), Jen Williams (.306), Danielle Kinley (.300, 3 HR, 20 RBI) and Jen Acunto (.295, 4 HR, 22 RBI, 11 doubles).
OSU-PENN STATE ALL-TIME SERIES
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 a school-record 27 games. The previous school record for consecutive games without being shutout was 26 from March 3-April 6, 2002. OSU has had double-digit hits in 11 of its last 21 games. The Buckeyes are 30-1 when leading after four innings and 24-0 when taking a lead into the seventh inning. When OSU scores at least three runs, it owns a 31-4 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 a 10-game hitting streak, best on the team this season. Megan Schwab owns a team-best 15 multiple-hit games and is hitting .452 in her last 10 games, while Vanderink is hitting .600 in her last 10 games. Vanderink, Billie Carder and Nycole Koyano are all tied for second behind Schwab with 14 multiple-hit games. Koyano has 10 of those multiple-hit games in her last 16 outings.
See page 4 of the PDF release for player bios.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
The Buckeyes have won with offense and timely pitching, while the Nittany Lions have done it with stellar pitching and defense. OSU has 116 extra-base hits (65 2B, 14 3B, 37 HR), while PSU has 65 (36 2B, 2 3B, 27 HR). However, the Buckeyes have committed 70 errors, compared to 30 for the Nittany Lions, and the PSU pitching staff has allowed 45 extra-base hits compared to 92 by the Ohio State staff. OSU has stolen 75 bases compared to 36 by Penn State.
BUCKEYES ON THE ROAD
Ohio State is 10-7 on opponent’s home fields this season with impressive wins at then-No. 6 Alabama (now No. 4) March 3, which was OSU’s first over a Top 10 team since March 2, 2003, and ended Alabama’s 16-game home winning streak. Other wins include at Stetson (37-13), Loyola Marymount (27-19), Long Beach State (26-18) and New Mexico State (25-21). Offensive leaders on the road include Megan Schwab (.352), Brittany Vanderink (.333) and Billie Carder (.288), while Kim Reeder leads the pitchers with a 7-2 record and 1.04 ERA.
BUCKEYES IN THE BIG TEN
In Big Ten statistics as of May 4, Ohio State ranked first in the Big Ten in batting (.291 avg.), fifth in pitching (2.28 ERA) and 10th in fielding (.956 pct.). OSU ranked third in the conference in scoring (4.76 runs/game), first in hits per game (7.66), first in triples (14), fourth in home runs (37), second in stolen bases (1.36 sb/game) and was the second-toughest team to strikeout (4.78 k/game).
Individually, Brittany Vanderink ranked seventh in batting (.353) and tied for fifth in stolen bases (16), while Megan Schwab ranked ninth in batting (.346), 10th in on-base percentage (.432) and tied for seventh in hits (55). Nycole Koyano ranked first in stolen bases (25) and tied for fourth in runs scored (38). Billie Carder ranked ninth in RBI (34), while Courtney Pruner ranked tied for first in triples (4). Among Big Ten pitchers, Kim Reeder ranked eighth in ERA (1.74) and ninth in strikeouts (146), while Jamee Juarez ranked 10th in innings pitched (165.0), seventh in strikeouts (176) and fourth in games started (27).
In Big Ten games only, Vanderink’s .418 average is first, her 26 hits are second, her .500 on-base percentage is fourth and her six stolen bases are tied for first. Carder’s .383 average is seventh and her 14 RBI are tied for fifth. Schwab’s .378 average is ninth. Pruner’s 1.65 ERA ranked fourth and Reeder’s 1.72 ERA ranked fifth.
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 332 victories in Columbus (332-227-0, .592), and her overall record stands at 605-342-2 (.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 16 wins this season to increase her career total to 54, which ranks third all-time. She ranks tied for fifth on the career innings pitched list (536.1) and third on the strikeouts list (487). 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 82 walks, third in stolen bases with 57 and fifth in runs scored with 112. She is tied for fourth in career triples with eight.
OHIO STATE AT BUCKEYE FIELD
Ohio State went 21-2 at Buckeye Field this season, which included a 13-0 record in non-conference games and an 8-2 record in Big Ten games. The 21 wins are tied for the third-most at home since the facility opened in 1988. The Top 6 win totals at Buckeye Field are 25 in both 2001 and 1995, 21 in both 2006 and 1994 and 20 in both 2002 and 1998. The Buckeyes hit .350 in their home park with 15 home runs and a .424 on-base percentage. OSU pitchers owned a 1.58 ERA and have held the opposition to a .215 average.
### GO BUCKS! ###
