Louisville Slugger Desert Classic – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/16/2012 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 16, 2012
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Columbus, Ohio –
OHIO STATE AT LOUISVILLE SLUGGER DESERT CLASSIC FEB. 17-19, 2012 UNLV, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
SETTING THE STAGE The Ohio State softball team (2-3) continues the 2012 season Friday-Sunday at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic hosted by UNLV in Las Vegas, Nev.
The Buckeyes will play five games at the classic. Ohio State plays Texas Tech Friday at 11:15 a.m. Mountain Time and faces San Jose State Friday at 1:30 p.m. On Saturday, the Buckeyes play UNLV at 1:30 p.m. and Long Beach State at 6 p.m. Ohio State will conclude weekend play Sunday at 9 a.m. facing Idaho State.
LIVE STATS Follow all five games from the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic live on Gametracker available on OhioStateBuckeyes.com. A link to view the stats will be available on the schedule page of Ohio State softball at OhioStateBuckeyes.com. Live stats will be available throughout the 2012 season at that location.
QUICK HITS ? Ohio State returns 13 letterwinners and five starters from its 2011 squad. ? Nine newcomers join the Buckeye roster for this season, seven of them freshmen. ? The Buckeyes have made four NCAA appearances in the last six years, including their first run in program history to the NCAA Super Regional in 2009. Ohio State also made the tournament in 2006, 2007 and 2010. ? Ohio State needs just 9 more victories to register 1000 wins in program history.
ALL-TIME SERIES RECORDS/Ohio State versus:
Texas Tech: 0-1, last meeting in 2007; the Red Raiders were 4-0 winners in the ASU Kajikawa Classic Feb. 10.
San Jose State: 0-1, last meeting in 2002; Ohio State lost 7-6 to SJSU in the Cal State Fullerton/Worth Invitational March 2.
UNLV: 2-2, last meeting in 2008; the Buckeyes won 5-1 in UNLV’s tournament March 9.
Long Beach State: 4-11; last meeting in 2007; the Buckeyes lost 10-6 in a game at Long Beach March 20.
Idaho State: this will be the first meeting between the Buckeyes and Bengals
ON THE ROAD Ohio State is opening the 2012 campaign with five early-season tournaments on the road, playing 25 road games before hosting a Big Ten series vs. Indiana March 24-25 in Columbus. The Buckeyes were 2-3 in opening-weekend action at the Dot Richardson NTC tournament in Clermont, Fla.
AT THE HELM Head coach Linda Kalafatis enters her 16th season at the helm of the Buckeyes as one of the most successful coaches in the Big Ten and the NCAA. She is one of four conference coaches with more than 700 career wins, placing her among the Top 30 active coaches in the country. The 2007 Big Ten Coach of the Year, Kalafatis is third among current Big Ten coaches in number of victories – with five fewer years coaching experience than her nearest colleague. The Buckeyes have won 30 or more games in nine of Kalafatis’ 15 seasons in Columbus and in seven of the last eight seasons. The Big Ten coach of the year in 2002, she has guided Ohio State to six of the program’s seven NCAA tournament appearances (2002, `04, `06, `07, `09, `10) including the Buckeyes’ first-ever trip to the NCAA Super Regional in 2009.
Kalafatis now holds a 509-338 (.602) record starting 16 seasons at Ohio State, which marks the best win total and winning percentage in program history. She recorded her 500th Buckeye win last season in a 4-1 decision over Harvard. In 24 years as a collegiate head coach, including stops at her alma mater California (Pa.) and Akron, she owns a record of 781-453-2 (.634).
Assisting Kalafatis in coaching the Buckeyes are associate head coach Ali Viola (seventh season), assistant coach Danielle Henderson (second season) and volunteer coach Dana Degan (first season).
BUCKEYE TRI-CAPTAINS Three Buckeyes – Alicia Herron, Megan Coletta and Melanie Nichols – will serve as team tri-captains for the upcoming 2012 campaign.
Herron, a senior shortstop from Cypress, California, is a fourth-year starter who has earned all-Midwest Regional and all-Big Ten honors. The Buckeyes’ leading hitter as a sophomore (.415) and junior (354), she was the 2010 Big Ten batting champion.
Coletta, a junior third baseman from Fullerton, California, is a third-year starter for the Buckeyes, with a .245 career batting average and 44 RBI.
Nichols, a redshirt sophomore pitcher from San Jacinto, California, was the 2010 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, compiling a 21-3 record and 1.92 ERA in 36 appearances. Nichols took a medical redshirt last season after undergoing shoulder surgery.
BUCKEYE NEWCOMERS Ohio State welcomes nine newcomers to the 2012 squad, including an infielder, a catcher, four pitchers and three outfielders.
Joining the outfield are freshmen Caitlyn Conrad (Richwood, Ohio), Anne McGowan (Seattle, Wash.) and Taylor Watkins (Bonney Lake, Wash.). Freshman Shelby Pickett (Temecula, Calif.) is a Buckeye catcher, while freshman Maddy McIntyre (San Diego, Calif.) joins the infield unit.
New pitchers for Ohio State include senior Mikayla Endicott (a transfer from Oregon and a native of Roseburg, Ore.), junior Danielle LeBeau (from Palomar CC and Poway, Calif.), and freshmen Alex DiDominico (Youngstown, Ohio) and Olivia O’Reilly (Sylvania, Ohio).
WINNING WAYS Since 2000, Ohio State has won 434 games, which is the third-highest win total in the Big Ten during that time. The Buckeyes own a .664 winning percentage, good for third in the league.
The 2010 squad recorded 39 wins, the fifth-most in school history, and advanced to the program’s fourth NCAA regional appearance during a five-year period. Ohio State notched 30 or more wins for seven consecutive seasons between 2004-2010 — the longest 30-win stretch in Buckeye history.
A LOOK BACK AT 2011 An injury-riddled Buckeye squad posted a 14-37 mark during the 2011 season, the first losing record in the past dozen seasons of Ohio State softball. Shortstop Alicia Herron received third team all-Big Ten recognition.
NFCA SCHOLAR-ATHLETES More than 4,000 softball student-athletes, including six Buckeyes, representing 707 different academic institutions were named as a 2011 NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
Representing Ohio State as All-America Scholar-Athletes for 2011 were Alicia Herron, Dee Dee Hillman, Karisa Medrano, Brittany Mills, Melissa Rennie and Katie Simonton.
The award is given to any player submitted by a member coach who achieved a 3.50 grade point average or higher during the 2010-11 academic year. This year’s total of 4,331 honorees bested last year’s total by more than 30 student-athletes. The membership category with the most participating institutions this year was Division III with 168, while high school led the way in total honorees with 1,160. For more information on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, go to www.nfca.org.
UP NEXT The Buckeyes will travel to their third tournament of 2012 at the Cathedral City Classic in Cathedral City, Calif., February 24-26. The Buckeyes will face teams from Fresno State, Oregon State, Cal State Fullerton and Colorado State in that neutral-site tournament.
Ohio State opens its home season at Buckeye Field March 24-25 hosting Indiana in a Big Ten series.
