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 Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | News | Archives WEEKLY RELEASE: Western readies for long weekend.
April 16, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Despite dropping eight of their last ten games, the Western Washington University softball team sits just one game behind Great Northwest Athletic Conference leader Seattle U. The Vikings are 18-15 overall and 7-5 in conference play. The Redhawks are in first place at 8-4, with Central Washington, Montana State Billings, Western Oregon and WWU jockeying for position with five league losses each. The defending league champion Vikings are at home this weekend, with Friday (2 p.m.) and Saturday (11 a.m.) doubleheaders versus Northwest Nazarene and a Sunday (11 a.m.) twinbill against arch-rival Central. Prior to Sunday's doubleheader Western plans to honor the careers of seniors Katie Barker, Reina Boersma, Lisa Pendergrast and Liza Teichler. SCOUTING NORTHWEST NAZARENE The Crusaders (8-32, 2-14 GNAC) are 8-10 in their last 18 games after opening the season with 22 consecutive losses. Northwest Nazarene picked up its second GNAC win of the season taking the first of a four-game set with Montana State Billings 7-6 on April 11. Shortstop Haley Havern and catcher Katie Free are the team's offensive leaders. Havern is hitting a team-best .322 with four home runs and 21 runs batted in, while Free is a .314 hitter with 18 RBI. Rachel Bare (8-16) leads a thin pitching staff, posting a 5.53 earned run average and allowing opposing hitters to bat .354 in 150-2/3 innings of work. Bare has been the pitcher of record in all eight Crusader wins. Dana Shipley (0-15) is the team's second starter. Shipley has a 9.12 ERA and a .410 average against in 93-2/3 innings. The Vikings have won all three of their 2008 meetings with Northwest Nazarene, including a conference sweep at Nampa, Idaho, on March 13. Western has won nine straight versus NNU, running its all-time series advantage to 30-3. Pitcher IP H W-L ERA
Jessica Rosencrants 10.1 5 1-0 0.68
Sarah McEnroe 20.0 13 2-0 1.05
Emily Hardin 10.1 15 2-0 4.74
SCOUTING CENTRAL WASHINGTON The Wildcats (14-20, 9-5 GNAC) have just two wins in their last seven outings, both coming at home against Northwest Nazarene. In spite of its recent hiccups, Central is currently tied for second place in the GNAC with Montana State Billings at 9-5. Conference Player of the Year candidate Mallory Holtman leads the club in almost every offensive category. Holtman is hitting .414 with 11 doubles, five triples, nine home runs and 27 RBI. She has reached base at a .449 clip and is slugging .847. Catcher Holly Rossman owns a .368 average and has seven homers and 27 RBI. Linze Vlahovich is 8-11 with a 2.86 ERA and a GNAC-leading 105 strikeouts in 110 innings pitched. Vlahovich has yet to allow an earned run in 13 innings of work against the Vikings in 2008. Kat Reime (4-4) and Katy Jones (2-5) have also seen time in the circle for the Wildcats, with respective ERAs of 3.33 and 3.41. Western has taken two of three from the Wildcats in 2008, outlasting Central 1-0 in eight innings at the CWU Invitational, before splitting a pair of GNAC games in Ellensburg on March 15. Pitcher IP H W-L ERA
Jessica Rosencrants 17.1 16 2-1 2.02
Sarah McEnroe 20.0 27 3-0 4.50
HOME STAND Western rounds out its 10-game home stand this weekend with four games versus Northwest Nazarene and a twinbill with Central Washington. The Vikings are 15-5 in their last 20 home games and finished the 2007 season with a 10-4 record in Bellingham. Western is 115-73-1 all-time at Viking Field, a .611 winning percentage. RAIN CHECK The Vikings host Seattle U. in a Tuesday, Apr. 29 doubleheader. The games, which will begin at 2 p.m., were originally scheduled for Apr. 4 at Viking Field but were cancelled due to wet grounds. LEFTY LOOSEY A teaching tool turned into a revelation for Coach Lonnie Hicks and Viking outfielder Emily Hardin. Hardin, a switch hitter in high school, had hit exclusively from the right side for Western since joining the team last fall. In an effort to better track pitches, she moved to the lefthanded batter's box. The rest, as they say, is history. Hardin so impressed in practice that she earned a seventh-inning, bases-loaded pinch-hit opportunity in a scoreless game versus Saint Martin's on April 13. In her first career lefty at bat, Hardin worked an RBI walk to win the game for the Vikings. A true walk-off. CONFERENCE CONTENDERS Look for an exciting GNAC race as the season winds down. Five teams sit within one game of first-place Seattle U., who leads the conference at 8-4, followed by Montana State Billings and Central Washington at 9-5 and Western Oregon and Western Washington at 7-5. The Vikings are no strangers to the stretch run. In 2007, Western captured the regular-season championship and an automatic post-season bid with a sweep of Western Oregon in the season's final weekend. REGIONAL ROUND UP Following a pair of weekend splits, the Vikings jumped up one spot to No. 10 in the April 16th West Regional ratings. Humboldt State continues to hold down the top spot with a 38-13 regional record. The California Collegiate Athletic Association maintains the top-six spots in the poll, followed by GNAC member schools Western Oregon at No. 7 and Seattle U. at No. 8. Hawaii Pacific ranks ninth, hoping to represent the Pacific West Conference. The PWC will not get an automatic qualifier this season due to its inability to meet NCAA standards of at least seven competing teams. Spots in the top-eight could open up in the coming weeks with the right combinations of wins and losses dropping additional CCAA teams below the .500 mark. SPIN CLASS The Vikings turned two double plays in Sunday's 6-3 loss to Saint Martin's, the third time this season the team has spun a pair of twin killings in the same game. Western has turned over 14 double plays this season, the second highest total in the GNAC. With an average of 0.42 double plays per game, the Vikings rank 17th nationally. Through just 33 games, Western has already matched last season's production. The Vikings had 14 double plays in 56 games in 2007. STOUT STAFF Western pitching continues to dominate opposing hitters, posting a team ERA of 2.53 through the first 33 games of the 2008 season. As a staff, the Vikings rank 79th nationally in cumulative ERA. Individually, Jessica Rosencrants is 68th in the country with a 1.38 earned run average. Rosencrants also checks in at No. 14 in walks allowed per seven innings (0.85) and at No. 39 in saves (2). UNDER THE RADAR Sophomore pitcher Jen Jorgensen has quietly played an important role for the Vikings in 2008. With both Sarah McEnroe and Jessica Rosencrants missing time for various reasons, Jorgensen has pitched 44-2/3 quality innings for Western. She ranks ninth in the GNAC with a 2.83 ERA, while limiting opposing hitters to a .267 average. The righthanded Bellingham native, is limiting lefthanded hitters to a .111 average to lead the conference. Her best outing of the season came last Friday, with a complete-game, five-hit effort in a 2-1 win over Western Oregon. It was Jorgensen's first career complete game. She struck out three Wolves and walked none, surrendering only a lead-off home run to WOU shortstop Tyler Sutherland. The team is 6-2 in Jorgensen's eight starts this season. BAT ON THE BALL Liza Teichler and Lisa Pendergrast continue to put the ball in play and are among the country's most difficult hitters to strike out. Teichler has struck out just five times in 99 at bats for an average of one whiff every 19.8 at bats and ranks 77th nationally. Pendergrast is ranked 85th, striking out five times in 97 at bats for a 19.4:1 at bats to strikeout ratio. ITS CONTAGIOUS The Vikings have made errors in bunches this season, committing multiple miscues in 13 games. Thirty-eight of Western's 47 errors have come in those 10 games, while the team has made just nine errors in their remaining 23 contests. WELCOME BACK MAC Viking pitcher Sarah McEnroe has shaken off the rust and returned to her 2007 form, one which saw her earn 2007 NFCA second-team all-West Regional honors. McEnroe has allowed just two earned runs and 11 hits over 16-2/3 innings pitched in her last three outings. In 10 appearances, she has limited opponents to a .271 average and turned in a 2.73 ERA, including a pair of complete-game shutouts. GOING LONG Sophomore Meghan Flem belted a game-tying grand slam in the seventh inning versus San Francisco State, matching Carlena Herd's Western career record of 12. Herd played for the Vikings from 1999-2002. Flem set the single-season mark in 2007 with nine home runs as a freshman. RECORD WATCH Senior catcher and designated hitter Liza Teichler is closing in on the Viking career record for doubles and is also approaching the top five for hits and runs batted in. In 2007, Teichler hit .368 (64-for-174) with 15 doubles, four home runs, 40 RBI and 33 runs scored, earning GNAC Player of the Year accolades. Here is a look at how she stacks up against the top-five in the Western record books: A GRANDE OLD TIME Meghan Flem's grand slam was the ninth in school history and the first since Ashley Osman hit a bases-full home run on March 30, 2007 against Cal State Bakersfield. The Vikings hit three grand slams in 2007, including slams by Liza Teichler (03/02/07) and Osman (03/03/07) on consecutive days. The school record for individual grand slams in a career is two, shared by Osman (2004-07) and Adrienne Moore (2002-05). WALKING OFF WITH A WIN Senior Lisa Pendergrast sparked a pair of Viking victories with walk-off base hits in a series against Montana State Billings. Pendergrast's double to right center scored Caitlin Dotlich from first base to give Western a 2-1 win in eight innings on March 6. The following day, the right fielder singled to center, plating the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Pendergrast was named co-player of the week in the GNAC for March 2-9. COMING UP ROSES Junior transfer Jessica Rosencrants pitched 28 of a possible 39 innings in six games at the Lead-Off Classic. Rosencrants finished the tournament with a 3-1 record, a 2.00 ERA and a .229 opponents' batting average. Rosencrants pitched the final 16-2/3 innings of the tournament for the Vikings, retiring 50 of 56 batters and allowing just three runs. She set a school record by retiring 21 straight during one stretch in which she cut down eight Western New Mexico Mustangs and 13 MSU-Billings Yellowjackets in order. Rosencrants finished the week with 25 strikeouts and just two walks en route to being named GNAC Pitcher of the Week for February 10-16. Freshman Caitlin Dotlich's first hit was a memorable one. Dotlich struck for a three-run homer during a four-run Viking first inning in a 7-1 win over Eastern New Mexico. In doing so, Dotlich became the first Western player to homer for her first career base hit since teammate Morgan Parkerson. Parkerson collected her first career hit with a two-run shot against Western Oregon on Apr. 7, 2006. NATIONAL WOMEN IN SPORTS DAY Western catcher Liza Teichler and former pitcher Jackie Quint were among those honored on the floor of the Washington State Senate on Feb. 6 for National Women and Girls in Sports Day. The annual resolution is passed by the senate each year in an effort to recognize the commitment and courage of female athletes. 30 ROCK Western won a school record 34 games during the 2007 season, turning in the fifth 30-win season in program history. With 30 wins in 2008, Viking head coach Lonnie Hicks would match former bench boss Art Phinney with a school record 186 career wins. Hicks is currently 165-134, good for a .552 winning percentage, in six seasons at Western. TRIPLE THREAT Three Viking newcomers were teammates at Inglemoor High School. Pitcher Emily Hardin and catchers Samantha Rutherford and Michelle Wrigley all started and lettered for the Inglemoor Vikings the past three seasons. As seniors, the trio led the team to a 24-5 mark and a third-place finish in the Class 4A state tournament. REST FOR THE WEARY Viking sophomores Hannah Becker and Megan Fowler will redshirt the 2008 season while recovering from injuries. Both players were projected starters. Becker hit .264 with four home runs and 19 RBI as a catcher during her freshman year, while Fowler started 39 games in a utility role. CONFERENCE CHAMPS The Vikings captured the program's first Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship in 2007. Western finished with a 15-5 league mark, edging Western Oregon with a double-header sweep on the final weekend of the regular season. REGIONAL WRAP Western qualified for the NCAA West Regional for the second time in program history last season, winning a school record 34 games in the process. The Vikings suffered a pair of agonizingly close losses to Cal State Stanislaus (2-0) and Sonoma State (3-1) in regional action at Turlock, Calif. 2007 ACCOLADES Western swept all three major Great Northwest Athletic Conference awards in 2007. Departed senior Jackie Quint was named Pitcher of the Year, while battery mate Liza Teichler was honored as the league's Player of the Year. Head Coach Lonnie Hicks capped the trifecta when he took home Coach of the Year accolades. Quint, Teichler and center fielder Misty Britt were named first-team GNAC All-Stars, while infielders Nicole Walker and Meghan Flem were second-team picks. Three Vikings earned regional honors. Teichler and pitcher Sarah McEnroe were named second-team All-NFCA West Region all-stars. Teichler was also named to the Daktronics West Region first-team, while Quint earned second-team honors. ON THE WEB For up-to-date statistics, box scores of every game, records, stories, etc., see the Western Athletic web page at www.wwuvikings.com. Live statistics for home games will be available on the Western GameDay page, beginning April 4, versus Seattle U. Live stats will also be posted for away games when available. Up-to-date league standings and statistics can be found on the Great Northwest Athletic Conference web page at www.gnacsports.com. |
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