Wednesday, April 2, 2014

TURLOCK, Calif. - Twenty-four West Region softball teams, including all seven GNAC schools, converge on Turlock this weekend for the Cal State Stanislaus' annual Tournament of Champions.

Also among the participating teams are all 10 teams from the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and seven of the 11 teams from the PacWest Conference.  The only West Region teams missing from the field are Dixie State, Hawaii Hilo, BYU-Hawaii and Holy Names.

Each team will play five contests prior to Sunday's bracket play.

The tournament begins Friday morning.  Among the opening games are contests between Cal State East Bay and Western Oregon and Azusa Pacific and Central Washington at 8 a.m.

Montana State Billings takes on Chico State at 8:45 a.m., while Humboldt State plays Simon Fraser and Chaminade faces Northwest Nazarene at 9 a.m.

Saint Martin's, which reached the championship game in last year's tournament on the way to winning the GNAC title, opens its tournament at 10 a.m. against Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Humboldt State is ranked eighth in this week's National Fastpitch Coaches poll and is one of four region teams ranked in the Top 25.  Cal Baptist is ranked second, Cal State Monterey Bay is ranked 15th and UC San Diego is ranked 20th.

Two GNAC teams received votes in this week's poll and are among "others receiving votes" in the poll - Western Oregon (34th) and Central Washington (36th).

The Wolves (22-11, 13-1) have won 15 of their last 16 games and currently have a 3 1/2 game lead over Saint Martin's (15-13, 9-4) in the conference race.

Western Washington (17-8, 9-5), which trails the Saints by one-half game in the conference race, begins the week with a six-game win streak.  The Vikings are one game ahead of fourth-place Central Washington (15-10, 8-6) in the GNAC standings.

Saint Martin's has won three straight, including 3-2 and 10-2 wins last Saturday at fifth-place Montana State Billings (9-14, 4-10).

Those were coach Rick Noren’s 498th, 499th and 500th in 18 seasons as a collegiate head coach. Ninety-eight of the victories have come in four seasons at Saint Martin's.

Prior to the tournament, Central Washington and Western Washington have non-tournament tests.  The Wildcats play a doubleheader at CSU Monterey Bay today, while the Vikings play a single game Thursday at Turlock against Sonoma State.

Demianew Extends Win Streak to Seven Games

Western Oregon’s Kelli Demianew brings a personal seven-game win streak into the tournament.  In her last 53 innings in the circle, she has allowed just four earned runs.  That included a streak of 30 2/3 innings without allowing a single earned run, matching the 10th longest in GNAC history. 

Western Washington’s Haylee Baker had a string of four consecutive games with a home run snapped in the Vikings’ doubleheader sweep Friday against Central Washington. All four came in the previous week in a series at Billings.  She is the seventh player in GNAC history to accomplish that feat, which has been done eight times, twice by Kelsey Haupert of Central Washington during the 2011 season.

LAST WEEK:

GNAC RED LION PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Player – Kaleigh Keating, Western Washington (2B, 5-4, Sr., Salinas, CA – Notre Dame Salinas) had seven hits in 17 at bats, including a game-ending two-out single in the ninth inning in a 4-3 win over Central Washington as the Vikings swept doubleheaders with their arch-rivals and Simon Fraser.  Keating’s hit against CWU was her third of the game.  Earlier, with her team trailing 2-0 in the fifth, she singled to drive in WWU’s first run.  She also had two stolen bases, increasing her career total to 35, which ranks 14th in conference history.  Pitcher – Sam Munger, Saint Martin’s (5-6, Jr., Everett, WA - Cascade) recorded her 50th and 51st career victories with 3-2 and 10-2 wins at MSU Billings to move into a tie for third place on the GNAC all-time victory list.  On the week, she pitched three complete games, allowing just three earned runs in 21 innings.  At the plate, she had six hits in 14 at bats, including a home run.

HONORABLE MENTION: Melanie Pfeiffer, Western Oregon (SS, 5-3, Sr., Reno, NV – Wooster) had 11 hits in 18 at bats and scored nine runs as the Wolves swept a four-game series at Northwest Nazarene.  Four of her hits were for extra bases (3 doubles, 1 triple) ... Kelli Demianew, Western Oregon (P, 5-10, Jr., Pendleton, OR) allowed just two runs and eight hits in 13 innings, earning a pair of victories.  In her last 53 innings, she has allowed just four earned runs  .. Lacey McGladrey, Saint Martin’s (2B, 5-4, Sr., Bothell, WA) had six hits in 15 at bats and had a team-high five RBI as the Saints won three of four games; Justine Callen,  Northwest Nazarene (P-OF, 5-9, So., Oregon City, OR – Redmond) ... Justine Callen has hit safely in eight consecutive games.  Callen had eight hits – five doubles and three singles – in 17 at bats and drove in five runs in Northwest Nazarene’s home series against Western Oregon and a non-conference doubleheader with Lewis & Clark.

TEAM NOTES

Central Washington: The Wildcats dropped a pair of one-run decisions to Western Washington and are now 5-4 in one-run decisions.  CWU and WWU have split their four games this spring with all four decided by one run, three of them in the home team’s last at bat.   Central managed just 10 hits against the Vikings, three by Sammy Morris, in batting .172.

Montana State Billings:  Cori Gammon had four hits and Breanna Wilson had three in the Yellowjackets’ two home losses to Saint Martin’s.  Jessyka MacDonald had a solid performance in the circle in the opening game of the series, allowing just five hits in a 3-2 loss.

Northwest Nazarene:  In addition to Callen’s eight hits, four different players had five hits to lead the Crusaders to a .285 team batting average during a six-game week.    Brianna Kinghorn had five hits in 13 at bats.  Alyssa Nitschelm (5-of-16), Gatalina Schuster (5-of-17) and Kendra Day (5-of-18) also produced a handful of safeties.  Nitschelm had both of NNU’s triples.

Saint Martin’s:  Taviah Jenkins batted .500 (7-of-14) as the Saints won three of four games.   SMU had four home runs as Sam Munger, Lacey McGladrey, Dani Wall and Riko Toyama all went deep.  Wall matched McGladrey for the most runs batted in with five. The three wins improved head coach Rick Noren's career record to 500-222-1 in 14 seasons at Pacific Lutheran and four seasons at Saint Martin's.  He is 98-77-1 with the Saints, who had never had a winning season prior to his arrival. 

Simon Fraser:  Rachel Proctor and Robyn Mogavero each had four hits in SFU’s twinbill with Western Washington.  The Clan hit a respectively .311, but couldn’t match the Vikings offense which produced a .474 team average and a .711 slugging percentage.

Western Oregon:  Amanda Evola has hit in 15 straight games, matching a streak of the same number by her teammate Melanie Pfeiffer earlier this season.  Evola, who will take the streak to Turlock this weekend, batted .533 (8-of-15) as WWU outscored Northwest Nazarene 41-10 in a four-game series last week at Nampa.  Raina Reece led the Wolves in the series with six RBI.

Western Washington:   The Vikings have won six straight games, four on the road to move to within one-half game of second-place Saint Martin’s in the conference race.   The Vikings banged out 50 hits, 21 in a 14-7 win at Simon Fraser, to remain as one of the top hitting teams in NCAA Division II.  There average of .365 ranks fourth nationally and they are on pace to break the GNAC single-season record of .347 set by Humboldt State in 2006. Kaleigh Keating and Alexie Levin each had seven safeties.

For more GNAC Softball News check out the GNAC Weekly report.