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USU Softball Hosts UVSC Tuesday In Home Opener
April 2, 2007
LOGAN, Utah -
Complete USU Softball Notes in PDF Format
Utah Valley State (9-17) at Utah State (9-20, 0-3 WAC)
This Week's Utah State Schedule - All Times MT
QUICKLY - Utah State softball (9-20, 0-3 WAC), hosts Utah Valley State (9-17) in the Aggies' 2007 home opener at LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field on Tuesday, April 3. First pitch for the non-conference spine-tingling action is set for 2 p.m. HOME OPENING HISTORY - The Aggies have lost their last two home openers and five of their last six... all-time USU is 20-11 in home openers. Utah State has the latest home opener in the Western Athletic Conference this season, and one of the 10 latest home openers in the country. ADMISSION - All games at LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field are free admission to the public. SKIDDING SOUTH - Tuesday's action pits a pair of teams that have nine wins apiece and are both looking to snap five-game losing skids, but have been on opposite sides of playing time, as the Aggies last played Saturday afternoon, while the Wolverines have not played since March 25. ABOUT UTAH STATE - Utah State upset then #15 Oregon State, 2-0, on March 17, but USU was then shutout in four-straight games, 1-0 (8 inn) and 4-0 to Towson on March 18, then a pair of 8-0 (5 inn) losses to Fresno State in the Aggies' WAC opener this past Friday and Saturday. USU then lost the final game of the three-game series with Fresno State, 7-2, on Saturday. ABOUT UVSC - The Wolverines of UVSC are 9-17 overall and lost to New Mexico, 8-0 (5 inn), then went to then 16th-ranked Oregon State and lost 9-1 (5 inn) and 7-2, on March 24. The next day UVSC lost to #12 Oregon, 10-1 (5 inn) and 9-1 (6 inn). SERIES HISTORY - Utah State holds a 4-2 all-time record vs. Utah Valley State, with four meetings coming in 2005, as the teams didn't play each other last season, but have already faced each other twice this season at the Southern Utah Invitational on Feb. 23-24. The Aggies lost the first ever meeting, but won the next four in a row, including this season's first match-up, before the Wolverines won the second meeting this year. BETTER THAN BEFORE - USU is 9-20 on the season, topping last season's win total (8-38), when the Aggies upset then #15 Oregon State, 2-0, on Saturday, at Corvallis, Ore., the Beavers' first shutout loss at home to an unranked team since April 29, 2005. LETTS ERA OPENS WITH WIN - First-year Candi Letts won her first game at the helm of the Aggies with the 11-2 win over Southern Utah on Feb. 9. Letts becomes the first USU head coach to win their opener since Pam McCreesh won her first game in 1998.
SEASON 32 - The 2007 season marks the 32nd year of softball at Utah State... the Aggies enter the season with a 741-768-3 (.491) overall record... USU has one college World Series appearance (1984, tied for 7th) and four NCAA Tournament appearances (1984, 1989, 1992, 1993)... Utah State won the 1980 and 1981 AIAW National Championships... this is USU's second year in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). RETURNING - First-year head coach Candi Letts returns five starters among 14 returning letterwinners from last season's 8-38 overall and 3-14 WAC ledger... junior 3B Amy Schaible (5-6, Red Bluff, Calif.) headlines the returners, as she batted .248 with three doubles, three triples and nine RBI... Jamie Fife (SR, 1B, 5-10, Plain City, Utah) hit .243 with four RBI, and had a .983 fielding percentage... Whitnie Ray (JR, OF/2B, 5-6, Portland, Ore.) had a .230 average with six RBI, and did not commit an error last season, posting a 1.000 fielding pct... Lexy Perry (SR, P, 5-9, Vancouver, Wash.) is USU's leading returning pitcher, posting a 3.79 ERA last season in only nine appearances for 20.1 innings... Lindsey Benson (SO, P, 5-7, Novato, Calif.) has the most appearances among the returning pitchers with 15, throwing 50.2 innings and posting a 5.80 ERA. TIDBITS ABOUT UTAH STATE - - USU is seventh in the WAC statistics in team batting (.252) and rank fourth in the conference in home runs with 21... The Aggies also are fourth in the league in stolen bases (34-48). - Defensively, USU is seventh in team pitching, with a 5.18 team ERA... The Aggie pitching staff is sixth in strikeouts (131) and third in fewest walks issued (86). - USU's pitching staff has nearly topped last season's strikeout total, currently with 131 K's... last year USU pitchers logged 142 strikeouts. - Last season the Aggies hit a total of 18 home runs in 46 games... this season through 29 games, USU has surpassed last year's total, belting 21 so far this season, including five in a wild 13-12, 8 inning win over Idaho State on Feb. 10. - Junior 3B Amy Schaible leads the team with seven HR's, while senior 1B Jamie Fife has four HR, and four others have two apiece. - With seven HR's, Schaible is fourth on USU's single-season HR list... the school record is 10 round-trippers, done three times by two different players: Sara Fleming (2005) and Sandy Taylor (1999 and 2000). - Schaible also leads the team with 17 RBI, matching last year's season leader Quela Leonhardt's RBI total, and nearly halfway to the single-season school record of 41 RBI by Sandy Taylor in 2000. - Schaible now has 10 career home runs, currently tied for seventh on USU's career HR list with Quela Leonhardt (2003-06) and Kathy Beasley (1993-96). - USU has also topped last season's stolen base total, nearly matching last season's total of 13 stolen bases with 12 swipes in the six games in Colorado March 1-4... On the year, the Aggies now have 34 stolen bases in 48 attempts... That total is just past the halfway mark of the school record of 67 from the 1981 season. - After holding three of the top 10 batting spots in the conference statistics, USU now only has one player in the top 15, senior 1B/OF Jamie Fife's team-leading .329 average is 14th... Fife also ranks second on the team with 14 RBI. - Junior 3B Amy Schaible has slipped to hitting .305, and ranks tied for third in the league with home runs (7)... Schaible leads USU in total bases (49), hits (25), runs scored (17) and at bats (82). - Sophomore P Lindsey Benson is seventh in the WAC in ERA (3.26) and eighth in strikeouts (64)... Benson's 22 strikeouts in three appearances March 1-4 nearly matched her season total of 25 K's last year in 15 appearances. - Freshman P Stacey Ellingsworth is 14th in the league in ERA (5.57) and is second on the team in strikeouts (39). - Senior P Lexy Perry is second on the team in ERA (4.72) and has the Aggies' lone shutout on the season, with a 2-0 blanking of then-#15 Oregon State on March 18, USU's first shutout win since April 16, 2005... with 16 K's this season in nine appearances, Perry has doubled last year's season total of just eight strikeouts in nine appearances. - Junior C Heather Haak has the longest active hitting streak at four games... Schaible had a season-opening eight-game hitting streak... sophomore 1B Aubrie Stroman had a five-game hitting streak earlier in the season as well. - Schaible, Fife and Stroman share the lead for USU with five multi-hit games each... Fife and junior SS Tara Evans lead the team with four hits in a game. - Schaible leads the team for multi-RBI games with six... senior OF Ashley Bellum leads the team with five RBI in USU's 12-4 win over Northern Colorado on March 3, blasting a grand slam... Stroman and Reilly each have a four RBI outing. - Freshman OF Emily Reilly leads the team in average with runners in scoring position (.500, 7-14), and second in average with runners on (.364, 8-22)... Fife leads USU in average with runners on (.414, 12-29). - Reilly also leads USU in average with two outs (.412, 7-17), highlighted by her two-run home run in the top of the seventh against Portland State on Feb. 17. 2006 Season Highlights - USU turned a rare triple play last season on April 28 against New Mexico State, one of only two WAC teams to pull off the feat (Louisiana Tech). - USU led the WAC and was third in the NCAA in double plays turned per game, turning 23 double plays, for an average of 0.5 per game... and the Aggies were the only WAC team ranked in the top 50 in the NCAA in the category. - USU twice turned three double-plays in the one game, one of which came on May 6, the same day that Fresno State turned three double-plays, and was the only other team in the WAC to turn three double-plays. - USU was swept in four of its six WAC series, the only team other than Hawai'i (by Nevada and Fresno State) to be swept in more than one WAC series. - USU had the latest home opener in the WAC last season (March 31 vs. Fresno State) and does again this season, as the Aggies' make their 2007 home debut on April 3... The April 3 home opener is one of the top 10 latest home openers in the country. - Utah State had the most student-athletes earn WAC all-Academic Team honors with eight, twice as many as the next school. BENSON NAMED USU ATHLETE OF WEEK
Benson, a sophomore pitcher went 2-0 in three appearances, and logged a career-high 10 strikeouts in USU's 3-2 win over Colorado State on March 4, as her career-high topped Benson's three-day old previous career-high of nine K's in USU's 6-5 win at Northern Colorado on March 1. She had at least one strikeout in each inning in the March 4 game, ringing up two in the third, fifth and sixth innings. Her 22 strikeouts in three appearances this week nearly matched her season total of 25 K's last year in 15 appearances. She now has 47 strikeouts on the season. REILLY NAMED WAC SOFTBALL HITTER OF THE WEEK - March 5
Reilly, a freshman from Portland, Ore. (Central Catholic) posted a .462 average for the week, going 6-for-13 with a double, triple and a home run, as well as three RBI. She had a .923 slugging percentage and a .462 on-base percentage in four games during the week. The outfielder went 2-for-4 with a triple in Utah State's 5-4 win over Northern Colorado on March 1. She was also 3-for-4 with a double two RBI and two runs scored in the Aggies' 12-4 win over the Bears on March 3. Reilly is the first Utah State player to earn hitter of the week honors from the WAC and just the second overall. Last season, Heather Straight earned pitcher of the week honors for the week of May 1. Reilly's honor is the first conference hitter of the week award since Sara Fleming was named the Big West Player of the Week on April 25, 2005.
LETTS' BITS - Letts came to USU from Northern Illinois, where she was an assistant for one season... Prior to NIU, Letts was the head coach at the University of Mississippi, where she spent seven seasons guiding the Ole Miss program from 1999-2005, compiling a 153-246 (.372) record, including leading the Rebels to a school-record 30 wins in 2005. - Before Ole Miss, Letts was head coach at Colorado State University from 1994-98, amassing a 160-106-1 (.602) record in her five seasons there, as she re-established the softball program after it had been eliminated for one season. The .602 winning percentage is the highest in school history. In 1997, Letts led the Rams to a 51-14 mark, winning the Western Athletic Conference championship and finishing ninth in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) final poll. That season Letts was named the WAC Coach of the Year, as well as the NCAA West Regional Coach of the Year. - Letts has a career head coaching mark of 322-372-1 (.464) in 695 career games spanning 13 seasons, reaching the 200 and 300 win milestones while at Ole Miss. - This is Letts' second go-round in the WAC, as she posted a 79-62 (.560) mark in WAC games while at Colorado State. - As a head coach, Letts has coached four All-Americans, seven all-region players, 12 all-conference winners, one conference player of the year, and one freshman of the year. - As a pitcher at Creighton University from 1979-1983, Letts helped the Bluejays to three-straight trips to the College World Series. In her career in the circle, Letts compiled 43 wins to go with 16 saves, while logging an ERA of 0.76 and firing 276 strikeouts. In the 1982 season, Letts led the country with nine saves, a mark that still ranks as the fifth-most single-season saves in NCAA history. - After graduating from Creighton in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in physical education, Letts began her coaching career at the high school ranks, including head coach at Burlington, Iowa, for five seasons. Letts moved up to the college level in 1988, returning to Creighton, where she served as an assistant for six years, helping the Bluejays to two NCAA Regional trips, as well as making three appearances in the Top 25 poll and coaching one All-American. In 1991, Letts and Creighton played Utah in the longest game in NCAA history, a 31-inning contest. ABOUT OPPONENT -
UVSC is led by sophomore P/OF/1B Heidi Boyer's .441 average. Boyer leads the Wolverines with 30 hits and seven doubles and is second with 11 RBI.
Corie Jensen, a junior P/1B is hitting .338 and has a team-high 14 RBI.
In the circle, Jensen leads UVSC with a 4.11 ERA and a 4-6 record, as well as logging a team-leading 53 strikeouts. Head coach Todd Fairbourne (BYU 1994) received a master's degree in heath, p.e., and recreation from Utah State in 2003. Fairbourne was part of UVSC's jump to Division I, and has a 37-89-1 mark in the Wolverines' third year as a DI program. Overall, Fairbourne has a 279-183-1 ledger at UVSC, helped guide the Wolverines to the school's only national championship in 2000 while competing in the junior college ranks.
SERIES HISTORY vs. OPPONENT - FIRST LAST OPPONENT W L T PCT. GAME GAME Utah Valley State 4 2 0 .667 2005 2007
Note: USU's loss to UVSC on Feb. 24 of this season snapped the Aggies' four-game win streak in the series.
ON DECK - Utah State hosts Nevada in the Aggies' WAC home opener on Friday and Saturday, April 6-7 at LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field. Friday's single-game starts at 3 p.m., with first-pitch for Saturday's doubleheader is slated for 1 p.m. Admission to all of USU's home games at Johnson Field is free to the public.
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