PLAYER OF THE WEEK Hawai'i's April Crowell has been named the WAC Player of the Week. This is the second honor for Crowell this season.
Crowell, a junior from Ewa Beach, Oahu (Roosevelt), went 4-for-5 with three RBI and was walked intentionally two times at the North Carolina Tournament in Chapel Hill, N.C. The third baseman also scored two times. She was the leading hitter in the abbreviated tournament. She hit .800 and was named to the all-tournament team. The Rainbow Wahine defeated host school North Carolina and lost to Virginia in extra innings before rain canceled the rest of the tournament.
Other player of the week nominees included: Christina Clark, Fresno State; Jamie Waldron, Nevada and Crissy Strimple, Tulsa.
PITCHER OF THE WEEK Fresno States Jamie Southern was named WAC Pitcher of the Week. Southern has earned Pitcher of the Week honors twice this season and had earned Player of the Week once.
Southern, a sophomore from Clovis, Calif., (Clovis) was 1-0 last week with one win against No. 12 Stanford. The sophomore right-hander tossed a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts. The victory was her first top 25 win of the year, while improving to 1-4 versus the top 25 this season. The one-hitter was Southern's third on the year and sixth of her career. The 11 strikeouts was her tenth 10-strikeout game on the season and 29th of her career. In her last five starts, she has gone 5-0 with three shutouts.
Other pitcher of the week nominees included: Shannon Tabion, Hawai'i; Candice Rainwater, Nevada; Carol Forbes, San Jose State and Ami Day, Tulsa.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN It is time to get down to business as WAC play begins this week. Four schools play non-conference doubleheaders before beginning league play. Nevada will play its first WAC games on the road against San Jose State on April 4 and April 5.
Fresno State looks to capture its seventh WAC title this season. The Bulldogs begin defending their title against Hawaii at home. The Bulldogs will play two doubleheaders on April 4 and April 5. In the last league matchup, first place Tulsa (23-13) takes on last place Louisiana Tech (8-24) in Ruston on April 5.
Last season, Fresno State won the title with an 18-6 WAC record. Much-improved Tulsa tied with Hawaii for second with 15-9 records. Former affiliates Loyola Marymount and Portland State finished fourth and fifth, respectively. San Jose State finished sixth (8-16), while Louisiana Tech finished seventh with a 3-21 record.
ANOTHER MILESTONE Fresno State head coach Margie Wright is three wins shy of picking up her 900th school victory. Coaching her 1,400th game against CS Northridge, the Bulldogs gave Wright a 3-2 victory in the first game of the non-conference twin bill. The NFCA Hall of Fame and the NCAAs all-time winningest softball coach is 445-83 (.842) at Bulldog Diamond.
Hawaii head coach Bob Coolen earned his 500th career win against UC Riverside March 8 (4-1) at the Malihini Tournament in Honolulu. He is in his 17th season as a head coach. Coolen began the season ranked 31st on the NCAA Division I Winningest Active Coaching list entering 2003 trailing Rosemary Holloway of Louisiana-Monroe (492-553-3).
San Jose State head coach Dee Dee Enabenter-Omidji is also nearing a milestone. Her overall win total now is 499 and she needs just one win against next week to get 500 career wins. At Bridgewater, she was 432-153-3. Her overall record is 499-280-3.
NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS Overall WAC schools are 97-103 (485) in non-conference meetings. WAC schools are 5-15 against teams ranked in the top 25. Fresno State is 2-8, including losses to No. 4 Nebraska, No. 12 Texas, No. 24 Texas A&M and No. 4 Michigan. Fresno State has wins against No. 12 Stanford and No. 3 Nebraska. San Jose State is 0-2 with losses two losses to No. 2 California. Hawaii is 3-5, recently defeating No. 4 Texas, No. 23 Oregon State and No. 3 California. (rankings at time of meeting).
HOT HITTERS Hawaii shortstop Stacey Porter is once again among the offensive leaders in the WAC. Porter ended last season hitting .322. This season after 31 games, Porter leads the WAC in batting average, hitting a stellar .470. A newcomer to the leaderboard is Fresno State freshman Christina Clark. Clark is leading the WAC in runs scored with 26 and is second in batting average, hitting .350.
LINEUP CHANGE The WAC will be without affiliate members. Portland State and Loyola Marymount are leaving the league this season, the WAC welcomes Nevada. This is the first season of softball for the Wolf Pack since 1989. LMU and Portland State had both been in the league for three years.
Nevada and Louisiana Tech both welcome new coaches. Nevadas head coach Michelle Gardner a former Big Ten Player of the Year at Michigan. She comes from Arizona State where she was an assistant for four years. This is her first season as a head coach.
Also making her head coaching debut is Louisiana Techs Sarah Dawson, a former All-American pitcher at Louisiana-Monroe. Dawson replaces Hall of Fame head coach Bill Galloway who retired after the 2002 season.
NEWS AND NOTES Fresno State had its nine-game win streak halted last week when No. 12 Stanford took game 2, 1-0, of the non-conference doubleheader. Fresno State is 7-1 with five shutouts and a mercy run-rule victory the last two weeks. During that span, the Bulldogs have outscored their opponents 30-4 while batting .314 (64-204). The pitching has been stingy as well
by honing a 0.39 ERA with five shutouts and 42 strikeouts, while giving up four runs (three earned) and four walks in 54.0 innings. Opponents were batting .173 (32-185).
Hawaii starts the second half of its coast-to-coast 12-day, 10-game road trip. The Rainbow Wahine road trip began last week on the east coast in the Tar Heel Invitational and went 1-1 in a rain-shortened tournament. This week, Hawaii battles the Spartans of UNC-Greensboro in a non-conference doubleheader on April 1. The Rainbow Wahine then travels west to take on Fresno State for back-to-back twinbills April 4 and 5 at Bulldog Diamond to open WAC play for both squads.
Louisiana Tech broke a four-game losing streak on March 26, winning the second game of a twin bill against Northwestern State at home. Down one run in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Lady Techsters scored two runs to help propel the squad to a 2-1 victory. Starter Marla Pinkston got some much needed run support in the sixth inning when junior short stop Casey Reiff tripled in Amber Miles to tie the game.
Nevada has had three players/pitchers-of-the-week in the WAC so far this season. Brittany Lorenzen was named WAC Player of the Week Mar. 3 for having eight hits and three RBI in six games the previous week. She is the third Nevada player to be so honored this year. Lorenzen hit in 15 of the 16 games she played in this year. She will miss the rest of the season after tearing her ACL at the UNLV Mini-Tournament.
San Jose State senior Veronica Ramos broke the Spartans career doubles record last week. She enters this week with 40 doubles, including seven already this season. Ramos hit her 40th against St. Peters to break the record of 39 set by Pat Martinez from 1993-96. Head coach Dee Dee Enabenter-Omidji is nearing a milestone. Her overall win total now is 499 and she needs just one win against next week to get 500 career wins. At Bridgewater, she was 432-153-3. Her overall record is 499-280-3.
Tulsa have posted more hits, more doubles and more total bases so far this season than in the first 36 games of the 2002 season. Walking their way into the record books, Tulsa is averaging a school-best 2.56 walks per game. Last year, the Hurricane set a new high with a 1.81 walks per game average. Individually, Crissy Strimple broke the school record for walks in a career. She currently has 48 in her career. Last year, she broke the single season mark with 30 on the year. Senior Brandi McGuire recorded two doubles to break the career record for two-baggers at TU. She hit her 34th double of her career against UMKC on March 29. With 21 home runs in 2003, the Golden Hurricane have hit the second most homers in school history. Over the past two seasons, Tulsa has hit 51 homers. Tulsa hit 54 home runs in the first eight years of the program combined.