SFA To Play Four Home Games This Week
3/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 24, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Louisiana Tech at SFA
March 25 • Nacogdoches, Texas
6:00 p.m.
UT-Arlington at SFA
March 28 • Nacogdoches, Texas
1:00 p.m. • 3:00 p.m.
March 29 • Nacogdoches, Texas
12:00 p.m.
GAME INFORMATION
THIS WEEK: The Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack softball team will try to bounce back from its first pair of consecutive losses since Feb. 24 with four home contests in the next five days. SFA hosts Louisiana Tech Wednesday in a non-conference game then hosts UT-Arlington in a three-game Southland Conference series over the weekend. The Ladyjacks come into the week with an 18-16 overall record and an 8-4 mark in SLC play.
LAST WEEK: SFA extended its longest winning streak of the season to seven games before dropping the last two contests in the weekend series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Ladyjacks put up back-to-back shutouts -- part of a run of five straight washouts -- against Jackson State in a mid-week non-conference doubleheader. SFA then opened its series at A&M-Corpus with an 8-2 win on Saturday before dropping a 7-3 decision in the second game and a 7-0 loss in the series finale on Sunday. Senior catcher Kim Daley led the way at the plate, posting a .500 batting average for the week with a triple and a home run. She finished with 10 total bases for a 1.000 slugging percentage and drove in a team-high five RBI, scoring three times herself. Sophomore Monika Covington went 2-1 on the week with a 2.45 ERA. She struck out 27 batters and did not issue a walk.
THE TECHSTERS: Louisiana Tech comes into Wednesday's game with a 16-14 season record. The Techsters are coming off a doubleheader sweep over Alcorn State on Monday and have won three of their last four contests. For the season, Louisiana Tech is batting .231 as a team, led by Amberly Waits' .434 average. The Techster pitching staff has posted a 2.73 ERA behind Meghan Krieg's 1.57 mark. In two previous meetings at the Texas A&M Aggie Invitational, Louisiana Tech defeated SFA, 7-2, and 4-3.
THE MAVERICKS: UT-Arlington comes into the weekend series with an 11-17 overall record. The Mavericks are 7-8 and in seventh place in the SLC standings. UTA is coming off a three-game home sweep of Northwestern State, but the Mavericks preceded that series with three straight losses. UTA's .225 batting average ranks eighth in the SLC, led by the .308 Heather Fortenberry is hitting. Behind Cara Hulme's 2.91 ERA, the Maverick pitching staff has put up a 2.80 earned run average that ranks fifth in the conference.
UP NEXT: SFA will travel to take on Southeastern Louisiana in a three-game series on April 4 and 5. The Ladyjacks will then host Centenary in a non-conference game on April 8.
NEWS AND NOTES
STREAKIN': Starting with SFA's 8-4 win at No. 17 Texas A&M on March 8, the Ladyjacks rattled off seven consecutive victories. This is the longest win streak for SFA since the 2001 season. That year, the Ladyjacks won eight straight between Feb. 18 and March 4. This year's seven-game streak is just the third such run of seven games or longer since the 2000 season.
BLANKED OUT: In the midst of their seven-game win streak, the Ladyjacks put another impressive run on the books. Beginning with a 5-0 win over McNeese State on March 14, SFA put up five straight shutout wins. This is the longest run of consecutive shutouts in the program's tenure at the NCAA Dvision I era, according to available records. Including the seventh inning of the win at Texas A&M and the first three innings of a series-opening victory at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the SFA pitching staff went 36 straight innings without allowing a run. During the five-game shutout streak, the Ladyjacks outscored the opposition, 33-0.
ON TOP: As of March 23, Ladyjack players occupied the No. 1 slot in seven of the top eight statistical categories on the list of Southland Conference individual leaders for all games this season. As a team, the Ladyjacks lead the league in batting average (.280), slugging percentage (.432), runs (146), hits (256), RBI (132), home runs (29), total bases (394) and stolen bases (46).
GUTTING THE COMPETITION: Freshman Kayla Gutowski has given opposing pitchers fits this season. She leads the Ladyjacks and the SLC with a .370 batting average and is only recently removed from a 21-game hitting streak. During the streak, which began with two base knocks at Sam Houston State on Feb. 24, Gutowski had nine multi-hit games and 11 extra-base hits. She also leads the SLC in on-base percentage at .448, hits with 37 and RBI with 29.
SHE SPELLS MONIKA WITH A "K": Sophomore Monika Covington is tied for the Southland Conference lead in strikeouts with 148 to her credit this season. She is averaging 1.15 strikeouts per innings pitched, slightly ahead of the pace of 1.12 she set last season.
DEFENSE FIRST: All but one of SFA's 18 wins this season have come when SFA commits fewer than three errors. The Ladyjacks are 9-11 in games when they commit at least one error. For the year, SFA leads the Southland Conference with a .971 fielding percentage.
POWER SURGE: A year after setting a new team record with 43 home runs, the Ladyjacks are again putting up big power numbers. For the season, SFA leads the Southland Conference with 29 home runs. The Ladyjacks' 14 homers in SLC play are the most of any team in the league. Kim Daley's four homers in Southland play are tied for the league lead, and four of the top 10 individual totals overall have been recorded by Ladyjacks. Daley leads with eight, Briana Bishop's seven are next, and Ashley Struchtemeyer and Kayla Gutowski are tied for sixth with four each.
RUN IT UP: When the Ladyjacks score at least six runs this season, they are undefeated at 10-0. When scoring at least three runs, SFA is 17-7. Nine of the Ladyjacks' defeats have come in games when SFA scores fewer than three runs. Conversely, the Ladyjacks are just 3-14 when the opposition scores at least three runs.
HOPE THE HITS KEEP COMING: In the 19 games in which SFA has posted more hits than the opposition, the Ladyjacks are 16-3. SFA is batting .339 in its 18 wins this season, nearly 60 points better than its season batting average.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Freshman shortstop Jessica Arana went 5-for-13 to lead SFA with a .385 average in last weekend's Baylor Getterman Classic. She also posted a double, drove in a run and scored three times. For her efforts, Arana was named to the Getterman Classic All-Tournament team.
PRESEASON FAVORITES: SFA is projected to win the Southland Conference, according to preseason polling of both league head coaches and sports information directors. A season after finishing fourth in the SLC standings, the Ladyjacks took seven of 11 possible first-place votes in the coaches' poll and five of the top nods in the SID poll.
PRESEASON ALL-SLC: Three Ladyjacks -- senior Kim Daley, junior Kendal Harper and sophomore Monika Covington -- were named to the Preseason All-SLC teams. All three were post-season all-conference selections a year ago with Covington taking Freshman of the Year and First-Team All-SLC honors.
BACK FOR MORE: The Ladyjacks entered the 2009 season as one of the most experienced teams in the region. SFA returned eight starters, plus the designated player, and 15 total letterwinners from last season's 36-25 team.
THIRTY-SOMETHING: SFA finished the 2008 season with a 36-25 record. The 36 wins are the third-most recorded by a Ladyjack team since joining the Southland Conference in 1988. The Ladyjacks' 36-25 record marks the program's first winning season since 2000 and is just the second time since 1994 for the team to finish at .500 or better. The '94 campaign saw the Ladyjacks go 31-31 on the year and was SFA's most recent 30-win season coming into this year's campaign.
NCAA NEWCOMER: The Ladyjack softball program won the NCAA Division II championship in 1986, but last year's team was the first in program history to earn a berth in the NCAA Division I Championships.
SOUTHLAND SUCCESS: The Ladyjacks won the 2008 Southland Conference Tournament, but, just to reach the league's post-season tournament was an achievement for the SFA softball program. Prior to last year, the Ladyjacks had not made the SLC Tournament since 1990, when SFA won its first tournament title as a Division I program. The Ladyjacks went 18 seasons between tourney appearances.
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-- SFA --
