SFA Set To Open Season's Longest Home Stand
4/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 7, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -
THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
Centenary College at SFA
April 8 • Nacogdoches, Texas
5:30 p.m.
Central Arkansas at SFA
April 10 • Nacogdoches, Texas
4:00 p.m. • 6:00 p.m.
Central Arkansas at SFA
April 11 • Nacogdoches, Texas
1:00 p.m.
GAME INFORMATION
THIS WEEK: After dropping seven of the last eight games, the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack softball team will try to rebound with its longest home stand of the season. SFA will host Centenary College in a non-conference tilt Wednesday night then take on Central Arkansas in a three-game Southland Conference set on Friday and Saturday. The Ladyjacks are 19-21 on the season and rank seventh in the SLC with a 9-9 league mark.
LAST WEEK: SFA broke its longest losing streak of the year with a 2-1 win in the middle game of the weekend series at Southeastern Louisiana, but the Lions took one-run verdicts in the first and third games to win the series, marking the third straight SLC series defeat for the Ladyjacks. SFA batted .310 in the series against the Lions, the second-highest average in a conference series this season -- the Ladyjacks hit .474 in their three-game home sweep of McNeese State -- and was only outscored by a total of 13-12 over the three games. But SFA gave up 19 hits and committed four errors on its way to allowing a season-high seven unearned runs in the three-game series. Junior outfielder Kendal Harper batted .636 with a pair of doubles, two runs scored and one RBI. She was also 3-for-3 on stolen bases. Senior Sabrina Johnston started the rubber match at first base and went 3-for-4 with a triple, home run, two runs scored and a pair of RBI. Sophomore Lauren Luetge pitched the second and third games. She allowed 10 runs total in 12-and-two-thirds innings but was charged with just three earned runs. Luetge recorded seven strikeouts against two walks.
THE LADIES: Centenary College comes into Wednesday's game with a 24-13 record. The Ladies are 7-3 and rank third in the Summit League. Centenary is coming off a three-game sweep of South Dakota State, and the Ladies have won four of their last five contests. Led by Lindsey Smith's .342 average and 10 home runs, the Ladies hit .249 as a team and have outscored their opposition by a combined total of 40 runs. The Centenary pitching staff carries a 2.43 ERA, and pitchers Hillary Phillips and Jessica Block have each won 12 games.
THE BEARS: Central Arkansas enters the week with a 19-20 overall record and is just ahead of SFA in the Southland standings with a 10-8 league mark. The Bears are on a four-game winning streak that followed their longest skid of the season, a six-game slide. Central Arkansas is hitting .248 as a team behind Sarah Garcia's .306 average. For the season, the Bears have a 2.71 ERA, but that average drops by nearly a full run to 1.72 in SLC play, third-best in the Southland. Holli Hill has a team-best 1.96 ERA for the season. The Bears will take on Mississippi Valley State Tuesday night.
UP NEXT: SFA will have a week off before wrapping up its seven-game home stand with a series against Nicholls State. The three-game set against the Colonels will begin with a doubleheader on Saturday, April, 18 and conclude with a single game on Sunday.
NEWS AND NOTES
CUTTIN' IT CLOSE: The Ladyjacks are trying to fight their way out of a rut that has seen them lose seven of their last eight games, but they haven't been missing by much. Each of SFA's last four games -- including a 2-1 win at Southeastern Louisiana -- and five of the last six have been decided by one run. The only contest with a verdict greater than one was SFA's 6-4 defeat against UT-Arlington. The Ladyjacks are 5-9 this season in one-run games.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: Senior infielder Sabrina Johnston has only played in nine games this season with three starting appearances, but she made the most of her start at first base against Southeastern Louisiana. Johnston went 3-for-4 with a triple, two runs scored and a two-run homer. She lacked only a double to hit for the cycle. Johnston is batting .235 for the season.
HOMERS: SFA hit a home run in each of its three games against UT-Arlington. This marks the third time this season for the Ladyjacks to put together a streak of at least three games with a homer. SFA has also had runs of five and six consecutive games with at least one long ball this season. Those streaks came with just one homerless contest between, making a total run of 11 out of 12 games with a homer between Feb. 24 and March 8. SFA had five multi-home run games during that stretch for a total of 18 bombs in 12 games.
CAREER-BEST: Monika Covington tossed 15 strikeouts in SFA's 3-2 loss to UT-Arlington in the series finale. That total falls five short of the career-high 20 she posted in a 13-inning game against Nicholls State last season, but set a new career mark for punch-outs in a seven-inning contest. Covington's previous best in regulation was the 14 she recorded in a shutout win against Jackson State earlier this season. She has posted 13 games in her career with at least 10 strikeouts, including six this season.
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 April 6, Ladyjack players occupied the No. 1 slot in six of the top 11 offensive statistical categories on the list of overall Southland Conference individual leaders this season. As a team, the Ladyjacks lead the league in batting average (.276), slugging percentage (.426), runs scored (165), hits (296), RBI (150), home runs (33), and total bases (456).
GUTTING THE COMPETITION: Freshman Kayla Gutowski has given opposing pitchers fits this season. She leads the Ladyjacks and the SLC with a .351 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 RBI (32) and ranks among the league's top five in slugging percentage (.553), on-base percentage (.432), hits (40), doubles (9), and total bases (63).
SHE SPELLS MONIKA WITH A "K": Sophomore Monika Covington leads the Southland Conference in strikeouts in league play with 97 to her credit. For the season, she ranks third in the SLC with 174. She is averaging 1.18 strikeouts per inning pitched, slightly ahead of the pace of 1.12 she set last season, when she was named SLC Freshman of the Year.
DEFENSE FIRST: All but one of SFA's 19 wins this season have come when SFA commits fewer than three errors. The Ladyjacks are 9-16 in games when they commit at least one error. For the year, SFA ranks second in the Southland Conference with a .969 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 33 home runs. The Ladyjacks' 18 homers in SLC play are second in the league. Kim Daley's five homers in Southland play are tied for second in the league, and two of the top 10 individual totals overall have been recorded by Ladyjacks. Daley leads with nine, and Briana Bishop's eight are next. Ashley Struchtemeyer and Kayla Gutowski are tied for 11th with four each.
RUN IT UP: When the Ladyjacks score at least six runs this season, they are nearly perfect at 10-1. When scoring at least three runs, SFA is 17-9. Twelve of the Ladyjacks' defeats have come in games when SFA scores fewer than three runs. Conversely, the Ladyjacks are just 3-18 when the opposition scores at least three runs.
HOPE THE HITS KEEP COMING: In the 23 games in which SFA has posted more hits than the opposition, the Ladyjacks are 17-6. SFA is batting .338 in its 19 wins this season, 62 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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