SERIES NOTES: Texas State
5/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 7, 2010
NACOGDOCHES, Texas -
Complete Release in PDF Format 
VITALS
Texas State at Stephen F. Austin
May 8-9, 2010 • Nacogdoches, Texas
Saturday, May 8 • 1:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 8 • 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 9 • 12:00 p.m.
Ladyjacks
Record: 26-17 (18-9)
Last 5/Streak: 2-3/W1
Coach: Gay McNutt
SID: Brian Ross
E-mail: rossbrian@sfasu.edu
Web: sfajacks.com
Bobcats
Record: 24-22 (19-8)
Last 5/Streak: 3-2/W2
Coach: Ricci Woodard
SID: Denise Thompson
E-mail: denise28@txstate.edu
Web: txstatebobcats.com
SERIES INFORMATION
THIS WEEKEND: The Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack softball team will try to capture the first Southland Conference championship in program history this weekend, when the Ladyjacks host Texas State in the regular-season finale. SFA enters the three-game series one game behind the Bobcats in the league standings. The Ladyjacks need to win at least two games to tie Texas State for the championship. A clean sweep would put SFA alone in first place. The Ladyjacks are 26-17 on the year and 18-9 in Southland play. Texas State comes in with a 24-22 season mark and a 19-8 record against league competition. SFA's previous best finish in its 23 years as a league member was third place.
LAST WEEK: SFA took two of three games at Nicholls to keep pace with the Bobcats. The Ladyjacks split the series-opening doubleheader, winning the first game, 3-0, then dropping a 10-4 decision in the second game. SFA closed out the series with an emphatic 14-5 win in six innings, scoring 13 of its 14 runs in the last two frames. Four Ladyjacks batted .400 in the series, and SFA hit .303 as a team. Twelve of the Ladyjacks' 27 base knocks in the series went for extra bases, as SFA hit eight doubles and belted four home runs. Kayla Gutowski went 4-for-10 with two doubles, two home runs and three RBI. Bethany Brown also drove in three runs, as she had two doubles and a homer. Nicholls' Lindsay Mesh set a school record with two grand slams in the Colonels' 10-4 win in Game 2.
THE BOBCATS: Texas State is looking to wrap up its third straight Southland Conference championship. If the Bobcats can pull that off, they'd be just the third team in conference history to complete that feat. Texas State is coming off a 2-1 series win against Northwestern State, but the Bobcats have lost seven of their last 10 games. In Southland play, Texas State's .284 batting average ranks third in the Southland, and its 132 runs scored are second. The Bobcat pitching staff ranks second in the conference with a 2.37 ERA, as does Texas State's 75 runs allowed.
LAST MEETING: Texas State won last year's regular-season series, 2-1, although SFA tied the Bobcats in runs scored over the course of the three-game set. The Ladyjacks won the opener, 2-0, then dropped a 3-2 decision in Game 1 and lost, 1-0, in the finale. Texas State went on to win the Southland title and take the No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament, where the Bobcats handed No. 4 SFA a 3-1 defeat in the second round.
UP NEXT: The Ladyjacks will try to earn their second NCAA Championships bid in three years, when they head to San Marcos for next week's Southland Conference Tournament. SFA is guaranteed a first-round bye as one of the top two seeds, so the Ladyjacks will play one of the second-round afternoon games on Thursday to open the tournament. In 2008, the last time the tourney was held in San Marcos, SFA won it as the No. 4 seed.
NEWS AND NOTES
MAKING HISTORY: SFA is in position to do something never before done in program history. The Ladyjacks have the chance to win their first-ever Southland Conference title this weekend. SFA is currently a game behind Texas State in the league standings and needs two wins in the season-ending series to earn a share of the league title. Regardless, the Ladyjacks have already secured their best finish since joining the Southland for the 1988 season. SFA took third in three of its first four seasons, but its fourth-place finishes in the last two campaigns are the best showings since that introduction to the league. No matter what happens against Texas State, the Ladyjacks are guaranteed at least a second-place tie and the No. 2 overall seed in next week's Southland Tournament.
A LITTLE EXTRA: Kayla Gutowski went 4-for-10 in last week's series against Nicholls, making her one of four SFA players to bat .400 in the series. Bethany Brown was 3-for-10. Both players had extra-base hits and scored a run every time they hit safely in the three-game set. Gutowski had two doubles and two home runs with three RBI and four runs scored. Brown had two doubles and a homer, driving in three and scoring three times.
SWEPT AWAY: In three seasons under head coach Gay McNutt, the Ladyjacks have been swept in a Southland Conference series just three times. But two of those sweeps have come this season. SFA dropped all three games at UT Arlington, then got swept out of Conway, Ark., with three losses at Central Arkansas.
BROOM GOES BOTH WAYS: In the Ladyjacks' four Southland series sweeps, SFA has batted .368 as a team and outscored its opponents by a combined total of 90-23. The Ladyjacks have banged out 22 doubles, 19 home runs and two triples for a team slugging percentage of .614 in the 12 wins. In their two losing efforts against UT Arlington and Central Arkansas, the Ladyjacks have batted just .210 and been outscored, 27-5, with only three home runs and a .287 slugging percentage.
WORST TO (ALMOST) FIRST: SFA opened the season with a five-game losing streak that stands as the worst start in the Southland Conference this year. Since that skid, though, the Ladyjacks are 26-12 and have put together two separate win streaks of five or more games. SFA goes into the last weekend of the season just a game back of Texas State in the Southland standings. The Ladyjacks are 18-9 against the conference, while the Bobcats sport a 19-8 league record.
SLAMMIN' SOUTHEASTERN: Of SFA's four Southland series sweeps, the three-game run against Southeastern Louisiana is the most dominant. The Ladyjacks batted .439 as a team and outscored the Lions, 21-1, winning two games by run-rule. SFA had five doubles and four home runs for a .697 slugging percentage that ranks just behind the .698 the Ladyjacks slugged against McNeese State. The SFA pitchers held Southeastern to a .207 average and finished the weekend with a 0.82 ERA.
SHUT DOWN: SFA's season-best seven-game win streak came to an end with a 7-0 loss at Texas A&M. That defeat marked the Ladyjacks' first shutout since a 3-0 loss to Notre Dame on Feb. 21. SFA followed that up with three straight scoreless losses at UT Arlington, marking the longest run of consecutive shutouts since the Ladyjacks dropped five straight games without scoring during the 2002 season.
STREAKS: SFA's season-best seven-game win streak overlapped with another impressive Ladyjack streak. SFA hit at least one home run in each of those seven wins, beginning the streak with five straight multi-homer contests. The Ladyjacks blasted 16 home runs over the seven-game streak, bettering the 12 total long balls they hit in the first 21 games of the season.
SCORE! : When SFA scores two runs or fewer, the Ladyjacks are 2-14. But SFA has a 24-3 record when scoring at least three runs and is a perfect 15-0 when scoring six runs or more.
EARLY TO RISE: The Ladyjacks are 20-4 this season in games when they score first.
HOLDING ON TIGHT: SFA has been tough to beat when the Ladyjacks can grab a lead. They are 17-2 this season when leading after the fourth inning and 16-0 when leading after the sixth.
WORKING FROM TWO TO FIVE: The second and fifth innings have been the most productive for SFA this season. The Ladyjacks have scored 39 runs in the fifth and 37 runs in the second inning. They've outscored the opposition by a combined total of 76-36 in those two innings.
STEPPING UP: Six Ladyjack veterans -- Briana Bishop, Kayla Gutowski, Amber Price, Jessica Arana, Ashley Struchtemeyer and Michele Huffman -- have a higher batting average this season than their career mark.
SOUTHLAND SWITCH: SFA's season batting average of .283 ranks second in the Southland Conference, but the Ladyjacks' conference-only average of .306 leads the league by a total of 20 percentage points.
NO RUNS, NO PROBLEM: SFA's 184 runs scored this season rank sixth in the Southland Conference. But the Ladyjack pitching staff is taking up the slack. SFA has allowed just 140 runs for the year and has a 2.99 ERA -- both of which rank second in the Southland.
RECORD WATCH: Senior Kendal Harper has added a pair of career records to her resume this season. Her triple against Centenary College gave her 13 for her career, surpassing Carrie Woydziak's former career mark of 12. Harper also took over the career hits record with her 201st hit during the series with A&M-Corpus Christi. She currently has 223 base knocks. Harper also holds single-season records for hits (75) and stolen bases (28), both recorded in 2008. She needs nine more stolen bases to set a new career mark in that category.
MAKIN' HIT RECORDS: Briana Bishop already holds the SFA career records for home runs (34), RBI (129) and walks (83). With 35 doubles so far, she needs just two more to erase Angela Froboese's record of 36 two-baggers.
TWO DOWN, STEP UP: Brittany Caruthers leads the Ladyjacks with a .444 batting average when hitting with two outs and runners on base. She's even better with two out and runners in scoring position. Caruthers bats .545 in those spots. Her 10 two-out RBI lead the team.
STREAKING: Kendal Harper, Briana Bishop and Amber Price share the longest hitting streaks on the team this season at nine games. The longest current streak is Price's three-game run.
-- SFA --
