BILLINGS, Mont. – The travel season continues for the Montana State University Billings softball team (10-10, 2-2 GNAC) as the Yellowjackets hit the road this weekend for four games against the Central Washington University Wildcats (6-4, 0-0 GNAC). It will be the opening series of Great Northwest Athletic Conference play for the Wildcats with CWU having not played a game since Feb. 18 in Hawaii.
The first of two games on Saturday will start at 1 p.m. Pacific time while Sunday's doubleheader is slated for a 12 p.m. start.
In last weekend's series, the
Yellowjackets split four games with the Simon Fraser Clan to get the conference season started.
Myrissa Prince was name the conference's Player of the Week after hitting 7-for-13 (.538) in the series with a home run and three doubles.
"It felt good to get GNAC play going again," head coach
Jessica Rayman said of the four game series with Simon Fraser. "Our games were pushed back both days but our players did a good job adapting to the changes and stayed ready. We came out and played great in the first game and had some ups and downs from there. We just need to get our confidence and play consistently from here and we will be in good shape."
SIERIES BREAKDOWN: Central Washington won all four games against the 'Jackets last season in Billings on their way to the regular season conference championship. The Wildcats hold a 38-24 lead in the all-time series and have won the past nine games against the Yellowjackets. MSUB took the series from the 'Cats in 2015 after winning 3 of 4 games at home.
MSU Billings scored a season low six runs over the four games against the Wildcats last year. The 'Jackets averaged over 25 runs per series against their other six conference opponents. The 'Jackets hit .306 in the series while
Cameron Cassinelli and
Heather Tracy each recorded home runs.
Megan Dettling hit the only triple of her career in Game 1 of the series and delivered the best pitching outing for MSUB. In Game 3, Dettling dealt all seven innings, collecting eight strikeouts and allowing just three runs but the 'Jackets only scored one in the contest off of a Tracy solo shot.
NUMBERS AND NOTES
TRACY CONTINUES REIGN AS NATIONAL HITS LEADER: After another week of action, MSUB's
Heather Tracy continues to lead the nation in hits with 43 this season. She is seven hits ahead of Coker College's Maria Williamson who sits in second place. Tracy is 10th in batting average (.566) among qualified players but leads all batters with more than 30 plate appearances this season. Going 43-for-76 this season, Tracy has already totaled more than half of her MSUB-record 82 hits from last season.
ROUNDING THE BASES: Through 20 games this season the Yellowjackets rank 13th in Division II with 24 home runs. The total leads the GNAC followed by 22 homers for Northwest Nazarene in 21. On Saturday, the 'Jackets tied an MSUB-record with five home runs in a single game. Prince was the first to send one deep followed by Dettling, who homered twice in the game, Tracy and
Kelsee Bushell capped off the offensive onslaught with a grand slam in the sixth sealing the 10-0 win. Five Yellowjackets have three or more home runs this season led by Tracy and Dettling who are each tied for the conference lead with five round-trippers.
Shayla Felix,
Brittanee Fisher and Cassinelli all have three home runs this season. The Yellowjackets are 5-1 when they hit multiple home runs in a game.
"Offense has been really consistent to start the season," Rayman said of the outstanding scoring numbers so far. "We have spent a lot of time in the cage and with the nets since we are stuck inside, but our team is doing a great job transitioning the work to the field on game day. We've had a few games where we've really strung things together and we've scored runs in every game this season, so it was nice to see them put it all together and score 10 runs."
RECORDS CONTINUE TO FALL: Both Cassinelli and Tracy secured career records for the Yellowjackets last weekend. Drawing a bases-loaded walk in the first inning of Saturday's opening game, Cassinelli became the 'Jackets all-time RBI leader with 137 runs driven in. She added to the total later in the day with a solo home run accounting for her 138th career RBI. With the walk, Cassinelli did not record an official at bat in the record setting plate appearance similar to the first RBI of her career when she hit a sacrifice fly as a freshman to score classmate Tracy.
Tracy's record was set and extended in all four of the games against Simon Fraser as she extend her hitting streak to 22 games in Game 1 of the series and carries a 25-game streak into this week. The right fielder now holds the two longest hitting streaks in MSUB history as she broke her own record of 21 consecutive games with a hit. While Cassinelli became the all-time RBI leader, Tracy also reached an RBI milestone as she recorded the 100th RBI of her career over the weekend making her the eighth player in MSUB history with more than 100 RBIs.
Together Cassielli and Tracy have now driven in the most runs (240) of any two classmates in Yellowjacket history, passing the tandem of
Emily Osborn (136) and
Aubrey Conceicao (103) from the class of 2015 who combined for 139 career-RBI.
A 2-1 PUNCH: Wearing the No. 2 uniform and batting leadoff for the 'Jackets,
Amanda Barham has had an outstanding start to the season ahead of Tracy who bats second and wears No. 1. At the top of the order, Barham has managed to reach base at a .402 clip while batting .333 this season. Just 20 games in, the center fielder is just one hit shy of tying her single-season best hit total of 25 knocks from 2015. She is second on the team with 17 runs scored this season while drawing eight walks and swiping two bases. Barham has a career-high three doubles and recorded the second triple of her career last week against Simon Fraser. In addition, the senior has the lowest strikeout rate of her career as she has put the ball in play in more than 90 percent of her at-bats this season.
Tracy has 20 RBI in the second spot of the order and has driven home Barham on four occasions this season. In 11 of the 'Jackets 20 games this season, MSUB has had one of their top two hitters reach base in the first inning. MSUB is 6-2 when they score in the first inning and 9-2 when they score the first run of the game with Barham and Tracy playing pivotal roles in starting the offense.
PITCHING IN: Freshman
Haley Couch recorded the first complete game of her career on Sunday as the Yellowjackets No. 3 arm held Simon Fraser to just one run over seven innings. Couch scattered 10 hits with very few Simon Fraser batters making clean contact against the right-hander. She is second on the team with a 3.68 ERA this season in six appearances spanning 19 innings.
Maddy Lincoln had an outstanding start to the weekend as she tallied her second complete game shutout of the year after having none as a freshman. The sophomore left-hander had eight strikeouts, the second highest total of her career, in the 10-0 Game 1 win. Her 3.09 ERA ranks sixth in the conference and is the second lowest amongst pitchers with more than 10 appearances. Lincoln's 16 appearances, 11 starts and 63.1 innings pitched all lead the league while she has allowed a .213 opponent batting average.
Dettling is second in the conference in innings pitched with 47.2 innings logged this year. She has a league best 55 strikeouts ranking 29th in the nation. She ranks ninth in the GNAC in opponent batting average and has the second most appearances in the league.
GNAC SNAPSHOT: Western Washington and Northwest Nazarene are the only other conference schools to have a GNAC series under their belt this season as they squared off in Bellingham last weekend. The Viking took 3 of 4 games from the Nighthawks to secure the top spot in the conference ahead of MSUB and SFU. All eight GNAC teams will play in conference this weekend with NNU visiting Saint Martin's, Western Oregon traveling to Western Washington and Concordia facing Simon Fraser in Burnaby, B.C.
Prince was named the conference's player of the week last week while WWU's Shearyna Labasan was tabbed the pitcher of the week after going 2-0 in the series against the Nighthawks. Tracy leads the conference with a .566 batting average followed by Savannah Egbert (.531) of Central Washington and Labasan (.523).
The Yellowjacket offense leads the conference in hits, RBI, home runs and slugging percentage while ranking second in runs scored with 114. From the circle, the 'Jackets allow the second lowest batting average to opposing hitters .260 and are fourth in earned run average 4.21.
FOLLOW: All MSUB home games as well as GNAC road contests will be available through the
MSUB Stretch Internet Portal.
Central Washington University Wildcats
Saturday, March 10 | 1 P.M. Doubleheader | Ellensburg, Wash.
Sunday, March 11 | 12 P.M. Doubleheader | Ellensburg, Wash.
2018 Record: 6-4
Head Coach: Mike Larabee (3rd Season)
2017 Record: 34-15, 20-8 GNAC
Roster | Stats
The Wildcats started their season at MSUB's Desert Stinger in Las Vegas were they finished the weekend 3-2 with wins over Texas Women's College, San Francisco State and Cal State Monterey Bay. Central Washington split games against Hawaii Hilo and Hawaii Pacific while visiting the islands and earned a win over Chaminade before the second game of the doubleheader was cancelled due to rain. Their other losses came against Academy of Art and Cal State San Bernardino.
They are second in the conference with a .333 team batting average and score an average of 6.20 runs per game. CWU pitchers combined for a 4.86 ERA ranking fifth in the GNAC while allowing 9.39 hits per game.
"Central Washington has a really good program," Rayman said heading into the series. "They're able to play small-ball and use their speed to their advantage. We are going to have to step up defensively especially when it comes to our bunt and slap defense. Our fielders will have to get rid of the ball quick and field balls cleanly. They'll try to put the pressure on us when they have baserunners but we'll be ready. Our offense just needs to continue to click and back up our pitchers."
Egbert leads Central Washington with a .531 batting average with a double and a triple in 32 at-bats. Her 13 runs scored over 10 games is the highest scoring average (1.30 per game) in the GNAC. Julia Reuble has knocked in 13 RBI for the Wildcats with three sacrifice flies this season.
Taylor Williams is one of four GNAC pitchers with an ERA below 3.00 this season as she leads CWU with a 2.71 earned run average. She allows a .237 opponent batting average ranking fourth in the league and has allowed just nine hits and four runs in 10.1 innings.
