Long Beach State University Athletics
Softball Heads To Vegas For First Road Trip
2/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 10, 2014
Long Beach, Calif. -
LEADING OFF
• Long Beach State takes to the road for the first time in 2014, playing five more teams in a weekend tournament hosted by UNLV. The 49ers will play doubleheaders on both Friday and Saturday before closing the Easton Desert Classic by playing the hosts at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.
• Long Beach State has a better record than each opponent that the 49ers will play over the weekend. The 49ers are the only team over .500, with Utah coming in at 2-3, the closest to Long Beach State.
• The 49ers have faced UNLV the most out of any opponent the team will face at the Easton Desert Classic. LBSU leads their former conference foes 38-18 all time, and also has a series lead over both Ohio State (9-5) and Utah (7-5). Long Beach State won both meetings in a doubleheader against Utah Valley in 2006, but lost their only meeting in extra innings against UTEP in 2010.
OFFENSIVE MINDED
• Long Beach State's returning players put up one of the best offensive seasons in school history over the 2013 season. The 49ers set team records for batting average (.288), runs scored (266), RBI (237) and home runs (53). The 49ers also had six offensive players earn All-Big West honors, while Shayna Kimbrough was named the Big West Player of the Year and Darian Tautalafua was the Big West Freshman Player of the Year.
• Offensively, the team picked up right where they left off this season, hitting .314 overall and closing out two games in run-rule contests. Long Beach State is slugging .500 as a team, with five home runs and five doubles already on the year. The team has also been balanced, with seven players picking up three or more hits in the first weekend of the year.
WHAT'S THE SCORE
• All games played at the 49er Softball Complex can be followed via Gametracker at www.longbeachstate.com, the home of Long Beach State athletics. Two games this weekend will also be on Gametracker, both the first and last of the weekend.
RANKING
• The 49ers received eight points in the first Top 25 poll of the season, sitting in an unofficial 34th place overall. LBSU will have plenty of chances to shine however, facing five ranked teams in the tournament season, as well as playing three other teams receiving votes, including one other Big West opponent in Hawai'i.
Erin Jones-Wesley
• Much of the 49ers success will depend on the right arm of senior Erin Jones-Wesley. Already one of the 49ers' most successful pitchers in school history, Jones-Wesley will look to continue to climb the record books while also attempting to win a second Big West Pitcher of the Year award, to match the honor she earned as a frehsman in 2011. A three-time All-Big West selection, Jones-Wesley can become just the seventh 4-time first-team All-Big West pick and the second at Long Beach State.
• Jones-Wesley is within reach of two major school records by just maintaining her career averages. The senior could set both the school's career wins and strikeout records, where she already ranks in the Top 5 entering her final season. She needs 15 wins and 86 strikeouts to set both records, marks she has passed in all three of her first three seasons at Long Beach State.
• Big West records are also within reach for the senior. 68 wins will put Jones-Wesley in the conference Top 10, while 645 strikeouts will make her the first 49er in the Top 10 in Ks in the conference.
THIS AND THAT
Long Beach State has 788 combined offensive games started from a veteran group ... The staff is also experienced, returning 113 starts just between Erin Jones-Wesley and Amanda Hansen.
