Long Beach State University Athletics
Beach Softball Finishes Regular Season By Hosting Hawai'i
5/10/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Long Beach, Calif. -
LEADING OFF
• Long Beach State closes the regular season by hosting Hawai'i for a three game series this weekend at the LBSU Softball Complex. The series opens Friday with a single game at 3 p.m., and then a doubleheader will follow Saturday starting at Noon. Saturday's DH will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
• Tautalafua is currently riding an NCAA record, as the senior was walked 13 times during the UC Riverside series. That, combined with a walk in her final plate appearance against Cal State Fullerton has shattered the NCAA record of 10 straight walks set by Megan Hill of Southern Mississippi in 2009. The new record is 14 for the LBSU senior and can be increased Friday.
• Junior Christina Clermont is having a tremendous league season. Second in the Big West with 92.1 innings pitched, Clermont leads the Big West with 69 strikeouts, and has a 1.67 ERA while recording eight wins and two saves.
• The Big West Pitcher of the Year a season ago, Clermont is on track for more postseason awards this season. Her 2.20 ERA is fifth in the Big West, and her 180 strikeouts are second-best in the league. Now holding a 20-9 overall record, Clermont has recorded her second straight 20-win season at the Beach.
• Pitching has been a strength for the team all season. Long Beach State ranks 57th in the nation with a 2.83 ERA, and is third in the conference in ERA. Additionally, the team's 291 strikeouts are the most in the conference, despite coming in 6th in innings pitched this season.
• Clermont's 180 strikeouts this season are the 6th-most in school history. The junior struck out 179 last season as a sophomore, the 7th highest total, and with at least three more games to play, Clermont has a chance to rapidly climb that list.
• Senior Darian Tautalafua now holds four Long Beach State career records. The senior is the schools career leader in home runs (51), RBI (172), Walks (115) and Runs (134) with three games remaining in the regular season. Tautalafua is also the Big West's career leader in both home runs and RBI, passing the RBI mark last weekend against Cal State Fullerton.
• The top of the order in front of Tautalafua continues to be dangerous as well. Both freshman Nichole Fry and senior Alley Perkins now rank in the nation's ten most difficult batters to strike out this season. Each has two strikeouts over 263 combined at-bats during 2016.
WHAT'S THE SCORE
• All games played at the LBSU Softball complex can be followed via Gametracker. Additional live stats links will be made available through www.longbeachstate.com.
• Saturday's games will be broadcast live on ESPN3. In addition to watching the games online at ESPN3.com, the games can also be streamed live on the WatchESPN app.
POWER SURGE
• Senior Darian Tautalafua has been one of the elite power hitters in not only Long Beach State history, but in the Big West Conference. Tautalafua's 51 career home runs has smashed the LBSU record, and Tautalafua passed the Big West record of 47, set by Yasmin Mossadeghi of Cal State Fullerton from 1999-02 with four home runs hit at UC Davis.
RECORD WATCH
• Darian Tautalafua owns another career record at the Beach as the senior continues to own the power marks, smashing multiple records. In addition to the LBSU home run record, Tautalafua also owns the Long Beach State RBI record by a large margin, and has walked 115 times, a school record.
• The senior set one additional record last week in style, scoring her 132nd run as a 49er with a grand slam against UC Santa Barbara. Tautalafua now has set four career offensive records during her time at the Beach.
• Tautalafua's bases loaded walk brought in her 53rd RBI of the season, leading the Big West and setting a single-season record at the Beach, passing Lauren Lombardi's 52 from last season. The next home run Tautalafua hits will also break the single-season record, a mark she shares with Lauren Johnson with 14.
PLAYER NOTES
• Tautalafua is living up to her records with her play in 2016. Second on the team in hitting at .355, Tautalafua has hit a team high 14 home runs, is slugging a Big West-best .723 on the year, and has driven in a team and league high 53 RBI.
• Sophomore Irma Sanchez helped carry the load offensively for the Beach against UC Riverside with her best series of the season. After a two-run pinch-hit single in the first game, Sanchez singled in game two and then went 3-for-4 in the finale, hitting .625 for the whole series and raising her season average to .250.
• Senior Alley Perkins is currently hitting a team-high .333 in her first season at the Beach after transferring from Tennessee. The center fielder has the team's longest hitting streak of the season of 11 games, is hitting .310 in conference play, second on the team, and is the team's leader in stolen bases this year with four.
• Haley Tobler is having a solid conference season. Fourth on the team in hitting during Big West play at .286, Tobler has 16 hits, including two doubles and a grand slam against the Gauchos. Her six RBI in game two at UCSB is tied for second-most in a game in school history.
• Julia Lombardi is having a strong sophomore campaign after earning All-Freshman honors last season. Starting every game this season, Lombardi is hitting .318, and has hit nine doubles with four home runs.
• Freshman Tierra Falo has effectively locked down the team's DP slot, hitting .290 with three home runs and five doubles in her first season. The freshman has also walked 21 times, reaching base at a .421 mark, second-best on the team.
• Forced into a bigger role due to a season-ending injury to All-Big West catcher Lauren Lombardi, sophomore Lauren MacLeod has started 38 games behind the plate and has hit five home runs, second on the team while batting .240 on the year.
• Sophomore LT Torres has been a good sparkplug for the team. Fourth on the 49ers in hitting at .295, Torres has started every game this season at second base, and has walked 20 times while driving in 26 RBI, third on the team.
• Freshman Kelli Finan returned to the lineup against UC Santa Barbara and is now hitting .345, best on the team in Big West play. The outfielder has hit three doubles in league play, and hitting .284 overall on the season.
• Cielo Meza has been an excellent complement to Christina Clermont in the circle, striking out 10 or more in a game four times this season while posting a team-best 2.59 ERA. Meza ranks 25th nationally in strikeouts per seven innings this season at 8.8, but hasn't pitched since March 13.
THIS AND THAT
• Head Coach Kim Sowder earned career win No. 300 in the final game of the season in 2015, a 5-4 victory over UC Santa Barbara. Sowder is the leader among all eight coaches in the Big West in wins as a member of the Big West, and is just the 8th coach to reach 300 wins in conference history. Twice named Big West Coach of the Year, Sowder enters her 10th season as head coach at Long Beach State, her Alma Mater, where she was an All-American shortstop.
• Sowder passed Kathy Strahan of Sacramento State and San Jose State for seventh place in the career coaching wins as a member of the Big West, as the 10th year coach now has 330 wins at the helm of the Beach.
• Long Beach State has reached 20 wins for 33 straight seasons after getting there in 2016 March 30 against LMU, and has never finished under .500 in Kim Sowder's tenure. With 30 wins in 2016, the Beach has reached 30 wins in 6 of 10 seasons under Sowder.
• Long Beach State enters the week No. 36 in the RBI, and remains firmly in the at-large picture. The Beach has a Top 50 strength of schedule, including a 19th rated non-conference slate. Additionally, Long Beach State has a 8-10 record this season against Top 50 teams, and only three losses to teams outside of the Top 100 in the season.
