Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State Continues Season At NCAA Regionals
5/18/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Long Beach, Calif. -
LEADING OFF
• Long Beach State will make its 23rd NCAA Regional appearance in 2016, participating in the Eugene Regional with No. 21 Baylor, Fordham and the hosts, No. 4 Oregon. The Beach will open play against Baylor on Friday, taking on the Bears at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.
• Senior Darian Tautalafua and Junior Christina Clermont highlighted five players who were garnered All-Big West honors as announced by the conference Wednesday. Tautalafua and Clermont both earned first-team honors, while Julia Lombardi and Alley Perkins were named to the second team and freshman Kelli Finan earned Honorable Mention.
• Senior Darian Tautalafua now holds four Long Beach State career records. The senior is the schools career leader in home runs (52), RBI (173), Walks (115) and Runs (136) with three games remaining in the regular season. Tautalafua is also the Big West's career leader in both home runs and RBI in a stellar career that has seen the senior named All-Big West four times.
• Tautalafua set an NCAA record two weeks ago, drawing a base on balls for 14 consecutive plate appearances, shattering the record of 10 set during the 2009 season.
• Junior Christina Clermont had an outstanding conference season on the way to first-team All-Big West honors. The junior led the Big West in innings pitched and strikeouts with 84, and won 10 games in league, second-most in the Big West.
• Clermont also led the league in strikeouts over the season, recording 195 total while finishing fourth in the Big West with a 2.11 ERA. She also recorded her second straight 20-win season at the Beach, holding a 22-10 record entering the postseason.
• Clermont's 195 strikeouts this season are the second-most in school history, leaving the junior five strikeouts away from becoming the second pitcher ever at the Beach to strike out 200 batters, joining Brooke Turner in 2008. Additionally, Clermont's 22 wins are tied for the eighth-most in a season, and is one win away from moving into the Top 5.
• Pitching has been a strength for the team all season. Long Beach State ranks in the nation's Top 50 with a 2.74 team ERA, and struck out a league-high 306 batters, despite ranking 6th in the 8-team league in innings pitched.
• 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. The pair has combined to strike out just five times in 324 plate appearances this season.
WHAT'S THE SCORE
• Every game in the Eugene Regional will be televised on the ESPN family of networks, with Mark Neely calling the action with Danielle Lawrie providing analysis. The games can also be streamed through the WatchESPN app, and live scoring for every LBSU game will be available at www.longbeachstate.com.
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 52 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 a fourth career record 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 has also set a pair of single-season records at the Beach. Her 54 RBI in 2016 passed teammate Lauren Lombardi's 52 in 2015 as the new record, and a home run against Hawai'i was her 15th of the season, breaking a tie with Lauren Johnson for the most in one season at the Beach.
PLAYER NOTES
• Tautalafua is living up to her records with her play in 2016. Leading the team in hitting at .347, Tautalafua has hit a team high 15 home runs, is slugging a Big West-best .713 on the year, and has driven in a team and league high 54 RBI.
• Senior Alley Perkins earned second-team All-Big West honors after hitting .323 over the regular season, second-best on the squad 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, and is the team's leading base-stealer with four.
• Sophomore Julia Lombardi also picked up second-team All-Big West honors after being named to the conference's All-Freshman team one season ago. Starting every game for the Beach, Lombardi hit .317 this season with a team-high 10 doubles and four home runs.
• Freshman Kelli Finan led Long Beach State in hitting during conference play, batting .314 in 15 games played. That lifted her to dual honors from the conference, being selected Honorable Mention All-Big West as well as making the Big West All-Freshman team.
• Sophomore Irma Sanchez hit .625 against UC Riverside in the penultimate series of the regular season, and hit .245 overall on the year while having an increasing role as the team's catcher. Sanchez drove in a game-tying or game-winning RBI in each of the last two series of the season.
• Haley Tobler hit .270 in Big West play, and has walked 22 times over the course of the season. The senior has started every game at the Beach in two seasons since transferring to Long Beach State from Tennessee. Her six RBI in game two at UCSB is tied for second-most in a game in school history, and her 29 RBI is second on the team behind Tautalafua in 2016.
• Freshman Tierra Falo has effectively locked down the team's DP slot, hitting .292 with four home runs and five doubles in her first season. The freshman has also walked 24 times, reaching base at a .430 mark, second-best on the team, and eighth in the Big West this season.
• Sophomore LT Torres has been a good sparkplug for the team. Fourth on the 49ers in hitting at .294, Torres has started every game this season at second base, and has walked 22 times while driving in 26 RBI, fourth 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 39 games behind the plate and has hit five home runs, second on the team while batting .235 on the year.
• Cielo Meza was 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 19th nationally in strikeouts per seven innings this season at 8.8, but hasn't pitched since March 13.
THIS AND THAT
• Twice named Big West Coach of the Year, Kim 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 332 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 32 wins in 2016, the Beach has reached 30 wins in 6 of 10 seasons under Sowder.
