Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State Hosts UC Riverside As Season Nears End
5/6/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Long Beach, Calif. -
LEADING OFF
• Long Beach State will be at home for the remainder of the season, hosting the final six games of Big West play at the LBSU Softball Complex. That stretch begins this weekend, as the Beach hosts UC Riverside for a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m., followed by an afternoon game Sunday, also at 1 p.m.
• Long Beach State is 50-9 all-time against UC Riverside, and has won the last 13 games at home against the Highlanders. UCR took the series last season against the Beach in UC Riverside, winning the first two games before LBSU took the finale.
• The Beach is now 4-7 against ranked opponents this season after winning the series on the road last weekend against No. 25 Cal State Fullerton.
• Junior Christina Clermont is having a tremendous league season. Third in the Big West with 72.2 innings pitched, Clermont leads the Big West with 59 strikeouts, and has a 1.25 ERA while recording six 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 2.08 ERA is fourth in the Big West, and her 170 strikeouts are tied for the conference's best. With a 18-8 overall record, Clermont is well on her way to a second-straight 20-win season at the Beach.
• Pitching has been a strength for the team all season. Long Beach State ranks 49th in the nation with a 2.72 ERA, and is third in the conference in ERA. Additionally, the team's 281 strikeouts are the most in the conference, despite coming in 6th in innings pitched this season.
• Clermont's 170 strikeouts this season are the 9th-most in school history. The junior struck out 179 last season, and is on pace to pass that mark in 2016.
• Senior Darian Tautalafua now holds four Long Beach State career records. The senior is the schools career leader in home runs (51), RBI (171), Walks (102) and Runs (134) with six 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 243 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.
• A few scheduling changes of note for the final weekend of the season -- Friday's game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m., and the doubleheader on Saturday will be broadcast live on ESPN3, which can be viewed either online or through the WatchESPN app. That DH will begin at Noon.
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 102 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 also is within reach of a pair of single-season records for Long Beach State. Her next home run will set the school record she shares with Lauren Johnson, while one more RBI will pass last year's record of 52 set by Lauren Lombardi.
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 52 RBI.
• Haley Tobler is having a great conference season. Third on the team in hitting during Big West play at .304, Tobler has 14 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.
• Senior Alley Perkins returned to the lineup for Long Beach State, and is now hitting a team-high .357 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, which is still ongoing, and is the team's leader in stolen bases this year with four.
• Julia Lombardi is having a strong sophomore campaign after earning All-Freshman honors last season. Starting every game this season, Lombardi is hitting .331, and has hit nine doubles with four home runs.
• Freshman Tierra Falo has effectively locked down the team's DP slot, hitting .284 with three home runs and five doubles in her first season. The freshman has also walked 17 times, reaching base at a .397 mark, third on the team behind Tautalafua and Perkins.
• Also off to a good season is Lauren MacLeod. Forced into a bigger role due to a season-ending injury to All-Big West catcher Lauren Lombardi, MacLeod has started 37 games behind the plate and has hit five home runs, second on the team while batting .245 on the year.
• Sophomore LT Torres has been a good sparkplug for the team. Fourth on the 49ers in hitting at .291, Torres has started every game this season at second base, and has walked 17 times.
• Freshman Kelli Finan returned to the lineup against UC Santa Barbara and is now hitting .364, 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 328 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.
• Long Beach State enters the week No. 38 in the RBI, and remains firmly in the at-large picture. The Beach has a Top 50 strength of schedule, including a 22nd rated non-conference slate. Additionally, Long Beach State has a 8-10 record this season against Top 50 teams, and only two losses to teams outside of the Top 100 in the season.
