A 7-game Week Of Action Awaits CSUN Softball This Week

Softball Notebook

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.— A seven-game week of action awaits the CSUN softball team this week. The Matadors host No. 17/18 Ohio State Wednesday at 12 p.m. before welcoming North Dakota State to Matador Diamond at 2:30 p.m.

CSUN travels to the Cal State Fullerton Easton Invitational this weekend where the Matadors play No. 5/5 Oklahoma to open the tournament Friday at 10 a.m. Friday concludes with CSUN taking on Nebraska at 3 p.m. Saturday gets underway when CSUN faces DePaul at 3:30 p.m. The tournament concludes when the Matadors matchup against Ohio State for the second time at 6 p.m. Play wraps up on Monday when Oklahoma travels up from Fullerton for a 12 p.m. against CSUN.

The Cal State Fullerton Easton Invitational will be streamed by Flosoftball.com for a fee. Monday's game will be streamed by the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health. Brandon Marcus is scheduled to be on the call. Live stats are scheduled for each of the games this week. All links can be found on GoMatadors.com on the softball page.

Ohio State starts the week ranked 17th in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll and 18th in the ESPN/USA Softball Top 25. Ohio State is 14-2 prior to a Tuesday matchup at Loyola Marymount.

Lilli Piper is hitting .410 with nine home runs and 24 runs batted, all team highs. She has a 1.000 slugging percentage and a .438 on-base percentage to begin the week. Morgan Ray is 9-1 with an 0.83 ERA in 12 appearances. She has struck out 55 in 59 innings. Shelby McCombs is 5-1 and has struck out 51 in 50.1 innings.

North Dakota State is 11-7 after going 2-2 at the UC Riverside Classic last weekend. Bre Beatty leads the team in hitting (.407), home runs (2), and RBI (16). Katie Shoultz tied a 19-year old school record with five stolen bases in the 7-1 win over Columbia on Sunday.

Jacquelyn Sertic is 8-4 with a 1.68 ERA and started 12 of the 18 NDSU games. She has struck out 97 in 75 innings. NDSU defeated CSUN 3-2 during the 2010 season in the only previous meeting between the two schools.

Oklahoma, the defending NCAA Division I national champions, are 19-2 after posting a 5-0 mark at the their own OG&E Tournament last week. The Sooners are ranked fifth in both the USA Today/NFCA and the ESPN/USASoftball Top 25 polls.

Sydney Romero is ninth in Division I in hitting at a .508 clip. She has hit three home runs and has 22 RBI. Jocelyn Alo is second in D-1 in home runs with nine. She leads the team in RBI with 23. She is hitting .483, the 25th highest in Division I.

OU has two of the top eight in ERA in D-1 on the pitching staff. Paige Lowary is fifth at 0.26 while Paige Parker is eighth at 0.52. Parker's 10 wins has her 18th in Division I this season. Playing for the 14th and 15th times, but first since 2010, Oklahoma leads the all-time series 7-6.

This is the second time this season that CSUN are playing Nebraska. The Huskers defeated the Matadors 9-1 Feb. 11 at the Kajikawa Classic. Nebraska is 15-7. The Huskers travel to Omaha Tuesday before hosting South Dakota State Wednesday prior to traveling to Fullerton. Nebraska received votes this week in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll this week.

Kaylan Jablonski leads the team in hitting (.348) and is tied for the team lead in home runs (4) with Tristen Edwards. Edwards is hitting .347 and has a team high 16 RBI. Olivia Ferrell is 6-1 with a 2.53 ERA and has two saves. She has appeared in 16 games, striking out 34 in 55.1 innings. Jablonski has pitched 17 times, starting nine. She has posted four saves and a 2.87 ERA during 70.2 innings.

DePaul's Megan Leyva and Pat Moore were named Big West Player and Pitcher of the Week respectively Mar. 12. Leyva posted a team-best .467 batting average in a 2-2 week. She drove in a team-best seven runs on seven hits, including two doubles and two home runs. Leyva slugged for 1.000 and now carries a .311 batting average while leading the Blue Demons with four home runs, 18 RBIs, and a .590 slugging percentage.

Moore compiled a 1-0 record in three appearances at the Rebel Classic. The left-hander tallied nine strikeouts in eight innings of work. Moore leads DePaul with a team-high 75 strikeouts on the season, carrying a 1.76 ERA and 6-2 record in 13 appearances. CSUN leads the all-time series against the Blue Demons 6-2.

After sweeping a doubleheader from Providence last Wednesday, the Matadors (10-17) dropped four games at the CSUN Tournament over the weekend. Savannah Horvath hit two more home runs to reach 44 for her career, the second most in school history. Jillian James continued to be strong in the circle. She has now struck out 76 in 92.1 innings so far this season.

~www.GoMatadors.com~

A 7-game Week Of Action Awaits CSUN Softball This Week

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Players Mentioned

Savannah Horvath

Jillian James