CSUN Wraps Up Regular Season At Long Beach State

Softball Notebook

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.-- The 2019 CSUN regular season campaign comes to a close when the Matadors travel to Long Beach State this week.

Friday's doubleheader begins at 1 p.m. with Saturday's action getting underway at 1 p.m. All of the action will be streamed by BigWest.tv.

Long Beach State is 23-24 overall, 10-8 in Big West play after taking 2-of-3 from UC Davis this past weekend at home. The Beach is led by Jamie Wren who is seventh in the Big West in hitting at .363. Wren is tied for eighth in the league in home runs (6) with three others and is tied for third with Jamie Bradbury of UC Davis in runs batted in with 40.

Ashley Coleman is tied for sixth with one other player in the conference in victories (12). She has struck out 75 in 127 innings. Coleman is ninth in the Big West in ERA (3.09). This weekend's series will mark the 115th, 116th, and 117th times that CSUN and LBSU will be playing softball. Long Beach State leads the all-time series 65-49.

CSUN (25-26, 9-9 Big West) dropped 2-of-3 to Hawai'i last weekend. Hawai'i defeated CSUN 2-1 in eight innings to open the series. A Megan Stevens' three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth proved to be the difference in CSUN's 3-1 victory over the Rainbow Wahine in the middle game of the set. Hawai'i edged the Matadors 4-3 to complete the series.

Stevens leads the Big West Conference in hitting (.440), doubles, RBI (55), total bases (125), hits (62), walks, slugging percentage (.887), on-base percentage (.542). She is second in the Big West in home runs (13).

Stevens has a chance to become the first CSUN player since 1998 (Chelo Lopez) to win the Big West Triple Crown. Stevens' batting average is currently sixth in single season conference history, while her doubles is tied for fifth.

Her RBI total is the second most in a season by a CSUN player. The record is 56 which was set by Jones in 1994 and tied by Katie Hooper in 2015. Stevens is four RBI away from tying the Big West record set by former Cal State Fullerton slugger Jenny Topping' in 2001.

Nationally, Stevens is fifth in doubles, ninth in doubles per game (0.39), 10th in slugging percentage, 14th in batting average, 15th in on-base percentage, 19th in RBI, 23rd in total bases, 76th in hits, 87th in home runs per game (0.25), and 99th in walks per game (0.59).

Sophomore Jillian James became just the 10th CSUN pitcher to strikeout at least 200 batters in a season May 3 against Hawai'i. With 13 strikeouts in three appearances against the Rainbow Wahine, James has struck out 211 this season, the fourth most by Matador at the Division I level.

Her strikeout total is the second most in the Big West Conference and ranks her 24th in Division I to start the week of May 6. James leads the conference in innings pitched with 201, 16.1 more than second place Brooke Yanez of UC Davis. She leads the Big West in appearance (39) and games started (32). She is third in the league in opposing batting average (.203) and fourth in ERA (2.18).

Nationally, James is 71st in strikeouts per seven innings (7.3), 73rd in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.70), 77th in hits allowed per seven innings (5.36), and 91st in ERA.

~www.GoMatadors.com~

CSUN Wraps Up Regular Season At Long Beach State

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Players Mentioned

Katie Hooper

Jillian James

Megan Stevens