Stanford Hosts Washington And UCLA

March 29, 2000

This Week: The eighth-ranked Stanford softball team (30-4, 1-1 Pac-10) gets back into Pac-10 play after taking a day off from league to battle UC Santa Barbara. Games are never easy in the Pac-10, but this week will be especially difficult as the Cardinal hosts No. 1 Washington Friday at 2:00, then hosts defending NCAA champion UCLA Saturday (2:00) and Sunday (1:00). The Bruins were this year's preseason No. 1 team nationally but are currently ranked third. Stanford appears to be up to the challenge, however, with a 30-4 start and a split with fourth-ranked California to open Pac-10 play. Stanford also takes a perfect 10-0 record at the Stanford Softball Complex into this weekend. Including a 1-0 victory over Arizona in last year's home finale, the 11-game home winning streak ties the school record, set in 1998 and matched last year. The Cardinal's 30-4 start is the best in school history, surpassing a 27-7 mark in 1999. In fact, Stanford's record has been the best in school history after each game of the 2000 season.

Last Week: The Cardinal returned from a 13-day layoff for final exams to sweep four consecutive doubleheaders last week, running the team's winning streak to 12 games, the second-best in school history. That streak was snapped Saturday, however, in a 12-inning 6-5 loss to No. 4 California in the Pac-10 opener. Sophomore Jessica Mendoza hit a solo home run, her fifth of the year, to stake Stanford to a 1-0 lead in the fourth. The Cardinal got three more in the sixth, with Mendoza and sophomore Sarah Beeson driving in the runs. Cal tied it in the bottom of the sixth, scoring four runs, all with two out. Stanford scored again in the 12th, with freshman Kira Ching racing home on an infield error, but Stanford gave up a pair of runs with two out in the bottom of the 12th to take the loss. The Cardinal rebounded the next day as freshmen Dana Sorensen and Maureen LeCocq combined on a three-hitter to beat the Bears 2-0. Sophomore Robin Walker singled, Mendoza was hit by a pitch, Beeson drove Walker in with a chopper into left field and Mendoza scored on an infield sacrifice fly, coming home on Ching's popup to deep shortstop. Those two runs in the first stood up through seven innings, allowing the Cardinal to level its Pac-10 record at 1-1, and remain undefeated at home. Monday Stanford scored five runs in the first two innings and got a complete-game five-hitter from freshman Tori Nyberg to beat UC Santa Barbara 6-2. Beeson was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and four RBI, while senior Kellie Wiginton, Walker and Mendoza had two hits apeice.

Ranking Review: Stanford remained at No. 8 in the March 29 USA Today/NFCA Coaches Top 25 following a 30-4 start and seven wins over ranked teams. The Cardinal began the season ranked 21st and has appeared in the top 25 of every regular-season poll since early in the 1998 season, reaching a high of No. 7 during 1999. Pac-10 teams hold the top five spots in the poll, and seven of the top 11. All eight Pac-10 teams are ranked in the top 23 in the latest poll and the conference has gone 234-32-1 (.878) against non-league opponents this season. In 2000 Stanford is scheduled to play each of the top seven teams in the poll (18 total games) and 31 games against top-25 teams.

Scouting the Opposition: Stanford jumps seriously into Pac-10 play this weekend, hosting top-ranked Washington Friday at 2:00 p.m. at the Stanford Softball Complex, then playing two games against No. 3 UCLA (Saturday at 2:00 and Sunday at 1:00), the defending NCAA champions. The Huskies have piled up a 36-3 overall record this season. Up until a week ago they had only lost to No. 9 LSU 4-2 (a team they have also defeated twice this year: 4-1 and 3-0), and had posted a pair of wins over No. 2-ranked Arizona in tournaments this year (1-0 and 6-1). They have a total of eight wins over teams ranked in the top 10. They have struggled a bit lately, however, losing 4-1 to Northwestern on March 22, and falling 1-0 in nine innngs to No. 19 Long Beach State Sunday. Redshirt freshman catcher/first baseman Jenny Topping has already made her mark on the collegiate scene, earning MVP honors at the NFCA Leadoff Classic. She is hitting .480 with 17 home runs, 11 doubles, 27 walks and 58 RBI this year. Freshman shortstop/right fielder Jaime Clark is batting .377 with 12 homers, 15 doubles and 35 RBI. Junior third baseman Kim DePaul bats .356 with six home runs, 26 RBI and a team-leading 35 runs scored, although three other players have scored 30 times.

In the circle, the senior duo of Jennifer Spediacci and Jamie Graves have thrown all but 17 innings this year. Spediacci is 19-1 on the year with a 0.65 ERA and has struck out 170 batters in 128.2 innings. She is also hitting .283 with 13 RBI. A graduate of Washington High School in Fremont, she will be making a homecoming this weekend. Graves is 17-2 after being tagged with both recent losses. She has a 0.54 ERA with 105 strikeouts in 116.2 innings. She is hitting .268 with 14 RBI. Stanford head coach John Rittman helped recruit both Spediacci and Graves, as well as four other Husky seniors, when he was an assistant coach at Washington. Stanford assistant coach Sara Pickering was a senior at Washington when those players were freshmen, and was an assistant coach in Seattle the following season...UCLA was the preseason choice as the nation's No. 1 team after returning the bulk of the team that won the 1999 NCAA title.

However, All-American catcher Stacey Nuveman is redshirting to play for the U.S. Olympic team, and the Bruins have struggled a bit in the early going this season. Still, "struggle" is a relative term, and UCLA is nonetheless an impressive 25-5 with 13-game and 11-game win streaks this season. After an 11-0 start they lost three of four in mid-February, falling to Hofstra (10-5), Sacramento State (2-1) and Michigan (6-4). Their 13-game streak included three wins over No. 6 Fresno State (5-2, 5-0 & 3-0), but was ended by consecutive losses to Illinois State (2-1 in eight innings) and Fresno State (1-0) on March 11 & 12. They took two weeks off for finals before dropping a pair of exhibitions to the U.S. Olympic Team (3-0 & 2-0 in eight innings), then return to official competition Friday at Cal. Freshman shortstop Natasha Watley has provided a big spark, batting .442 with 30 runs scored and 17 stolen bases. Junior outfielder Lupe Brambila also provides speed, hitting .349 with 15 runs and 14 stolen bases. Those two have been thrown out only four times on stolen-base attempts. Junior Courtney Dale, a first-team All-American pitcher a year ago, is hitting .389 with 14 RBI. She was a high school teammate of Stanford's Kellie Wiginton at Bullard HS. Senior catcher Julie Marshall (.337, six HRs) and senior third baseman Julie Adams (.306, four HRs) were both second-team All-Americans a year ago. Sophomore Amanda Freed, a first-team All-American as a utility player a year ago, is 11-2 with a 0.62 ERA and 111 strikeouts in 90.2 innings this year. Dale is 7-3 with a 1.70 ERA.

In the circle: Stanford's team ERA continues to be below the school record of 1.30. It is currently 1.09 despite the fact that four freshmen have pitched every inning for Stanford this year. All continue to show improvement under the tutelage of pitching coach Lonni Alameda. Dana Sorensen remains the No. 1 starter, and got the call in both games with Cal. She pitched six innings the first game and five the second, earning a win and giving up only five hits total. With 15 wins, she ranks third all-time at Stanford, and her 1.16 ERA is the best in school history (min. 100 IP). Two of her three losses have come under the international tiebreaker rule...Maureen LeCocq has been very effective the past few weeks, beginning with her victory over No. 15 Alabama at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.

She is 4-1 with a team-leading 0.60 ERA, and is holding the opposition to a .152 average. She earned her fourth save of the year against Cal Sunday with two innings of perfect relief...Tori Nyberg also had a strong week, throwing three innings of no-hit relief against Santa Clara and going four innings to get the win in the 8-0 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. She picked up a win at Pacific and a save over Cal Poly without allowing an earned run. She then threw a complete-game five hitter to beat UC Santa Barbara. She is now 5-0 with four saves and has dropped her ERA to 1.39...Jaime Forman-Lau (6-0, 1.35 ERA, 1.16 strikeouts per inning) is battling to return from a finger injury and remains questionable for this weekend.

At the plate: Sophomore Jessica Mendoza continued her recent hitting tear. Although her 19-game hitting streak was snapped last week, she has raised her average to .459. She hit her fifth home run of the season and drove in an additional run in Saturday's loss to Cal, then scored the second run in Sunday's win over the Bears. She was 2-for-4 against UCSB Monday. Her 35 runs scored are three short of her own single-season school record, and her 50 hits have her on pace to break that record as well...Kellie Wiginton broke the Stanford career record in runs scored against Santa Clara then broke the career putouts record against Cal Poly. She needs three hits to become the school's all-time hits leader and three at bats to break that record. She has scored 34 times in 34 games, and should crush the single-season record of 38 runs...Sophomore Robin Walker went 13-for-29 in the last four doubleheaders, including four RBI in one game, and is now hitting .407 on the year...Sophomore Sarah Beeson was 3-for-4 Monday against UCSB, driving in four runs. Two of her three hits were doubles, giving her 11 on the year.

Sounds like a broken record: Stanford's team shattered most of the offensive and defensive school records in the books a year ago, but right now a lot of those records look like they should be put down in pencil, instead of in ink. Just over halfway through the regular season (Stanford has played 34 of 61 regular-season games), the Cardinal is on pace to do a lot more re-writing. Jessica Mendoza has already tied the single-season stolen base record with nine thefts, and she and Kellie Wiginton are both about to blow past the single-season runs record. Here are the school records in numerous offensive categories, a projection based on 61 games (which would mean no postseason play), and Stanford's current mark.

Team batting

Team pitching

Individual batting

Individual pitching

Victories

Single-game records have also been under siege through the early part of the season. Sophomore Robin Walker became the latest Stanford player to get four hits in a game on Feb. 11, against UNLV. She ties a Stanford record shared by many players...Freshman Dana Sorensen struck out 12 Utah batters on Feb. 25, just missing the school record of 13, set by Becky Blevins in an 11-inning game on Feb. 13, 1999. The total of 13 is also the team record, and Jaime Forman-Lau and Tori Nyberg combined for 12 against San Diego State on Feb. 19.

Head Coach John Rittman: Year four of the John Rittman era began on Jan. 29. Rittman has led the Cardinal to a 142-74-1 (.657) record through three-plus seasons. He posted his 100th career victory on April 1, 1999, 16-0 over Utah State. Rittman earned a 7-3 win over Utah State on Feb. 27 of this year in his 200th game as a head coach. Rittman took over a Stanford program that had never had more than 24 wins in a season and directed the team to 30 wins, and its first-ever winning record, in his rookie campaign. Rittman's squad has won at least 40 games in each of the past two full years, advancing to the NCAA tournament each year. The Cardinal had never been ranked before, but Rittman has seen his team climb as high as seventh in the NFCA coaches poll, one year ago, and attain a current national ranking of No. 8. Rittman is assisted by Lonni Alameda, in her fifth season at Stanford, and Sara Pickering, in her second season.

NFCA Coaches Top 25 Poll
March 29, 2000

Others Receiving Votes: Texas A&M (40), North Carolina (32), Wisconsin (19), Florida (16), Nebraska (16), Missouri (14), Florida State (12), New Mexico (10). Four other schools (totaling 12 points) were mentioned on just one ballot and are not included among others receiving votes.

2000 Pac-10 Standings
(through March 27)

Last Week's Games

3/25 lost to #4 Cal 6-5 (12 inn.)Stanford had a rough introduction to Pac-10 play, losing a heartbreaker at Fricke-Levine Field in Berkeley. Jessica Mendoza put the first run on the board with a solo homer in the fourth. The Cardinal added three more in the sixth, but Cal scored four times with two out in the bottom of the sixth. The international tiebreaker rule was put in effect in the 10th, but Stanford's Dana Sorensen and Maureen LeCocq (4-1) and Cal's Jocelyn Forest (17 Ks, no walks, CG, 203 pitches) kept runs off the board. Stanford got one in the 12th, but the Bears got a pair of two-out singles to win the game in the bottom of the 12th.

3/26 def. #4 Cal 2-0Stanford avenged the earlier loss to the Bears and squared its Pac-10 record at 1-1. The Cardinal got two runs in the first, and despite threatening much of the rest of the game, could not add to the lead. Thanks to Dana Sorensen (15-3) and Maureen LeCocq (4th save) they didn't have to. Sorensen allowed only three hits in five innings and LeCocq pitched two perfect innings for the save. LeCocq was also 2-for-2 at the plate.

3/27 def. UCSB 6-2Sarah Beeson was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, driving in four runs as Stanford put five runs on the board in the first two innings. Kellie Wiginton and Robin Walker both were 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored and Jessica Mendoza also had a pair of hits. In the circle, Tori Nyberg (5-0) gave up only five hits in a complete game to earn the victory.

Stanford Record Book

Batting Average/Career (min. 200 AB)

Hits/Career

Doubles/Career

Triples/Career

Home Runs/Career

Runs Batted In/Career

Runs Scored/Career

Stolen Bases/Career

Walks/Career

At Bats/Career

Games Played/Career

Putouts/Career

Assists/Career

Earned Run Ave./Career (min. 100 IP)

Victories/Career

Strikeouts/Career

Innings Pitched/Career