April 9, 2012
THIS WEEK:The No. 14 Stanford softball team (28-10, 2-7 Pac-12) will travel to Los Angeles for a mid-week series at No. 13 UCLA (25-10, 2-4 Pac-12), Apr. 10-11. The teams will play a double-header on Tuesday, starting at 5 p.m. and wrap up the series on Wednesday at Noon.
CATCH THE CARDINAL: Fans can follow this week’s games on Gametracker available on www.GoStanford.com. Live updates will also be available on Twitter @StanfordSball.
UP NEXT: The Cardinal will return to The Farm to host Oregon State, Apr. 13-15 at Smith Family Stadium. By the end of the series, Stanford will have played nine conference games in an 11-day span.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR WATCH: Senior Ashley Hansen, a two-time All-American and the reigning collegiate player of the year, is one of 50 players selected to USA Softball’s preseason player of the year watch list. She has already solidified her place in Cardinal history, ranking in the top-10 in program history in career average (.406), hits (279), doubles (75), triples (16), RBI (169), slugging percentage (.640) and runs scored (174).
GERHART IN THE CIRCLE: Junior Teagan Gerhart has reached the 20-win plateau in each of her first three seasons on The Farm and is third all-time in program victories. She is 71-25 overall with a 1.87 career ERA. With 574 strikeouts to her name, she ranks fourth all-time in program history. She is fifth in shutouts with 18.
Jenna Rich FILE: Junior Jenna Rich is hitting .382 on the season and leads the Cardinal with 43 RBI, 10 doubles and five home runs. Her .634 slugging percentage also paces the Cardinal, while her .437 on-base percentage ranks third.
LAST CHANCE: Senior Jenna Becerra is making the most of her final season on The Farm. She is hitting a career-best .350 on the season and has already surpassed her single season bests in hits (36) and doubles (9). She also has two triples on the year, the firsts of her career.
LEADING THE CONFERENCE: Rookies Hanna Winter and Leah White, Stanford’s lead-off and No. 2 hitters, are quickly making a name for themselves in the Pac-12. Winter leads all conference players with 64 hits and ranks second in batting average (.457). White tops the Pac-12 with nine sacrifice bunts and is tied for third in runs scored (40).
STATISTICAL LEADER: Junior pitcher Teagan Gerhart leads the country in victories this season with 23. She tops the conference in innings pitched (169.0) and appearances (30), while ranking third in strikeouts (151) and fifth in opposing batting average (.196).
19 IN A ROW: Stanford’s longest winning streak of the season is 19 games, which ran from Feb. 18 to March 11. During that span, the Cardinal outscored its opponents 129-28, posted 10 shutouts and earned five run-rule victories.
ROOKIE DEBUTS: All eight freshmen on the Cardinal roster made their debuts in the season opener against Cal State Northridge. Rookies Leah White and Hanna Winter have started all 38 games this season and are leading the team offensively. Pitcher Nyree White has made 24 appearances in the circle, posting a 3.79 ERA with 57 strikeouts in 75.2 innings pitched.
LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Senior Ashley Hansen has been named one of the 10 finalists for the 2012 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. She is one of four representatives from the Pac-12 Conference. The finalists were chosen from a list of 30 candidates based on personal qualities that define a complete student-athlete - classroom, community, character and competition.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior pitcher Teagan Gerhart nabbed Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week and USA Softball National Player of the Week on Feb. 28 for her performance at the Cathedral City Classic in Cathedral City, Calif. She registered five wins in the circle to lead the Cardinal to an undefeated weekend. She posted a 0.22 ERA, allowing just one run in 31.2 innings pitched. She tallied 30 strikeouts, including the 500th of her career, and issued just four walks and 12 hits.
ALL-CONFERENCE RETURNERS: Stanford had six players selected to the all-conference teams in 2011. Five of those players return to the roster this season, including senior Ashley Hansen and Sarah Hassman, juniors Teagan Gerhart and Jenna Rich and sophomore Corey Hanewich.
IN THE POLLS: Stanford remains ranked in both major polls. The Cardinal, which has appeared in every regular-season poll for more than a decade, is ranked No. 14 in the USA Today/NFCA poll and No. 15 the ESPN.com/USA Softball top 25, falling a couple spots after dropping two of its three games at Arizona. Eight of the nine Pac-12 schools appeared in the top-25 of both polls.
SOLID VETERANS: With seven upperclassmen on a roster of 21, the Cardinal is still a fairly young squad. However, the team’s veteran’s look to continue their production and success at several key positions. The seniors, Jenna Becerra, Maya Burns, Ashley Hansen and Sarah Hassman, have been to two super regionals and were a part of the 2009 squad which posted the best winning percentage in school history (.814). Combined with the juniors, Kelsey Gerhart, Teagan Gerhart and Jenna Rich, the upperclassmen have combined to produce 477 runs, 692 hits and 381 RBI and 424 strikeouts entering the 2012 season. Led by Hansen, the group contains a conference and national player of the year, two All-America honors, six all-conference accolades and seven all-region selections.
PRESEASON PICKS: Stanford was picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 this season in the annual poll of the league’s coaches. 2011 National Champion Arizona State garnered six first-place votes to sit at the top of the poll. California earned two first-place votes and came in second, while Arizona snagged the final first-place vote for third. UCLA was picked just ahead of the Cardinal at fourth. Washington, Oregon, Oregon State and conference newcomer Utah rounded out the poll.
2011 IN REVIEW: Stanford is coming off a 42-17 season in which it finished fifth in the Pac-10 Conference and was one win shy of advancing to the Women’s College World Series. Stanford, which made its 14th consecutive NCAA Tournament and fifth super regional appearance in the last seven years, finished with a No. 10 national ranking. Infielder Ashley Hansen became the program’s first national player of the year after being named the Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year and a First Team All-American by the NFCA. Teagan Gerhart, Sarah Hassman and Jenna Rich joined Hansen on the All-West Region and All-Pac-10 Conference teams.
TEAM USA TIES: Head coach John Rittman was a member of the United States National Team coaching staff from 2001-08. In 2010, four players with ties to the Cardinal program helped the U.S. capture the World Championship in Venezuela. Competing for the red, white and blue were Stanford alums Alissa Haber, Lauren Lappin and Jessica Mendoza, and current Cardinal infielder Ashley Hansen. The alums were also a part of the United State’s World Cup title in Oklahoma City.
HEAD COACH John Rittman: In his 16th season at the helm of the Cardinal program, head coach John Rittman is one of the winningest coaches in collegiate softball, boasting a 665-302-3 (.687) career record. Since stepping onto the Farm in July 1996, he has coached the team to 15 consecutive winning seasons, 14 straight NCAA Tournament appearances and 12 40-win seasons. Under Rittman, Stanford has claimed a share of its first conference championship and made two appearances in the Women’s College World Series (2001 & 2004).
SCOUTING UCLA: UCLA enters the week with a 25-10 overall record and a 2-4 mark in the Pac-12 after being swept at Arizona State last weekend. The Bruins lead the conference in team batting average (.363) and slugging percentage (.608), and rank second just to the Cardinal in hits with 343. Leading UCLA offensively are senior Katie Schroeder and freshman Stephany LaRosa. Schroeder paces the team in batting average (.432), on-base percentage (.543) and stolen bases (12-14). LaRosa leads the team with 49 hits, including five doubles, three triples and 10 home runs, and 39 RBI. Her .769 slugging percentage is also tops on her squad. In the circle, sophomore Jessica Hall is 12-5 with a 2.78 ERA. She has racked up 109 strikeouts in 120.2 innings pitched.
THE SERIES AGAINST THE BRUINS: The Cardinal is 16-44 (.267) all-time against the Bruins. Last season, Stanford went down to Los Angeles and won two games to take the series from UCLA for the first time since 2007. After dropping a 14-inning contest in the series opener, the Cardinal came back to win games two and three. Following the weekend, Stanford’s Ashley Hansen and Teagan Gerhart earned conference player and pitcher of the week honors.