CORVALLIS, Ore. – Off an undefeated, 5-0 weekend at the Judi Garman Classic, the Oregon State softball team will play its first five games in the Beaver State, with a home-opening series against Arizona before a doubleheader next Tuesday at Portland State.
Opponent Day/Time Stats/Stream
Arizona March 8/1 p.m. Statbroadcast/OSU Stream 3
Arizona March 9/5 p.m. Statbroadcast/OSU Stream 3
Arizona March 10/11 a.m. Statbroadcast/OSU Stream 3
Portland State March 12/3 p.m. Statbroadcast/ESPN+
Portland State March 12/5 p.m. Statbroadcast/ESPN+
Leading Off
• Oregon State will play its first games in the Beaver State with the home-opening weekend against Arizona and a twinbill against Portland State in Hillsboro just days later.
• The Beavers swept the competition at last week’s Judi Garman Classic with an unblemished 5-0 mark.
• Arizona – ranked 21st by Softball America – is the first ranked team to visit Kelly Field in 2024 and the third of the season on the Beavs’ schedule behind a pair of SEC foes (Florida and Tennessee).
• The meeting(s) with Portland State are the first of three times OSU will play outside of a normal series. Those will also happen this month when OSU visits Grand Canyon next Monday after the ASU series and Seattle U on the final Wednesday of the month ahead of the three-game set at Washington.
By the Numbers
2: OSU had two – Madi Simon (Puerto Rico; silver) and Grace Messmer (Canada; bronze) – medal in the fall’s Pan-American games in Chile.
5: Oregon State has now won five consecutive games, it marks the second longest run since the ’22 squad rattled off streaks of 17 and six.
5: Oregon State will play its first five games in the Beaver State, starting off with Arizona at Kelly Field before an away twinbill against Portland State.
8: OSU will have just eight games away from Oregon this month before spending the entirety of April inside the state, only venturing south to Eugene.
9: Logan Hulon fanned a career-high nine in the run-rule, 8-0 victory over San Jose State back on Saturday.
21: Upon finishing the second game against the Vikings on the 12th, OSU will have finished a run of 21 consecutive games in the Pacific Time Zone.
138: Following the doubleheader with the Vikings, OSU and Portland State will have met 138 times. It marks the second-longest most played series behind Oregon (392).
Home Sweet Home
• Oregon State will open play at Kelly Field for the 2024 season.
• This marks the second earliest home opener in the Berg era, with the 2022 home slate starting on March 7th.
• OSU and Arizona will open the Pac-12 slate for the second time since 2019, a series that also was at Kelly Field. That was also the last time these sides met in March.
• Including a meeting in the 2022 Women’s College World Series, Arizona has won four of the last seven including two of three in the 2023 series.
The Opposition
• Oregon State will match up with Arizona and Portland State this weekend and this coming Tuesday.
• The Beavers and Wildcats will meet for the 135th, 136th and 137th times this weekend.
• Arizona took last year’s series thanks to a three-run third in the rubber match at Hillenbrand Stadium in Tucson.
• OSU and Portland State will have met for the 138th time following the Tuesday twinbill.
• These Beaver State foes met last year in Phoenix where the Vikings edged OSU by a 9-8 line with runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
Highs for Hulon and Haendiges
• For the Beavs to rattle off five-straight wins, everyone needed to do their part and the arms did not disappoint.
• Logan Hulon struck out nine – a career-best – in the run-rule win over San Jose State on Saturday afternoon.
• Her previous best was six – set twice this season – against Florida (her OSU debut) and then matched against Utah Valley in Fresno the next week.
• Against the Spartans, she allowed just two hits and never let one advance past second. After a leadoff double by SJSU to open the third, she responded with three consecutive punchouts.
• Sarah Haendiges set a new season-best in strikeouts with eight against Weber State in the penultimate game of the weekend, besting a previous mark of five.
• The Californian went 6.0-plus innings and allowed a run on three hits.
Sister, Sister (x2)
•The Beavs have two pairs of sisters on the team: Abby and Paige Doerr of Coburg, Ore., and Deja and Tiara Westbrook of Arcadia, Calif.
Road Warriors
• After 21 games away across the season’s first four weeks from the comforts of Corvallis, the Beavers will open play at Kelly Field.
• OSU played five in Tampa before 16 in three sites in California (Fresno, Cathedral City and Fullerton).
Tough Tests Early and Often
• Off Softball America‘s preseason poll, OSU has 17 games against seven schools in the initial top 25. The Beavers will play: #2 Tennessee, #4 Stanford (3), #10 UCLA (3), #13 Utah (3), #16 Oregon (3), #22 Washington (3) and #24 Florida.
Beaver Staff Notes
• Beaver fans will see a mix of familiar and new faces inside the dugout this season.
• Marcie Green makes her return to Oregon State where she will lead the pitching staff. She was previously in Corvallis from 2013-2022 where she capped it off with a trip to the Women’s College World Series in her final season.
• Working primarily with the fielders and hitters, Matt Lisle joins Berg’s staff with years of experience in college softball, baseball and even Major League Baseball.
• Starting his journey from student manager in 2018, Dominic Garcia enters his first year as a member of the coaching staff. The Beaver alumnus worked his way up to head student manager to video coordinator last season and will oversee player development, technology and data.
• Entering her third year with the program is Sarah Hoechlin, who serves as the Director of Operations. The OSU alumna spent two years as a student manager before a stint with the Corvallis Knights.
Nine New Faces Join the Dam
• The Beavers welcomed nine new student-athletes, two transfers and seven freshmen.
• Hulon (Texas) and Deja Westbrook (Cal Baptist) came via the transfer portal to Corvallis.
• Alysa Del Val, Doerr, Leah Mays, Kaylee Oh, Taverli Tennant, Tiara Westbrook and Ashley Wolfe all are freshmen.
Softball America Accolades
• Kiki Escobar was tabbed by the publication as the sixth-best second baseman in their preseason rankings.
• In their Top 100 List, she was ranked 95th while Sarah Haendiges placed a few spots ahead at 87th.
