Beavers Head To Waco Regional

THE WEEK

• The Beavers will return to the postseason for the second consecutive year after earning a berth to the Waco Regional.

• Oregon State will open the regional against No. 11/12 James Madison - the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) champion.

• The winner will face the victor of the 4:30 p.m. PT game between No. 15 Baylor and Kent State, Saturday at 11 a.m. PT.

• All postseason games will be broadcast on ESPN — Waco Regional aired on ESPN3 with Brenda VanLengena and Francesca Enea serving as talent.

WACO REGIONAL SCHEDULE

Friday, May 19

Game 1 (2 p.m. PT) – Oregon State vs. James Madison

Game 2 (4:30 p.m. PT) – No. 15 Baylor vs. Kent State

Saturday, May 20

Game 3 (11 a.m. PT) – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2

Game 4 (1:30 p.m. PT) – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2

Game 5 (4 p.m. PT) – Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4

Sunday, May 21

Game 6 (11 a.m. PT) – Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5

BEAVERS AT A GLANCE

• The Beavers hold a 28-25 record heading into its 13th NCAA Tournament appearance — second consecutive.

• Oregon State finished its conference schedule at California going 1-2 in the series, picking up the regular-season finale, 5-3.

• The Beavers have added some impressive wins over top-10 teams this season including taking the series from both Utah and UCLA.

• The series win against UCLA was the first time in program history and the first ever that the Beavers run-ruled a top-10 Pac-12 opponent.

• Natalie Hampton helped the Beavers secure the series win over UCLA with a 3-run walk-off in game three.

• Alysha Everett earned Player of the Week honors April 17 after totaling seven RBIs in the series against the Bruins including four in the run-rule victory in game one.

• Natalie Hampton set the school RBI record with a RBI single in game two of the series at No. 10 Washington on April 8.

• Taylor Cotton was named Pitcher of the Week on March 7 after recording a pair of wins at the San Diego Classic, including throwing her first career no-hitter against Miami (Ohio).

• McKenna Arriola will carry her nine-game on-base streak into the postseason. She has been walked in seven of the last nine games.

• Shelby Weeks will look to continue success from the dish, carrying a six-game hitting streak into the Waco Regional.

• Alysha Everett ranks 114th in the nation in toughest to strikeout with a 16.9 mark. She has struck out just nine times in 152 AB this season.

• Shelby Weeks had a career performance in game one of the California series finishing with a perfect 4-for-4 from the plate and setting a career in hits in a game.

SCOUTING THE DUKES

• The Dukes are 50-6 overall after winning their second consecutive Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship handedly.

• JMU outscored its opponents 30-1 during the conference tournament to set a new record for margin of victory. The Dukes did not play more than a five inning game in their three games.

• James Madison is ranked No. 11 in the NFCA/USA Today Poll and No. 12 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.

• The Dukes are making its fifth straight NCAA Regional berth and will carry a 19-game winning streak into Waco.

• JMU is 6-6 in its last four regional games and advanced to the Super Regional a season ago, but lost the three-game series to LSU.

• James Madison enters the Waco Regional with the nation's best batting average at .357 as a team.

• Head coach for the Dukes is Mickey Dean in his fifth season.

SERIES HISTORY

• Oregon State and James Madison will meet for the first time.

NCAA TOURNAMENT

• The 2017 season marks the third time the Beavers reached the NCAA Tournament under the direction of head coach Laura Berg, as well as the 12th time in program history.

• The Beavers are 28-22 all time in their 12 regional appearances.

• The last time OSU won a regional was in 2006 when it played Nevada and No. 19 Baylor twice. Oregon State went on to play in the Women's College World Series that year.

• Oregon State reached the NCAAs in 2016 and in 2013 — Berg's first year as head coach.

• Head coach Berg holds a 1-3 record in the postseason with her lone win in 2013 against Stony Brook at the Columbia, Mo., Regional.

• The Beavers also reached the tournament in Berg's first year as an assistant coach in 2012. Before 2012, OSU had not reached the tournament since 2007.

• Berg and former head coach Kirk Walker (1995-2012) are the only head coaches in program history to reach the NCAA Tournament.

BEAVERS WITHOUT BORDERS

• Beavers without Borders is a program that offers global service-learning experiences for student-athletes.

• The program has completed six service projects in Guatemala, Macedonia, Ethiopia and the Dominican Republic.

• McKenna Arriola will be going to Costa Rica in June for seven days. This is the first time OSU will have a project in Costa Rica.

• Kayleen Shafer and Michelle Sass will head to the Dominican Republic in August for 10 days - will be OSU's fifth year there.

EVERETT NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK

• Alysha Everett was named the Player of the Week on April 17, after totaling seven RBIs in the series win over UCLA.

• She hit a series-high four RBIs in the run-rule win in game one.

• The DP concluded the series batting .625 and slugging 1.125%.

• The seven RBIs in the series brought her April total to 19 RBI.

• She paces the team .550 slugging, 45 RBIs and 11 doubles.

COTTON EARNS PITCHER OF THE WEEK

• Taylor Cotton was named the Pitcher of the Week on March 7, after recording a pair of wins at the San Diego Classic.

• Cotton recorded her first career no-hitter against Miami (Ohio) and another shutout against San Diego over the weekend.

• She finished with a 0.86 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings.

HAMPTON SETS RBI RECORD

• Natalie Hampton knocked a RBI-single in the 2-1 victory over No. 10 Washington on April 8, to record her 144th run batted in.

• She pasted Terrah Beyster (1997-00) who held the record for over a decade.

• Hampton set the single season RBI record as a freshman with 50, and matched it again during her redshirt junior season.

SWISS ARMY KNIFE

• Sammi Noland has been named a "Swiss Army Knife" by head coach Laura Berg for the many different positions she has started in her short career at Oregon State.

• The redshirt senior has started in five different positions in her three years as a Beaver.

• The transfer from Nebraska has started at 3B, SS and 2B so far this season. In the past, she started games in RF and catcher.

• Even though she has played five positions, she has only committed 14 errors in 109 games.

CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE

• The Oregon State softball team got things done off the field and in the classroom during the fall and winter terms.

• The Beavers recorded a team GPA of 3.12 over the fall, including 13 student-athletes with a 3.0 GPA or better.

• During the recent winter term, the team finished with a 3.10 GPA and 12 student-athletes above a 3.0.

COTTON SHRINKS ERA

• Lefty-pitcher Taylor Cotton has done some major shrinking to here ERA over her college career.

• The senior started her career playing at Cal and posting a 8.54 ERA in 13 appearances before transferring.

• Since at OSU, she has improved her average from a 7.52 as a sophomore to a 6.30 as a junior.

• This season she is carrying a 2.44 ERA and a 14-9 record. She has pitched more innings in 2017 than she did total her first three years in the circle.

COME ON BACK

• Head coach Laura Berg hung up her cleats after nearly 20-years of playing softball and spent a year with the LAPD in 2010-11 before returning to the game as an assistant coach for the 2012 season at Oregon State.

• Associate head coach Marcie Green also has experience with law enforcement. Green studied criminology at Fresno State and spent five years as a prison guard at Corcoran State Prison in California following graduation before starting coaching.

• Assistant coach Emily Freidman finished her pro-softball career in 2010 and turned to CrossFit. She rose up the ranks quickly in the sport and became one of the top female athletes in the world from 2012-14 before starting her coaching career.

BERG NAMED HEAD COACH OF JWNT

• Head coach Laura Berg will continue her legacy with the USA National Softball team, but this time with the junior team.

• Head coach Berg will be the leader of the 2017 Junior Women's National Team and will lead the 17-player roster this summer.

• Berg has prior experience with the juniors, being an assistant coach in 2012. Since then, she has helped train the national team.

FOLLOW BERG

• Head coach Laura Berg is in her fifth season.

• Has guided OSU to three NCAA Tournament appearances.

• Holds a 136-126-1 overall record and 37-80 in Pac-12 games.

WORKING UP THE RECORD BOOK

• A number of Beavers have made their way into the Oregon State record books in various categories.

• Natalie Hampton has solidified her name in the books in three categories: home runs, batting average and RBI.

• Hampton ranks tied for fourth in home runs with 37 career bombs, tied for eighth in batting average with a mark of .307 and first in RBI with 157.

• Meehra Nelson had a record breaking freshman year, as she set the single-season saves record with seven and ranks seventh all-time in saves in her second season.

• McKenna Arriola is working up the ranks as she is sixth all-time in runs scored with 114.

SINGLE SEASON RECORD BOOK

• Alysha Everett is looking to cement her name in Oregon State's RBI single-season record book.

• The junior leads the team with 45 ribbies so far this season, which ranks her tied for seventh.

• Teammate Natalie Hampton holds the record with 50, which she set as freshman and matched it as a redshirt junior.

ALL-CONFERENCE AWARDS

• Oregon State had four players tabbed with All-Conference honors earlier this week.

• Alysha Everett highlighted the quartet with Pac-12 second team honors.

• McKenna Arriola, Taylor Cotton and Natalie Hampton all were named to the Pac-12 third team.

COACHES AND NCAA HISTORY

• Oregon State's coaching staff is no stranger when it comes to the NCAA Tournament and the Women's College World Series.

• Both head coach Laura Berg and associate head coach Marcie Green played at Fresno State in the '90s and gained plenty of experience in the path to the WCWS.

• Coach Berg played from 1994-95 and 1997-98 making it to the WCWS three times, including national champions in '98.

• Coach Green played from 1990-93 and appeared in three WCWS, including a runner-up finish in 1990.

• Assistant coach Emily Friedman transfered to California from Wisconsin after her sophomore year and help the number-one ranked Golden Bears reach the WCSW in 2005.

• Oregon State's coaches bring seven WCWS appearances into the Waco Regional.

HOW MANY MEDALS?

• Head coach Laura Berg was a four-time All-American at Fresno State, including guiding the Bulldogs to their first title in 1998.

• Softball was an Olympic sport from 1996-2008 in which Berg represented the US National Team in all four appearances, helping claim three gold medals for her nation. (1996- Atlanta, 2000- Sydney, 2004- Athens) and one silver (2008-Beijing).

• She is the only athlete in USA Softball history to compete in four different Olympics.

• Berg is the most decorated USA Softball Olympic athlete in history, accumulating 11 total medals (10 gold), while competing in the US Olympic Games, the International Softball Federation Women's World Championship and the Pan American Games.

• Head coach Berg's No. 44 jersey was retired at Fresno State on February 28, 2016.

ROSTER BREAKDOWN

• OSU head coach Laura Berg welcomed 10 players that started a game and 12 letter-winners back from the 2016 season.

• The squad also welcomed seven newcomers to start their careers at Oregon State.

• The Beavers have 19 student-athletes on the roster, including six of seven players that appeared in 48 or more games last year.

• Of the 19 SA's on the roster, five started every game in 2016.

CHALLENGING SCHEDULE

• OSU faced nine teams that were ranked in the preseason top-25 polls by the NFCA and USA Softball.

• No. 8 UCLA, No. 9 Oregon, No. 10 Arizona, No. 13 Washington, No.

15 Tennessee, No. 16 Minnesota, No. 18 Utah, No. 24 Fresno State were all ranked by the NFCA.

• No. 8 UCLA, No. 9 Oregon, No. 12 Arizona, No. 13 Washington, No. 14 Minnesota, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 17 Utah, No. T24 California were ranked by USA Softball.

• Oregon claimed its fourth-straight Pac-12 title and reached the NCAA Super Regionals last year.

RETURN OF A RECORD SETTING OFFENSE

• The Beavers returned seven starters from a 2016 squad that set the school record for batting average once again.

• In each of the last four seasons under head coach Berg, Oregon State has set a new record for team batting average, matching the 2006 mark in 2013, before breaking the record in the last three consecutive seasons.

2013 (.280) » 2014 (.287) » 2015 (.298) » 2016 (.306)

For more information on the Oregon State softball team, follow the team's official Twitter and Instagram accounts at @BeaverSoftball or by Facebook at /BeaverSoftball.

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Players Mentioned

McKenna Arriola

Taylor Cotton

Alysha Everett

Natalie Hampton

Meehra Nelson

Sammi Noland

Michelle Sass

Kayleen Shafer

Shelby Weeks