2024 Big West Softball Schedule | Standings | Stats | Week 14 Notes (.pdf)
What 2 Watch 4
- The final slate of the softball regular season is on tap this week in The Big West.
League-leading and preseason favorite Cal State Fullerton (34-16, 20-4 BW) sees itself playing host to Long Beach State (24-27, 19-5 BW) in a battle for the conference crown. These two teams have finished either first or second in the league the past three seasons, with the Beach boasting the title a year ago while the Titans took it home in 2022, and LBSU held the hardware in 2021. The series will begin Friday, May 10 at 5 p.m. before a twin bill takes place on Saturday, May 11 at 2/4 p.m.
Long Beach State sports two student-athletes batting above .300 with Makayla Medellin and Jocylyn Vidal. Medellin leads LBSU with 50 total hits, currently placing fourth overall in The Big West. Defensively, Long Beach State ace Sophia Fernandez has sat down 82 batters alongside a 2.93 ERA during the senior's 148.1 innings pitched.
Cal State Fullerton also contains a strong bullpen with its top two pitchers, Staci Chambers (16) and Haley Rainey (15) leading the league in wins. Rainey ranks first overall in the conference in ERA at 1.71. Megan Delgadillo of the Titans tops The Big West in hits with a league-leading 78 hacks.
Four other final series around The Big West will be featured this week.
CSUN (24-24, 8-16 BW) travels to UC Santa Barbara (18-27, 12-12 BW) on Friday, May 10 for a doubleheader at Noon and 2 p.m. Mikayla Carman paces CSUN with a .363 batting average is coming off a performance where the junior landed The Big West Field Player of the Week Honor. Teammate Lulu Sanchez places second on CSUN hitting .336 and has earned Freshman of the Week twice this season. UC Santa Barbara sees itself hitting at .286 overall with four batters slugging above .300, Madelyn McNally (.435), Alexa Sams (.345), Ainsley Waddell (.327), and Jazzy Santos (.304)
UC Riverside (16-28, 10-14 BW) and Cal State Bakersfield (5-43, 3-21 BW) collide on Friday at 2:30 p.m. before playing a DH on Saturday, May 11 at Noon and 2:30 p.m. The Highlanders have Nadia Witt hitting at a team-best .382 and hits with 55. Logan Ray-Gasper leads the 'Runners in batting (.314), hits (37) and RBI (12).
Hawai'i (20-23, 13-9 BW) will look to handle its business across the Pacific Ocean when the team takes on UC Davis (18-19, 9-15 BW) on Friday, May 10, kicking off with a doubleheader at 1/3 p.m. The top six hitters for the Rainbow Wahine have registered a total of 26 home runs on the season. The bullpen of UC Davis ranks fourth in The Big West with a combined ERA of 3.10.
UC San Diego (16-32, 9-14 BW) sees itself playing host to Cal Poly (25-17, 15-8 BW) on Friday at 6 p.m. before completing the series on Saturday, May 11 at 1/3 p.m. Two Tritons, Hailey Mulligan and Lexi O' Gorman lead the team with averages of .318 and .314, respectively. Reigning Big West Pitcher of the Week Sophia Ramuno, currently ranks seventh overall in The Big West with a 2.70 ERA, and second overall in batters struck out at 131.
A total of 11 contests will air live on ESPN + this week. Check our Big West website online for dates and times.
Weekly Highlights
- Long Beach State's Jocylyn Vidal was perfect at the plate in a three-game sweep of Cal State Bakersfield. In nine plate appearances, Vidal went 8-for-8 with a walk, four doubles, a home run, eight RBI, and scored six runs. Vidal slashed 1.000/1.000/1.875 during the series.
Last weekend against Hawai'i, Cal State Fullerton's Megan Delgadillo took the lead for the most individual hits in Titan history at 258. Currently, Delgadillo has amassed 76 hits this season and brings the senior's career total to 262.
Jessica Clements of Cal Poly contributed a home run, double, and RBI in all three games of Cal Poly's season sweep versus UC Davis.
Ka'ena Keliinoi of Hawai'i hit .444 (4-to-9) with a double and a .556 slugging percentage while hitting safely in all three games.
Big West, Big Arms
- Over the weekend, Aggie ace Kenedi Brown made history for UC Davis by becoming the program's all-time Divison I leader in innings pitched. Overall. Brown has now pitched 702.2 innings across the senior's four seasons. Heading into the final week of 2024, Brown has thrown 728 strikeouts in college alongside a 2.36 ERA.
- Staci Chambers of Cal State Fullerton posted a perfect 0.00 ERA in two starts and three appearances. Chambers saw 13.1 innings against the Rainbow Wahine, allowing eight hits and no earned runs. Chambers struck out 21 batters this weekend, collecting the 130th punchout of the 2024 campaign.
- Sarah Reineman was excellent in her two starts, allowing just two earned runs through 12 innings of work for UC Davis. The right-hander recorded six strikeouts on the weekend.
Big West Weekly Recognition
- CSUN junior outfielder Mikayla Carman slashed .500/.533/.857 last week to claim The Big West Field Player of the Week award. This is the third weekly distinction of Carman's collegiate career (May 8, 2023, | May 16, 2022). Carmon batted in a run during three of the Matador's four contests last week. Carmon contributed an RBI against No. 6 UCLA and recorded a pair of multi-hit games against UC San Diego. The Matadors notched their first Big West sweep of the season behind Carman's bat that recorded six hits and five RBIs including a double in games two and three, respectively.
Cal Poly pitcher Sophia Ramuno tossed a pair of complete games to clinch The Big West Pitcher of the Week award. This is the second weekly distinction of Ramuno's collegiate career (March 18, 2024). In the series opener against UC Davis, Ramuno recorded a complete game during the Mustangs 1-0 outing alongside five strikeouts and only allowed two hits. The San Diego, Calif. native spun another complete game in the series finale allowing three hits while notching four punchouts in Cal Poly's 1-0 shutout.
Freshman infielder Sarah Perez stuffed the stat sheet to capture The Big West Freshman of the Week award. This is the second weekly distinction of Perez's collegiate career. During the Titans series win versus Hawai'i, Perez recorded five putouts and two assists from the shortstop position. Offensively, Perez slashed .714/.750/.714 tagged along with five hits, and a lone RBI and walk.
Notable Returners/All-Big West Preseason Team
- Cal State Fullerton has been selected as the top team in the Big West heading into the 2024 season, as voted by the league's 10 head coaches. The Titans earned 77 points accompanied by six first-place votes in the polling to claim the top spot in the preseason poll for consecutive seasons. Big West regular season champion Long Beach State was separated from Cal State Fullerton by just two points, (75 points, four first-place votes) in the preseason poll. Both teams qualified for the 2023 NCAA Softball Championship last year with the Titans earning the right of passage courtesy of an at-large bid. This was the first time since 2018 The Big West had more than one representative in the postseason.
Coaches in the league also voted on an 11-person Preseason All-Big West team. Cal State Fullerton claimed two spots on the preseason team with the pairing of senior outfielder Megan Delgadillo and junior pitcher Haley Rainey earning the honors. The Beach boasts a league-best three representatives on the 11-member Big West preseason coaches' team with junior infielder Jacquelyn Bickar, junior pitcher Shannon Haddad, and senior outfielder Sara Olson. The LBSU trio all garnered First Team All-Big West honors a year ago.
CSUN (28-24, 19-8 BW) comes in third place with 65 points. The Matadors finished third place in The Big West last year after being polled fifth in last year's edition. UC Santa Barbara (26-22, 13-14 BW) was selected as the fourth team with 52 points, UC Davis (29-22, 15-12 BW) came in fifth. Hawai'i (30-23, 13-14 BW), and Cal Poly (19-23, 12-15 BW) finished sixth and seventh in the polling while UC Riverside (26), UC San Diego (22), and Cal State Bakersfield (9) round out the preseason rankings. These three squads will be looking to shake up the league after improving from a year ago.
Last year's Big West Player of the Year, senior outfielder/catcher Anna Dethlefson made the preseason list after leading the league slugging percentage (.627), doubles (15), and stolen bases (40). Teammate senior pitcher Kenedi Brown also made the list after ranking third in the league in ERA (1.73) and strikeouts (16) a year ago. UC Santa Barbara sports the duo of senior catcher/designated player Ashley Donaldson and senior infielder Madelyn McNally on the preseason team. Cal Poly junior outfielder Jessica Clements made the team after setting the team record in career-hitting percentage at .384. Senior infielder Maya Nakamura of Hawai'i also earned preseason honors after batting .390 in 2023.
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