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THIS WEEK: Off to their best start in 13 years, the Portland State softball team continues its preseason schedule by heading to Tucson, Ariz., for the Wildcat Invitational. The Vikings will play five games over three days, starting with a game on Friday against nationally-ranked and host Arizona. PSU also plays Idaho State later thay day. On Saturday, the Viks take on Minnesota and UC Riverside, before closing against Utah State on Sunday.

Wildcat Invitational
Tucson, Arizona • Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium
March 4-6, 2011

OPPONENT, SCHEDULE AND SERIES INFORMATION
at Arizona (14-2) •  Friday, March 4  •  4:00 p.m. PT
Series Info – Overall: PSU leads 1-0    Streak: PSU 1

vs. Idaho State (2-6)  •  Friday, March 4  •  6:00 p.m. PT
Series Info – Overall: PSU leads 8-2    Streak: PSU 6

vs. Minnesota (7-7)  •  Saturday, March 5  •  12:00 p.m. PT
Series Info – Overall: Minnesota leads 3-2    Streak: Minnesota 1

vs. UC Riverside (3-10)  •  Saturday, March 5  •  6:00 p.m. PT
Series Info – Overall: PSU leads 10-6    Streak: UCR 4

vs. Utah State (3-7)  •  Sunday, March 6  •  10:00 a.m. PT
Series Info – Overall: PSU leads 4-1    Streak: PSU 4

HOW TO FOLLOW THE VIKS THIS WEEK: Gametracker will be available for all five games through Arizona's website: ArizonaWildcats.com. A live audio feed will also be available for every game, but only the Vikings' game against Arizona will feature a full play-by-play. The other four games will only have occassional updates and play-by-play.

LATHAM AGAIN NAMED PCSC PITCHER OF THE WEEK (MAR. 1): Nichole Latham was named the Pacific Coast Softball Conference Mountain Division Pitcher of the Week for the second consecutive week, it was announced by the league office on March 1. Latham's honor gives the Vikings' pitching staff a clean sweep of the first three Mountain Division weekly honors. Sophomore Anna Bertrand won the award on Feb. 15. Even though she made just one appearance last weekend, Latham's complete-game shutout of 2010 PCSC champion Saint Mary's was enough to earn her her seventh career weekly award. The senior righty scattered five hits, walked two and struck out three, while working out of several jambs to help PSU to a 3-0 victory. Saint Mary's was able to load the bases with no outs in the fifth inning, before Latham sat down the next three Gaels' batters in order. In the sixth, Saint Mary's got back-to-back singles to lead off the inning, but again Latham stopped the threat by retiring the next three hitters she faced. In seven starts this season, Latham is 4-3 with a 1.87 ERA. Her victory over Saint Mary's was the 40th of her career and moved her up to ninth all-time at Portland State.

A GOOD START: At 8-5, the Vikings are off to their best start since the 1998 team also won eight of their first 13 outings. The Vikings have won three in a row and five of their past seven. In fact, this is just the second time since 1998 that the Vikings have had a winning record through 13 games. The 2006 squad was the only other, standing 7-6 at this point.

ON DECK: Following this weekend's trip to Tucson, the Vikings will make their annual trek north to play in the Husky Softball Classic hosted by Washington. PSU plays Oregon State (Mar. 12), Seattle (Mar. 12) and the Huskies (Mar. 13).

PSU-ARIZONA SERIES NOTES: The Vikings and Wildcats have met up just once before, in 1979 at the Nevada Invitational in Reno. PSU claimed a 1-0 victory in the contest.

PSU-IDAHO STATE SERIES NOTES: Portland State leads the all-time series, 8-2, and has won the past six meetings ... the series is even at 1-1 in neutral site games ... last year, the Vikings took all four PCSC Mountain Division games from the Bengals in Portland by a combined score of 24-3 ... Anna Bertrand pitched perhaps her best game of the season in the opener on April 24, scattering four hits and striking out a career-best 16 hitters in a 6-1 victory. PSU also earned a 10-1 victory that day, scoring seven runs in the bottom of the first ... on April 25, the Vikings won by scores of 1-0 and 7-1 ... Lacey Holm and Arielle Wiser both hit .273 (3-for-11) over the series, and Alexa Morales came off the bench to hit .400 (2-for-5). Bertrand went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 24 Ks over 14 innings, while Nichole Latham was 2-0 with a 1.17 ERA ... PSU and Idaho State first met up in 1981 in Pocatello, with the Bengals taking a 2-1 victory in 18 innings. That game is the second-longest in PSU history ... they also met up two other times that season in Portland and the Vikings won both contests.

PSU-MINNESOTA NOTES: The Golden Gophers lead the all-time series, 3-2, after splitting a pair of games with the Vikings last spring at a tournament hosted by Boise State ... Portland State won the first game, 1-0, on March 20, while Minnesota earned a 6-3 victory the following day ... in the opener, Anna Bertrand pitched the entire game, striking out 10 and giving up just two hits. Danielle Lynn brought in what proved to be the winning run with a RBI-single in the fourth inning. PSU lost the second game despite getting home runs from Lynn and Lacey Holm ... Lynn and Brandi Campos both went 2-for-6 over the two contests ... these two teams first met up on Feb. 28, 2003, at the Cal State Fullerton Worth Invitational. The Golden Gophers were ranked 24th and won 11-1 in six innings ... all five meetings have been at neutral sites.

PSU-UC RIVERSIDE SERIES NOTES: PSU owns a 10-6 record against UC Riverside in a series that dates back to 1988. The Vikings and Highlanders first met up that year at the Cal State Hayward Tournament, with Portland State winning 4-2 ... all 16 games have been at neutral sites ... these two last played in 2008 season-opener at the Cathedral City Kickoff Classic in Palm Springs. UCR earned a 5-4 victory ... in that game, Arielle Wiser was 2-for-3 with one run scored, and Brandi Campos doubled and drove in a run. Nichole Latham took the loss, giving up nine hits and four earned runs in a complete-game effort. She struck out five and walked two ... the Highlanders have won the past four meetings ... PSU and UCR played against each other three straight seasons from 2002-04 at the UNLV Softball Classic.

PSU-UTAH STATE SERIES NOTES: Portland State holds a 4-1 lead in the all-time series and has won four in a row ... all five meetings have been at neutral sites ... Utah State took the first meeting, 2-1, on Feb. 20, 1999, at the UNLV Tournament ... PSU won 4-3 in eight innings in 2006, 6-5 in 2007, 3-1 in eight in 2007 and 4-3 in 2008 ... the 2006 and first game of 2007 were played at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic in Las Vegas, the second game of '07 was at the Cascade Clash in Corvallis, and the '08 contest was at the Cathedral City Kickoff Classic in Palm Springs ...  in the 2008 game, Arielle Wiser hit 1-for-3 and Nichole Latham earned her first career victory after giving up three runs on seven hits with nine Ks and no walks.

THEIR FIRST TRIP TO TUCSON: Portland State will be making its first-ever trip to Tucson this weekend. Despite the relative closeness geographically between the states of Oregon and Arizona, the Vikings have only ever traveled to the Grand Canyon State three other times. All three of those trips were to play in the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, first in 2009, then again in 2010, and finally earlier this season.

HOMER HAPPY: With eight home runs already this season, the Vikings are on pace to break last season's total of 19. PSU didn't hit its eighth homer of 2010 until April 10, which came in their 33rd contest. Lacey Holm and Sadie Lopez each have two bombs, while Crysta Conn, Danielle Lynn, Carly McEachran and Arielle Wiser each have hit one.

LOTS OF TRIPLES: The Vikings have also been racking up triples early in 2011, with seven already. Jenna Krogh has three,  Carly McEachran has hit two, while Lacey Holm and Alexa Morales each have one. Last year, the Vikings didn't record their first triple until their 19th game and didn't tally their seventh triple until game number 46 at Weber State. That was also the last time PSU hit more than one triple in a game, actually recording three, until they hit two against Cal Poly on Feb. 20 and two against Cal State Bakersfield on Feb. 26.

HITTING STREAKS: Junior transfer Jenna Krogh is currently on a PCSC-best 10-game hitting streak, with a .412 average (14-34) over that span. Four other Vikings – Lacey Holm, Sadie Lopez, Carly McEachran and Arielle Wiser – each have three-game streaks going. Junior Lacey Holm had a six-game hitting streak come to an end against No. 1 UCLA on Feb. 19, but still has at least one hit in nine of the past 10 games. Over that span, Holm is batting .522 with two home runs, 11 RBIs, a .913 slugging percentag and a .556 on-base percentage.

IMPROVED OFFENSIVE NUMBERS: Heading into the 2011 season, Head Coach Tobin Echo-Hawk wasn't sure where the offense would come from. The Vikings lost three of the top four hitters from a year ago and welcomed in several new faces this spring. But so far, the Vikings have greatly surpassed the numbers they put up through the first 13 games of 2010. PSU is hitting .266, compared to .231 through the first 13 games of play a year ago, and has tallied 58 runs, 52 RBIs and eight home runs. Last year at this time they had scored 39 runs, driven in 33 and hit only one homer. The slugging and on-base percentage numbers are significantly improved as well, as PSU is slugging .410 and has an on-base percentage of .340, compared to a .284 slugging percentage and .302 on-base percentage last spring. Last year, PSU had just one player hitting over .300 through the first 13 games, while this year there are four over that mark. All of it adds up to an 8-5 record, compared to last year's 5-8 mark.

THE PITCHING IS BETTER TOO: Just like the offense, the Vikings' pitching has been better through the first 13 games of the season compared to last year. Anna Bertrand and Nichole Latham have a combined 2.67 ERA and have held opponents to a .231 batting average, while last year through the first 13 games the Vikings' pitching staff had a 4.15 ERA and opponents were hitting .262.

SUCCESS STARTS AT THE TOP: Portland State's softball team has experienced great success under Head Coach Tobin Echo-Hawk. Over the past two-plus seasons the Vikings have a 67-58 overall mark and 33-7 conference record under Echo-Hawk, who was an assistant with the program for two seasons before being promoted to the top spot on Sept. 12, 2008. Echo-Hawk was the 2009 PCSC Coach of the Year after leading the Vikings to the conference title and a trip to the NCAA tournament. In 2010, she was voted as the PCSC Mountain Division Coach of the Year after guiding PSU to a 18-2 league mark. The 18 league wins set a school record and also matched the 2007 Loyola Marymount team for the most wins in PCSC history.

SUPER SENIOR: Vikings senior Arielle has played in all 183 games during her career, starting 182 of them. All 182 starts have come at shortstop and she has started 170 straight games dating back to her freshman season. Wiser already ranks first all-time at Portland State in sacrifice hits with 37 and also joined the top 10 in runs scored earlier this year. She now has 91 in her career and is tied for seventh. Wiser can also join the top 10 in several other categories, including doubles (she has 19 and needs four more), at-bats (she has 557 and needs 46 more) and games played (she needs 12 more).

LATHAM LOOKING TO MOVE UP: Senior right-handed pitcher Nichole Latham will look to move up in several career categories in the PSU record book this season. Latham was the 2009 PCSC Pitcher of the Year and earned first team All-Mountain Division honors last season. In the record book she ranks second in saves (4), fourth in appearances (107), fifth in strikeouts (339) and strikeout ratio (4.98), sixth in winning percentage (.548/40-33), and ninth in games started (70), innings pitched (476.1) and ninth in wins (40). Her victory this past weekend against Saint Mary's helped her overtake Michelle Hext (39-49) for ninth place in the record book. Additionally, with one more start and one more victory, Latham will move into a tie for eighth in both categories with Deb Fitzhugh.

PICKING UP RIGHT WHERE SHE LEFT OFF: Sophomore Anna Bertrand picked up right where she left off last season, racking up 39 strikeouts over five appearances during the first weekend of play, Feb. 11-13. She averaged 10.5 Ks per seven innings and matched her career high of 16 Ks against Nevada in her first start of the season. Bertrand had six double-digits strikeout performances a year ago, including recording 16 against Idaho State on April 24, in Portland. In what turned out to be a remarkable freshman campaign, Bertrand tallied 218 Ks, which was the second highest single season mark in PSU history and the sixth best in PCSC history. Now with 52 strikeouts this year and 270 in her career, Bertrand ranks eighth all-time. She needs two more Ks to move up to seventh.

SETTING THE TONE: For the first time in her three seasons as the head coach at PSU, Tobin Echo-Hawk has a prototypical leadoff hitter in junior transfer Jenna Krogh. The speedy left spent her first two seasons at Colorado State, batting .346 and stealing 23 bases. So far in 2011, Krogh has set the tone offensively for the Vikings and is the only PSU player with at least one hit in 12 of 13 games. She is currently on a 10-game hitting streak and is second on the team with a .372 batting average and a .438 on-base percentage, while leading the Vikings in runs scored (10), hits (16) and stolen bases (2). Krogh has also tallied a lead-off hit in seven of 13 games this year, including hitting a double in her first ABs in both games against nationally-ranked Stanford and hitting a triple to lead off against Cal Poly.

PROVIDING THE BIG STICK: As mentioned earlier, the Vikings didn't know where the offensive production would come from this season. Gone were Brandi Scoggins, Becca Diede and De'Chauner Skinner, who were 1-2-4 in batting average and also drove in a majority of the team's runs. So far in 2011, it's been junior Lacey Holm who has provided the big stick in the lineup. Holm leads the team in most offensive categories, including batting average (.467), home runs (2), RBIs (14), slugging (.767%) and on-base percentage (.514%). Holm has already matched her home run total of a year ago and is more than halfway to her total of 19 runs driven in last spring.