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Saturday, Feb. 23; 3:30 p.m. - Live Stats | Live Audio
Saturday, Feb. 23; 6:00 p.m. - Live Stats | Live Audio
Sunday, Feb. 24; 11:00 a.m. - Live Stats | Live Audio

FIRST PITCH
THIS WEEK: The Portland State softball team heads back to the Valley of the Sun for a four-game set with No. 3 Arizona state Friday, Feb. 22 through Sunday, Feb. 24. The Vikings and Sun Devils play one game on Friday, twice on Saturday, with the series finale on Sunday. 

FOLLOW THE VIKINGS: Fans can follow the four-game series via live stats and a live audio stream provided by Arizona State. Links can be found on the softball schedule page at GoViks.com or at TheSunDevils.com.

LAST WEEKEND: The Vikings went 2-3 last weekend at the Easton Desert Classic hosted by UNLV in Henderson and Las Vegas, Nev. PSU opened the weekend up with a 3-2 win over Cal State Fullerton thanks to an Alicia Fine game-winning single in the bottom of the sixth. After the Vikings lost to UNLV, they defeated the BYU Cougars, 5-3, behind a trio of home runs. PSU then closed out the weekend with losses to Nevada and then-No. 8 California. Fine hit .417 (5-for-12) with a home run to lead the Vikings on the weekend.

ARIZONA STATE: The Sun Devils enter the weekend ranked No. 3 in the country in both the NFCA Coaches' and USA Softball polls with a perfect 12-0 record. ASU hosted the Kajikawa Classic to open the season and then the Littlewood Classic last weekend before hosting the Vikings. The Sun Devils play their first 27 games at home.

Their perfect record leads the Pacific-12 Conference, as does their team ERA of 0.64. Mackenzie Popescue leads the conference with a 0.48 ERA and is 4-0 on the season. Dallas Escobedo has a 0.77 ERA and an 8-0 record after going 4-0 last week. The pitching staff has combined for eight complete games and seven shutouts. They have given up only seven earned runs in 77 innings this season.


The Sun Devils are hitting .345 as a team in 2013 led by Lucy Aubrecht who is hitting .476 (10-for-21) with a pair of home runs and eight RBIs. Cheyenne Coyle is hitting .469 (15-32) and leads the team in runs scored (15), home runs (6), and RBIs (17).

SERIES WITH ASU: Arizona State leads the all-time series 8-0 dating back to 1978. ASU took the first meeting 10-0 and then took the next meeting in 1981 by a score of 6-0. The Teams did not meet again until 2000. The last time ASU and PSU played was at the 2010 Kajikawa Classic. The Sun Devils took that meeting 14-0 in five innings.

COMING UP: Following the four-game set against the Sun Devils, the Vikings will travel back to Arizona for the 2013 Wildcat Invitational March 1-3 in Tucson, Ariz.

NEWS AND NOTES
ONE FINE WEEK: Sophomore shortstop Alicia Fine led the Vikings hitting .417 (5-for-12) at the Easton Desert Classic in Las Vegas, Nev. Her five hits led the team as did her two doubles. She also blasted her first home run of the season in a 5-3 win over BYU. She also drove in three runners on the weekend and dropped down a pair of sacrifice bunts. She had a .833 slugging percentage and a .417 on-base percentage on the weekend. She entered the tournament hitting .188 and raised her average nearly 100 points to .286. She started the tournament going 2-for-3 with a run scored while driving in the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth in a 3-2 win over Cal State Fullerton. She then hit her first home run of the season to give the Vikings a lead against BYU. In the final game of the weekend she hit a pair of doubles off No. 8 California while driving in a run.

TRIFECTA: Three Vikings hit home runs against the BYU Cougars. Becca Bliss, Alicia Fine, and Alexa Morales all hit their first home runs of the season against the Cougars. To find the last time the Vikings hit three or more home runs in a single game you have to go back to the 2011 season when they hit four in an 11-0 win over Weber State.

NOT SO FAST: Freshman catcher Laruan Bliss has thrown out four base runners in the first 11 games of 2013. That puts her on a pace to throw out 19 runners on the season. The Vikings threw out 11 runners all of last year.

KAJIKAWA CLASSIC: The Vikings opened the 2013 season by going 2-4 at the Kajikawa Classic hosted by Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz. The Vikings dropped their season opener to San Jose State 12-2. Senior Carly McEachran started the season hitting a home run on the first pitch she saw leading off for the Vikings in the bottom of the first against the Spartans. She then hit a pair of home runs in a 2-1 win over Boise State for the Vikings first win of the season. The Vikings lost to No. 20 Stanford 3-1 before dropping a game to Bradley. PSU added a 5-3 win over Kentucky before dropping the final game of the Classic to Indiana. McEachran blasted four home runs on the opening weekend after hitting four all of last year.

STARTING WITH A BANG: Senior Carly McEachran started the season the way no Viking ever has. McEachran hit a home run over the left field fence on the first pitch she saw leading off for the Vikings in the bottom of the first against San Jose State. McEachran hit two more home runs against Boise State and added another against No. 20 Stanford. She hit home runs for her first three hits of 2013. Her four long balls on the opening weekend matched her total from all of 2012.

COMING UP CLUTCH: Freshman Candice Orozco hit a ground-rule double over the center field fence driving in a pair of runs against No. 20 Stanford. What makes the hit even better is the fact that it was Orozco's first career hit as a Viking.  

BLISSFUL BEGINNINGS: Freshman catcher Lauran Bliss has been a blessing for the Vikings after transferring from Texas Tech. She stepped right into the lineup as the starting catcher and leads the Vikings in batting average after going .438 (7-for-16) on the opening weekend. She has a pair of doubles and three RBIs. She is slugging .563 and has an on-base percentage of .500. She has been a big help behind the plate throwing out three runners, including a pair against Kentucky.

PRESEASON POLL: The Portland State softball team enters the 2013 season as the favorite to win the inaugural Big Sky Softball Championship as selected by conference coaches. Portland State finished first in the coaches' poll with 35 points including five first-place votes. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team in the preseason poll.

DOUBLE THE BLISS: With the addition of mid-year transfer Lauran Bliss, the 2013 Vikings will have double the Bliss and double the fun. Lauran Bliss joins junior Becca Bliss on the roster though there is no relation between the two.

TOURNAMENT WIN: With the Vikings 2-0 win over Mississippi State at the NCAA Eugene Regional, the Vikings picked up their second NCAA Division I Tournament win and the first since 2006. It was also Head Coach Tobin Echo-Hawk's first career tournament win.

2012 NCAA EUGENE REGIONAL: The Vikings advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season in 2012 and the third time in the last four years. Portland State lost its tournament opener to Oregon before defeating Mississippi State 2-0 for its first tournament win since 2006. The regional came to an end with a 2-0 loss to BYU.

2012 PSCS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: The Vikings claimed their second straight PCSC Championship series by sweeping the Saint Mary's Gaels in Moraga, Calif. The Vikings took the first game 6-1 thanks to a four-run sixth inning capped by a Becca Bliss three-run home run. It was tougher going in the second game but pitcher Anna Bertrand led the Vikings to the series sweep with a complete game three-hit shutout of the Gales. Brittany Hendrickson drove in the only run of the game with a single to right field scoring pinch runner Aubrey Nitschelm from second.

2012 PCSC MOUNTAIN DIVISION CHAMPIONS: The Vikings won their third consecutive PCSC Mountain Division championship in 2012 after going 15-5 in conference play. They went 7-1 over their final eight conference games to secure the title.

2012 POST-SEASON AWARDS: The Vikings cleaned up the 2012 PCSC Mountain Division claiming three of the four individual awards. Anna Bertrand was named the unanimous Pitcher of the Year while Alicia Fine was named the Freshman of the Year. Head Coach Tobin Echo-Hawk was named the Coach of the Year. Six Vikings earned Mountain Division honors. Jenna Krogh, Karmen Holladay, Bertrand and Fine were named to the first team while Crysta Conn and Carly McEachran were named honorable mention. Bertrand was also named to the NFCA Division I Pacific Region Second team for the second straight year in 2012.

VIKINGS' 2014 NLIs: Head Coach Tobin Echo-Hawk announced the signing of seven players to National Letters of Intent for the 2014 season on Nov. 11. The 2014 recruiting class consists of Amee Aarhus (Camas, Wash./Camas HS), Mackenzie Bourbanis (Tacoma, Wash./Fife HS), Celena Carrisosa (Tracy, Calif./Merrill F. West HS), Alex Flores (Hillsboro, Ore./Liberty HS), Kelsie Gardner (Salem, Ore./South Salem HS), Meagan Hendrix (Puyallup, Wash./Emerald Ridge HS), and Jenna Stanford (Portland, Ore./Lincoln HS).