When Big Sky regular season champion Weber State visits Portland State this weekend, there will be plenty on the line for the two teams inside the baselines. But for many of the Vikings, this weekend is about so much more than a game. Portland State will host a StrikeOut Cancer game Friday before honoring three players during Saturday's Senior Day celebration.

The Friday game holds particular importance for the Viking team, particularly catcher Rachel Menlove. Her mother battled cancer this year, and after beating the disease she will be there to throw out the ceremonial first pitch to her daughter.

"Going through this cancer journey with Rachel and her mother this year as a team, just being there for Rachel in some of the tough moments. Hearing about Amy's fight from the diagnoses, to then getting the good news at the end of it, it just means so much more to us. I know cancer has impacted every single person that is part of our team, but to actually go through it with somebody it means a lot to us and we're going to be fighting for her this weekend. It's going to be such a special moment to watch Amy throw that first pitch to Rachel and what that represents."

Then on Saturday, the Vikings (18-27/7-7 BSC) will honor seniors Alyssa Burk, Kaela Morrow and junior Emma Detamore, who suffered a career-ending injury this season, before the series finale.

Burk has put together a great career inside the circle for PSU. She has 25 career wins with a 4.04 ERA in four seasons on the Park Blocks. She was named All-Big Sky Second Team in 2018 following a season in which she established herself as the team's ace by winning 10 games against Big Sky opponents.

Morrow has hit .305 in her career with eight home runs and 63 RBIs. She has started 123 games for the Vikings and appeared in 146 total games. Morrow was named All-Big Sky First Team as a utility player in 2018 and has been extremely versatile for the Vikings in her career.

The Vikings will also honor junior Emma Detamore, who had her career cut short this season by an injury. Detamore appeared in 53 games for the Vikings, winning eight and striking out nearly 100 batters. This season she has been a crucial part of the team, ever-present in the dugout encouraging her teammates.

"All three of them have really proud moments to be able to hang their cleats on and we're going to miss all of them," McWhorter said. "This program wouldn't be what it is without them and we couldn't thank them enough for that."

As for the on-the-field competition, Portland State will face off against a very formidable foe. Weber State comes to town with the Big Sky regular season championship already in tow, guaranteeing the top seed at next week's Big Sky Tournament. Portland State has also clinched their spot in Sacramento as well, but seeding will still be on the line for the Vikings.

Against a talented and fast Weber State team, the Vikings won't have much room for error defensively. The Wildcats lead the Big Sky with a .303 team batting average and they have also stolen 35 bases in 2019.

"Our defense is going to be the key this weekend," McWhorter said. "Weber State is a team that is successful putting the ball in play. They have some speed, they have hitters that have multiple tools that they can use so we just have to make sure we are prepared to defend all of those tools. We need to make sure that if our pitchers do their job and get us a ground ball that we then finish those plays and get outs."

Portland State is coming off a series win against Sacramento State. Before that, the Vikings picked up a series sweep of Southern Utah. The last two weeks have turned the season around for Portland State. Since being swept by Montana on April 14, the Vikings are 5-1 as a team and have climbed from last place to a tie for third in the Big Sky.

"After the Montana series we had a heart-to-heart as a team," McWhorter said. "We really needed to clean up some of the intangibles, the things that aren't measured by average that we felt like was hurting us as a team, and we did that. They wholeheartedly believe that every single person counts, every single person matters and every single person plays a role in our success."

Last weekend may have been the most important series of the season for the Vikings. They took the first two games of the series against the second-placed Hornets, helping to clinch their spot in the Big Sky Championships on the same field in two weeks.

The Vikings once again got outstanding efforts from their pitching staff. Katie Schroeder and Serafine Parrish both had impressive outings in Portland State's 3-1 and 7-2 wins. Parrish earned the Big Sky's Pitcher of the Week honor after throwing a complete-game four hitter. Those two, with the addition of Alyssa Burk, form one of the deepest staff's in the league.

"There is really no other team in our conference that has the weapons that we have within our pitching staff, but the key is to make sure those weapons are all firing at the same time," McWhorter said. "It's been nice to see all of them have moments of confidence and have a lot of success in the circle. It is just making sure that we can get them doing that all on the same weekend, which I believe they will."

Portland State is prepared for the last weekend of play and are ready for the conference tournament. A team playing for the success of one another has now put itself in a position to compete for the conference's crown.

"This entire team is on fire for the remainder of this season," McWhorter said. "Their eyes are forward, they are playing for each other and working together, there is so much excitement around each other's successes."

COACH McWHORTER ON THE SENIOR CLASS

"I'm very grateful to Alyssa and Kaela because they really welcomed this coaching staff with open arms and trusted us along the way. I'm so proud of their growth not only as softball players, but just as people. They both have really become good teammates and they've really shown excitement for other people's' successes and that's been admirable. They've played different roles at different times and they've just done a good job of coming in here every day, working hard and doing what they need to do for the team.

"Emma has worked so hard and is the epitome of a good teammate. She helped so many people, she is one of the first people that if you need something she will do whatever when called upon. But I've been most proud of Emma facing this season ending injury. Her number one priority was getting back to be there for her team and she is such an example of, you don't have to put on the uniform and you don't have to be between the lines to make a significant impact. I'm so proud of her because she could have just ended her career when she found out she couldn't play, but because this team and this program mean so much to her she saw it through and was with us until the end."

GAME COVERAGE

The first pitch of Friday's doubleheader against Weber State will be at 1:00 p.m. The series finale on Saturday will begin at 12:00 p.m. The games can be viewed on Pluto TV on channel 232 and live stats can be found on ViksLive.com.

SCOUTING WEBER STATE (21-18, 12-1 BSC / .303 / 4.56 ERA)

-Weber State had last weekend off but clinched the regular season title nonetheless. Portland State helped them out, beating Sacramento State twice to ensure the Hornets couldn't catch up in the final week of play. It is the fourth straight regular season championship for Weber State, who earned the rights to host the 2020 Big Sky Championships.
-The Wildcats lead the Big Sky with a .303 team batting average. Takesha Saltern leads the league individually with a .402 batting average and has also stolen a league-high 17 bases.
-WSU enters the week winners of five straight and 14 of their last 15 overall games. Their only conference loss came on the road against Idaho State on Apr. 13.
-Addie Jensen leads the Wildcats with a 2.28 ERA and a 6-2 overall record. Kate Donaldson has an 8-5 overall record while Tatiana Su'esu'e is 6-8 with a 4.83 ERA.

ALL-TIME SERIES VS. WEBER STATE

The Vikings are 20-12 all-time against Weber State, including a 3-1 record against the Wildcats in 2018. The two teams last met in the 2018 Big Sky Championships, where Portland State picked up a 4-3 win. Alyssa Burk went the distance for PSU in that game, allowing nine hits and three runs.

Portland State is 12-5 in home games played between the two schools and have won two straight games in Hillsboro.

POTW HONORS

Portland State has garnered six Big Sky Conference Player of the Week honors in the 2019 season.

Darian Lindsey earned her second career conference POTW honor (2/11/19) after hitting .471 (8-for-17) with seven runs scored and two driven in. She closed out the week hitting safely in five-straight games, including three-straight multi-hit games.

Lindsey picked up her second POTW honor of the season after leading the Vikings to a 3-2 record, while hitting .500 (9-for-18). She scored three runs, drove in six, and hit her first home run of the season. She had an OPS of 1.293 over the five games.  

Katie Schroeder picked up her first career Pitcher of the Week honor (2/18/19) after throwing a complete-game one-hitter to earn her first win as a Viking. She faced just 22 batters and threw 75 pitches in the complete game win.

Alyssa Burk won her first Pitcher of the Week honor (4/1/19) this season and third of her career. She pitched back-to-back complete game shutouts against Northern Colorado, striking out 23 total batters on the weekend. She didn't allow a single run in 14.2 innings, walked zero batters and allowed just five total hits.

Burk claimed the honor again following the Southern Utah series (4/22). She threw a complete game two-hitter in an 8-1 Portland State win. She allowed just two hits while striking out eight batters and walking three.

Serafine Parrish is the latest Vikings to be honored, picking up the award following the Sacramento State series (4/30). The Vikings also played a midweek doubleheader against Oregon. Parrish made four appearances in five games over the week, including a big win in game two against the Hornets. Parrish threw a complete game, allowing just four hits and two runs in a 7-2 win.

GOING STREAKING

The Vikings currently have a number of hitting streaks active. Rachel Menlove has hit safely in six straight games while Alexis Morrison has three straight games with a hit. Tayler Gunesch also has an impressive streak going, reaching base safely in 12 straight games. Sala Pedebone and Menlove have each reached base safely in six straight games.

FINDING THE LONG BALL

Portland State had three home runs last week to bring the season total to 23. Alexis Morrison hit one in a 7-2 win of game two (4/26) against the Hornets and Darian Lindsey hit a solo shot in the series opener. Ashley Doyle hit her first of the season against Oregon (4/23).

Lindsey has hit a team-high seven home runs this season and is tied for fourth in the Big Sky. She also hit a solo shot in the third inning of a 3-2 win against Southern Utah (4/19) for her third home run in a two game stretch. Rachel Menlove then hit the 20th homer of the season for the Vikings in the series finale against SUU (4/20), leaving the park with a solo shot in the first inning of an 8-1 win.

Lindsey hit two home runs in the same game against Montana. The two homers were both solo shots, one to lead off the game and the other leading off the seventh inning. The home runs brought the team season total to 18.

The Vikings hit four home runs in three games at the Seattle Invite (4/6-7). Alexis Morrison had two in the same game against Santa Clara, the first multi-home run game by a Viking since 2015. Darian Lindsey and Rachel Menlove each had a home run as well, bringing their season totals to three and four, respectively.

The Vikings blasted five over the five games at the Amy S. Harrison Classic (2/22-24). The five home runs came from five different players. Sala Pedebone became the first Viking with multiple home runs on the year after blasting two at the TSU Tiger Classic. Her first game as a go-ahead three-run home run to give the Vikings a 5-4 win over host Tennessee State (3/1). She added her third home run of the season, a two-run shot, against Ohio State in the Vikings' home opener (3/12).

In the Idaho State series (3/23), Rachel Menlove hit a pair of home runs and Riley Casper added one of her own to bring the Vikings total up to 11 for the season. Darian Lindsey hit her second of the season in a 4-0 win against Northern Colorado (3/29).

LAYING IT DOWN

The sacrifice bunt has been a particular point of emphasis for Head Coach Meadow McWhorter and the Vikings. In 2018 the Vikings laid down 46 sacrifice bunts in 52 games (.885 per game) with Darian Lindsey leading the team with 10. Through 45 games, the Vikings have topped last year's total, laying down 48 sac bunts (1.07 per game). Riley Casper leads the team with seven while Alexis Morrison, Rachel Menlove and Sala Pedebone have six each.

WHERE THEY RANK

Darian Lindsey is in the top 10 in the Big Sky in a number of significant categories. She leads the league in on-base percentage (.500), is second in batting average (.395) and second in slugging percentage (.680).

Lindsey is also second in hits (58), second in doubles (17), third in RBIs (33) and tied for fourth in home runs (7). She is also second with 100 total bases and has drawn a league-leading 27 walks, including five last week. She is also tied for fifth with 28 runs scored.

Riley Casper is tied for fourth with seven sacrifice bunts. Jessica Flanagan is tied for seventh with 48 hits. Rachel Menlove is eighth in slugging percentage (.521), ninth in hits (47), ninth in RBIs (22), tied for fourth in doubles (11), tied for seventh in home runs (5) and seventh in total bases (75).

THE FIRST FOUR

Portland State's fate in games this season has largely been determined by the first four innings of play. The Vikings have been very good with a lead this year, while struggling to overcome deficits that they face.

When leading after four innings, Portland State is 16-3. In games where the Vikings trail after the first four innings, meanwhile, they are just 1-19. A fast start could be critically important for Portland State's success moving forward.