PORTLAND – The Portland State softball team will play its third consecutive tournament this weekend at the Husky Classic in Seattle. The Vikings will play Seattle University and No. 8 Washington in a four-game, three-day affair
PSU will open the weekend with a 3 P.M. game on Friday against Seattle followed by a Saturday doubleheader against Washington (1 P.M.) and SU (5 P.M.). They will close out the weekend in a second matchup with UW on Sunday (noon).
LAST TIME OUT
Portland State dropped four games at the Oregon Invitational last weekend, moving to 1-8 on the year. Despite going 0-2 on day one in Eugene, the Vikings took Boise State to ten innings before falling 6-4 and out-hit the sixth-ranked Ducks in game two before dropping a close one at 4-2. PSU closed out the weekend dropping a 6-1 contest to BSU before suffering a tough 16-0 defeat to the Ducks.
BY THE NUMBERS: ENTERING WEEK THREE
Team batting Average: .224 (52-232)
Stolen Bases/Attempts: 11-12
Errors/Fielding Percentage: 8 (.964)
ERA/Strikeouts/Walks: 13.42 - 52 - 38
RANKED OPPONENTS
Eight of the Vikings' opening 13 games were scheduled against ranked opponents this season. Following a trio of contests against top-ranked teams in their opening weekend at the GCU Purple Classic (Then-No. 13 Arizona State, then-No.2 Oklahoma, and then-No. 25 Iowa State) the Vikings played two more ranked-contests this past weekend against No. 6 Oregon. The difficult schedule will come to a close on Sunday as the Huskies are the lone ranked opponent left on the Vikings 2021 regular-season schedule.
Portland State's last victory over a ranked opponent came in 2011 as they took down 16th ranked BYU 4-3.
MENLOVE IS MONEY
Senior
Rachel Menlove was the story of the Viking offense last weekend. The catcher went 6-12 (.500) over the four-game stint, belting two home runs, a double, and 3 RBI. Menlove saw her biggest performance come against the sixth-ranked Ducks going 3-3 with a two-run home run.
Menlove leads the Vikings in seven offensive categories after nine games: batting average (.435), runs scored (4), hits (10), home runs (2), RBI (4), slugging percentage (.739), and on-base percentage (.435).
FROST IN HER VEINS
Allicitie Frost made her collegiate debut in the circle for the Vikings this past weekend against No. 6 Oregon. Facing one of the most potent offenses in the country, the freshman held the Ducks hitless through four innings of play and ended the complete-game performance allowing just three hits while striking out six.
Frost made a second appearance against Boise State on Sunday, adding to her impressive weekend giving up just two hits in 4.1 innings of work. She now leads the Viking pitching staff with a 4.35 ERA while holding her opponents to a team-best .139 batting average.
FRESHMAN? NO PROBLEM…
True freshmen,
Logan Riggenbach,
Alexa Cepeda,
Mariah Rodriguez,
Maddie Thompson,
Shea Garcia,
Bailey Rose, and Frost have all seen starting roles in the opening two weekends of their collegiate careers. The true freshman class totaled nearly half of PSU's 27 hits (13) at the GCU classic while adding nine more at the Oregon Invitational. As a group, they enter the weekend tallying 42% of the Vikings' hits.
STRONG STARTS
Portland State has scored 14 of its 20 runs in the opening four innings of play, ten of those coming in the opening two innings.
SEATTLE U
Seattle enters the weekend with a 9-11 overall record, falling in three out of five games at the UNLV Invitational last week. The Redhawks have a .291 team batting average, and a pitching staff ERA of 4.05. They are led by Geoff Hirari in his sixth season as Head Coach.
The Vikings lead the all-time series 21-10, the last meeting occurring last season when PSU fell 5-3.
NO. 8 WASHINGTON
Washington enters the weekend with a 16-2 overall record, its only losses coming against Nevada and San Diego State. UW has a .381 team batting average led by Sis Bates (.500) and SilentRain Espinoza (.420). The Huskies are under the direction of Heather Tarr in her seventeenth season at the helm.
The Huskies are 42-1 all-time against the Vikings. Portland State's only win came back in 2008 (4-2). The last meeting between the two teams was in 2018 when the Huskies clinched a 4-1 victory in Seattle.
