Feb. 11, 2004
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Aztecs Open Home Schedule
* The San Diego State softball team opens its home schedule with the Aztec Invitational this weekend.
* On Friday, the Aztecs play Mississippi State at 1 p.m. and Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. Saturday sees SDSU take on UC Santa Barbara at 9 a.m. and Oklahoma State at 3 p.m., while San Diego State wraps up tournament action on Sunday with an 11 a.m. game against Mississippi State.
* The Aztec Invitational is the first of four tournaments San Diego State will host. SDSU hosts the Campbell/Cartier Classic at the SportsPlex USA in Poway Feb. 20-22, the SDSU Tournament at SDSU Field March 5-7 and co-hosts the San Diego Tournament with the University of San Diego March 19-21. The last tournament will feature games at both SDSU Field and USD Softball Complex, but all Aztec and Torero games take place at the schools' respective home fields.
The Aztec Invitational
* This is the fifth consecutive year for the Aztec Invitational. SDSU's all-time record at the tournament is 11-5.
* The four teams participating this year are Big 12 member Oklahoma State, UC Santa Barbara of the Big West, San Diego State from the Mountain West and Mississippi State coming from the SEC. Oklahoma State, SDSU and Mississippi State participated in the 2003 NCAA Tournament, while the Gauchos' 34-22 record last season set a school record.
* See the complete tournament schedule here.
Recapping Season's First Week
* San Diego State played three games last week against teams ranked in the top five nationally, taking a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth against No. 1 UCLA and battling No. 5 Washington for 11 innings before finally falling.
* The Aztecs started the season with a road doubleheader at NAIA power Point Loma Nazarene last Tuesday and posted 4-1 and 2-1 victories. Pitchers Deanna Richards (Visalia, Calif.) and Celena Velasquez (Tucson, Ariz.) posted complete-game victories.
* San Diego State and No. 5 Washington opened the Long Beach State Invitational last Friday, with the Huskies prevailing, 8-0, in five innings.
* The following morning, the Aztecs scored three seventh-inning runs and topped Santa Clara, 6-5, before falling to host Long Beach State in the afternoon, 4-1. Center fielder Janna Kovensky (San Diego, Calif.) went 3-for-6 with a run and an RBI on the day and tripled in the final run against Santa Clara.
* On the tournament's final day, San Diego State battled tough with Washington, finally falling, 7-6 in 11 innings. The nightcap against No. 1 and defending national champion UCLA saw San Diego State grab a 2-1 lead and take it into the bottom of the fifth, but sloppy defensive play by the normally efficient SDSU defense allowed the Bruins to score two in the fifth and three more in the sixth for a 6-2 Bruin victory. On the day, left fielder Erin Mahoney (Westchester, Calif.) had three spectacular catches and right fielder Kelcy Murphy (San Diego, Calif.) went 3-for-7 with a double, triple, three runs and an RBI.
Kovensky Scores ... Again!
* When center fielder Janna Kovensky (San Diego, Calif.) scored in the fourth inning against No. 1 UCLA off a double from right fielder Kelcy Murphy (San Diego, Calif.) to tie the game, 1-1, she moved into a tie for second place on the all-time SDSU career scoring charts with 102 runs. She needs 25 runs to surpass Kellie Nordhagen as the all-time leading run scorer in San Diego State history.
Marvelous Murphy
* Right fielder Kelcy Murphy (San Diego, Calif.) sat out the first three games of the season with a back injury, but returned to the lineup with a bang. Murphy leads the Aztecs in hitting one week into the season with a .444 batting average (4-for-9). She ended the weekend on a high note in a pair of games on Sunday, going 3-for-7 with a double, triple, three runs and an RBI against No. 5 Washington and No. 1 UCLA.
* Murphy was drafted in Decmeber by the Akron Racers, a National Pro Fastpitch franchise.
Murphy and Kovensky, Still Teammates
* Seniors Kelcy Murphy (San Diego, Calif.) and Janna Kovensky (Rancho Bernardo, Calif.) have played softball together since the summer before their sixth-grade years. The two have also went to school together since sixth grade in addition to pre-school. With Kovensky the team's starting center fielder and Murphy having played last weekend in right field, the two ended the first week of their senior seasons next to each other in the outfield.
Hartung Hits
* Third baseman Meagan Hartung (San Diego, Calif.) has more than quadrupled her career hits after just one week of the 2004 season. After going 2-for-20 as a freshman in 2002 (.100 batting average), Hartung went 7-for-17 last week (.412 batting average).
Van Wyk Nears 250 Victories
* Head coach Kathy Van Wyk (237-188-1) is only 13 wins away from her 250th victory. Van Wyk is also 17 victories from breaking Linda Spradley's (1984-94) school-record of 253 wins (she went 253-372-4). From 1995-96, the two shared head coaching duties and compiled a 48-69 mark.
* Under Van Wyk's leadership, the Aztecs have advanced to their lone NCAA Tournament appearances, in 2001 and 2003. The 2001 squad went 3-2 before falling to UCLA in the regional championship, while the 2003 team was 1-2 in tourney action.
Top Players From 2003 Return for SDSU
* The Aztecs return premier players from the 2003 squad, including the Mountain West Conference pitcher and freshman of the year, Celena Velasquez (Tucson, Ariz.), and all-MWC honorees Joann Figueroa (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Erin Mahoney (Westchester, Calif.). Velasquez had a 0.81 ERA in MWC games last season, a league record, while Figueroa hit .319 with stellar defensive play. Mahoney, a junior who also earned all-Big 12 honors as a freshman at Texas, hit .388 in MWC games, fifth in the league.
Aztecs Selected First in Preseason Poll
* The San Diego State softball team has been picked to finish first in the 2004 Mountain West Conference preseason coaches' poll. The Aztecs' 23 points and four first-place votes outpaced runner-up Colorado State's 21 points and two first-place votes. Following in the poll are BYU (18 points), Utah (13), UNLV (9) and New Mexico (6).
Full of Middle Classmen
* San Diego State's 2004 roster is full of sophomores and juniors. Thirteen of 17 Aztec players are sophomores (six) and juniors (seven), while the team sports only one freshman (Amanda Beasley) and three seniors (Joann Figueroa, Kelcy Murphy and Janna Kovensky).
Local Connection
* Seven of SDSU's 17 players hail from San Diego county, including Amanda Beasley (Spring Valley), Jamie Burton (Carlsbad), Bridgette Caron (Fallbrook), Lacey Craft (Valley Center), Meagan Hartung (San Diego), Janna Kovensky (Rancho Bernardo) and Kelcy Murphy (San Diego). Fourteen players list California cities as their hometowns, while three call Arizona home.
SDSU Keeps Getting Better and Better
* San Diego State's winning percentage has risen an impressive five consecutive seasons with last season's .650 winning percentage (39-21 record) in overall games and .800 winning percentage (12-3) in Mountain West Conference action breaking team records.
* In fact, SDSU's last three seasons are the three best in school history in terms of overall wins and winning percentage. Prior to 1999, the school had only two winning seasons in the program's first 23 years.
What a Schedule
* SDSU is challenging the top teams in 2004 with seven games against teams ranked in the top five of the preseason national polls, USA Today/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball. SDSU faces No. 1 UCLA, No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 5 Washington, three teams that participated in the 2003 Women's College World Series, with UCLA garnering its ninth NCAA championship. In total, the Aztecs play 22 games against teams that qualified for the 2003 NCAA Tournament, including four this weekend, two each against Oklahoma State and Mississippi State.
* The home schedule is highlighted by games against Washington (8 p.m. on Feb. 20 in Poway), UCLA (1 p.m. on March 6) and Oklahoma (3 p.m. on March 16).
Final Season at SDSU Field
* The 2004 season will be the final one that SDSU Field will be the primary field for the San Diego State softball team as a new stadium will be completed by October 2004. The facility will seat 1,000 with room to add 1,000 more seats. A tree-lined concourse will grace the path between the new stadium and Tony Gwynn Stadium.
* San Diego Padre owners, John and Becky Moores, donated approximately $6.5 million for the combined softball/tennis facility.
Scouting Mississippi State
* The Bulldogs are off to a fast 6-0 start after sweeping the Bulldog Round-Robin with two wins each over Bradley, Louisiana Tech and Jackson State. Mississippi State received votes in the NFCA/USA Today preseason Top 25 and were selected third in the Southeastern Conference Western Division preseason poll by SEC coaches. Last season, MSU went 34-30 and 1-2 at the NCAA regionals.
* Friday's and Sunday's games with the Bulldogs will be the first meetings between the teams.
Scouting Oklahoma State
* The Cowgirls open their season at 11 a.m. Friday against UC Santa Barbara. They are ranked No. 21 by USA Today/NFCA and No. 22 by ESPN.com/USA Softball. Coming off a 39-15 season in which the squad went 2-2 at the same Fullerton regional that San Diego State participated in, Oklahoma State was picked seventh by Big 12 coaches in their preseason conference poll.
* The Aztecs hold a 2-0 all-time advantage over the Cowgirls in their brief playing history with each other. SDSU prevailed, 5-3, at the SDSU Tournament on March 1, 1997, and, 6-3, at the Arizona State Classic on Feb. 27, 1994.
Scouting UC Santa Barbara
* UC Santa Barbara is off to a 7-4 start and was selected fifth by Big West Conference coaches in their preseason poll. The Gauchos went 34-22 last season (the best record in school history), but were unable to qualify for NCAA play.
* UCSB's head coach, Kristy Schroeder, is the sister of SDSU assistant coach Kelly Howard. Kristy played for UCLA from 1990-93, while Kelly was a Bruin from 1993-96.
* In records dating back to 1980, SDSU holds a 24-20 advantage over the Gauchos. UCSB won, 1-0, in their last meeting on Feb. 22, 2003, at their Softball by the Beach Invitational, and the Aztecs prevailed the meeting before that, 2-1, on March 26, 2002, when current Aztec center fielder Janna Kovensky (San Diego, Calif.) ended a UCSB no-hit bit with a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth.